Nasal-Related Sound Changes in Naxi Dialects
Drawing on six well-documented Naxi dialects -- Lijiang, Bowan, Baoshan, Yongning, Malimasa, and Ninglang -- this article traces two competing nasal-related sound changes. Prenasalized stops and affricates (mb, nd, ng, ndz, etc.) existed at the Proto-Naxi stage and survive best in Bowan; Baoshan, Malimasa, and Ninglang show progressive loss (NC>C) by lexical diffusion, with bilabials most stable and velars least so, and affricates more resistant than stops. In Malimasa a newer, competing change (NC>N) is converting surviving prenasals into plain nasals across generations. Separately, the authors argue nasalized vowel rhymes, found in dialects like Yongning and Malimasa, are not a Proto-Naxi phonemic category, though nasalization existed phonetically via 'rhinoglottophilia' (laryngeal/velar consonants nasalizing nearby vowels); the modern nasalized/oral contrasts arose later through separate sound and lexical changes, as shown in a detailed reconstruction of the Malimasa word for 'pine resin.'
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