The Prefix a- in Dàjù Naxi
This article, by He Zhìlì, examines the noun-forming prefix a- in the Dàjù (大具) sub-dialect of the western Naxi dialect, spoken in Yùlóng Naxi Autonomous County, Lìjiāng, Yunnan. Based on 1,562 basic vocabulary items, 127 (mostly disyllabic) words carry the prefix, realized phonetically as [a] or [ə] and occurring mainly on tone 33. The prefix serves three functions: word-formation (forming personal names, kinship terms, animal and plant names, tool names, body-part/time/location terms, pronouns, and adjectives); morphological marking (converting adjectives to nouns, marking interrogative mood on verbs/adjectives, and marking intensified degree on reduplicated adjectives); and euphonic syllable-filling. Comparing Dàjù with the Qīhé, Qīnglóng, and Jiǔhé sub-dialects, the author argues the prefix is cognate across western Naxi and is undergoing a phonetic weakening from a to the central vowel ə, driven by articulatory economy, disyllabification, and homophone avoidance.
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