An Analysis of Modern-Layer Chinese Loanwords in Naxi
Hu Tuo (Lijiang Teachers College, 2020) identifies and characterizes the "modern layer" of Chinese loanwords in the Naxi of Lijiang's Dayan Town, using phonological-linkage and historical-stratification methods that sort loanwords by consistency of initials, finals, and tones. He finds this modern layer derives not from Ming-Qing immigrant Chinese but from the old-style local Lijiang Chinese dialect itself -- a surviving indigenous Han variety within the Southwestern Mandarin family that retains an independent, Baoshan-type entering tone, unlike the neighboring Kunming and Dali dialects where the entering tone has merged elsewhere. The article works through systematic initial and final correspondences between Naxi and old Lijiang Chinese, then analyzes several irregular double-reading cases (e.g., "silver," "chives," "myna bird") as evidence of secondary influence from Sichuanese and, more recently, from the Kunming dialect and Standard Mandarin, tracing a directional pathway by which entering-tone codas were lost and later reassigned under Mandarin/Kunming pressure.
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