Suggests that the departing tone in Chinese arose not through the loss of the final "h," but through a glottalized phonation stage that is still observable. Historical sources supporting this theory are presented, and an account of the development of middle Chinese tones into Mandarin is proposed. (SED)

Describes differences between colloquial and literary pronunciation of Hainan. (AM)

From a survey of over a thousand "diapoints" emerges a clear distributional pattern of nasal vowels in the contemporary dialects of China. They tend to occupy the lower portion of the vowel space. Three hypotheses are proposed to explain this phenomenon and each hypothesis is examined against a broad data base. (Author/TL)

Examines and evaluates 20th-century studies in Zhunyanese linguistics, particularly work accomplished since 1955. Discussion focuses on how the studies were developed, what their current state is, and where problems are. A bibliography follows, covering only those works mentioned in the main text. (Author/KM)

Presents the phonological system of the Zhangpu dialect and the characteristics that differentiate it from the other Southern Min dialects. Notes that the phonological system of the Zhangpu dialect is close to the Zhangzhou dialect but that the aspirated affricate /+s'-/ in Zhangzhou is the voiceless fricative /s-/in Zhangpu. (SED)

Defines the topic of Sino-Islamic linguistics, that is, the study of the Arabic and Persian norms of Chinese-speaking Muslims. The diffusion of Arabic and Persian to China, language contact and interference, and dialectology and functional variations of Chinese Arabic and Persian are among the topics covered. (CLK)

Describes the phonology of Hainan, with particular attention to the tone system. (Author/AM)

Twentieth century studies in the field of Sino-Vietnamese linguistics, with particular emphasis on work since 1955, are examined and evaluated. The discussions focus on how the studies were developed, what the current state is, and where problems are. A bibliography of works mentioned in the main text is included. (Author/SW)

Discusses main ideas of papers presented that reflect the new directions explored in the field of Chinese linguistics. Current areas of study include tonal distinctions in dialect studies, contrastive analysis of Taiwanese and standard Chinese verb phrase structures, and the application of old Chinese morphological grammar to characteristics of…

Tonal "flip-flop" (reversal of pitch value in which a direct exchange of value between two items is necessarily involved) can be found in a significant number of modern Chinese dialects, where an opposite pitch pattern is observed for the traditional Yin/Yang dichotomy of tones. (Author/CB)

Summarizes 10 presentations made at the workshop on a variety of topics including: classification of Chinese dialects; the importance of semantic units in tone sandhi; insights on Chinese character recognition among brain-damaged patients; and a cognitive approach to the study of Chinese grammar. (TR)

Analyzes the speech of three speakers of Linxian Chinese, indicating the dialect's features and the problems involved in communication between speakers of Linxian and speakers of Putonghua (or Standard Mandarin). (Author/AM)

An etymological comparison of Taiwanese words and their Mandarin equivalents revealed that 30 percent of words found in sampled running texts have different etymons, with a high percentage of same etymons between Taiwanese and Mandarin content words and a lower rate of same etymons between Taiwanese and Mandarin function words. (Author/CB)

The rhyming practices of Sima Xiangru and Wang Bao, early and mid-western Han poets of the Shu area, reveal details about the finals of their languages. Comparisons are made of similarities and differences of their dialects to that of a later compatriot, Yang Xiong. (Author/CB)