Phonology of Adur Niesu in Liangshan, Sichuan

Ding, Hongdi

doi:10.3390/languages8030164

Open AccessArticle

Phonology of Adur Niesu in Liangshan, Sichuan

by

Hongdi Ding

Department of Chinese Language Studies (CHL), The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong

Languages 2023, 8(3), 164; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8030164

Submission received: 25 January 2023 / Revised: 19 June 2023 / Accepted: 25 June 2023 / Published: 30 June 2023

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Directions for Sino-Tibetan Linguistics in the Mid-21st Century)

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Abstract

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This study describes the segmental and suprasegmental phonology of Adur Niesu, a Loloish (or Ngwi) language spoken mainly in Liangshan, Sichuan, southwest China. Phonemically, there are 41 consonants, 10 monophthongs and 1 diphthong in Adur Niesu. All Adur syllables are open. Its segmental changes mainly happen to the vowels, featuring high vowel fricativization, vowel lowering, vowel centralization, vowel assimilation and vowel fusion. It is common for Adur Niesu syllables to be reduced in continuous speech, with floating tones left. There are three main types of syllable reduction: complete reduction including the segment and tone, partial reduction with a floating tone left, and partial reduction with the initial consonant left. Adur Niesu employs tones as an important means for lexical contrast, namely, high-level tone 55, mid-level tone 33, and low-falling tone 21. There is also a sandhi tone 44. There are two types of tonal alternation: tone sandhi and tone change. Tone sandhi occurs at both word and phrasal levels, and is conditioned by the phonetic environment, while tone change occurs due to the morphosyntactic environment. Finally, some seeming tonal alternation is the result of a floating tone after syllable reduction.

Keywords:

Adur Niesu; phonology; consonants; vowels; tones; tone sandhi; tone change

1. Introduction

Adur Niesu is a member of the Nisoic (aka. Loloish or Ngwi) subgroup of the Niso–Burmese (i.e., Burmese–Lolo) language group of the Tibeto–Burman languages (Bradley 1997; Lama 2012). It is spoken by about 440,000 people, who are officially recognized as Yi (彝族), residing in mountainous regions in Liangshan (literally ‘Cool Mountains’), Sichuan, in southwest China. The Adur Niesu people often call themselves simply Adur, which is said to be the surname of a famous ruling clan living in Butuo (or ndʑi⁵⁵la³³pu⁴⁴t^hɯ³³) in eastern Liangshan. Adur is often associated with the title ndzɨ³³mo²¹ (lord caste:master) ‘highest lord caste’ and its variant ndzɨ²¹mo²¹ (lord caste:big) ‘big (accomplished) highest lord caste’, namely, a³³tu̠³³ndzɨ³³mo²¹ and ndzɨ²¹mo²¹a³³tu̠³³. It is noted that the tone on the morpheme meaning ‘lord caste’ is different when it is before and after Adur, namely, ndzɨ³³ and ndzɨ²¹. This reflects a tone change that will be discussed in Section 4.4.3. When ndzɨ³³mo²¹ is placed after Adur, without any tone change, it functions as a title, similar to the structure in su̠³³ga⁵⁵ ma⁵⁵mo²¹ (surname teacher) ‘Mr. Suga’. When ndzɨ²¹mo²¹ is placed before Adur, with a tone change, it is a nominal modifier meaning ‘big (accomplished) lord caste’, similar to dza⁴⁴ndo³³vi³³ su̠³³ga⁵⁵ (food:swallow:type surname) ‘Suga, big eater’. The Adur Niesu people mainly live in Butuo (布拖县), Puge (普格县) and Ningnan (宁南县), with some Adur population located along the border with Jinyang (金阳县) and Zhaojue (昭觉县); see Figure 1.

Moreover, Adur people also call themselves Niesu [njɛ³³ su³³]. This autonym is shared by another group of Yi people adjacent to the Adur region, called Suondi Niesu or simply Suondi or Niesu; see Figure 1. Niesu [njɛ³³ su³³] has two meaning-bearing morphemes, namely, [njɛ³³] ‘black’ and [su³³] ‘people’, which literally means ‘black people’. The population of Suondi Niesu is around 550,000, estimated according to Chen et al. (1985); Gerner (2013) and the 2010 Population Census of Liangshan. Major Suondi-speaking regions are Dechang (德昌县), Huili (会理县), and Puge (普格县) within Liangshan, Miyi (米易县) in the adjacent city of Panzhihua (攀枝花市) in Sichuan, and Yongren (永仁县) and Yuanmou (元谋县) in Yunnan. Mutual intelligibility between Suondi Niesu and Adur Niesu is relatively high.

There are three recent studies about Niesu phonology, mostly focusing on Suondi Niesu in Mahai (2015, 2019) and in Mise (2020). Since Suondi Niesu is very close to Adur Niesu, these works are important references to understand Adur Niesu. But there is still room to improve the accuracy and adequacy of the analysis. Although some phonetic information, i.e., Adur consonants, vowels and tones, are presented in Sun’s (2020) construction of an Adur phonetics corpus, there is little research on the phonology. Therefore, this study will contribute to the literature by describing the phonological system of Adur Niesu. The Adur Niesu data presented in this paper are first-hand fieldwork data collected through spontaneous narration and elicitation, mainly based on the Tuojue dialect spoken in central Butuo, Liangshan. The fieldwork in Tuojue (or 拖觉镇), Butuo, started in 2018 and there have been five trips so far; each trip lasted for about two months. The two main consultants are Adur Niesu native speakers who are in their 30s. They started to learn Chinese after they were 10 years old in school and became fluent in Chinese around the age of 18. The data presented in the paper were also cross checked with elder speakers aged from 50 to 70 in Butuo, Liangshan. Although a series of studies have been devoted to the labiovelar sounds in Adur Niesu (i.e., kp, kph, gb, gb, ŋm) (Pan 2001; Matisoff 2006; Hajek 2006; Bradley 2008), such sounds are not found in the Tuojue dialect.1

2. About Adur Niesu

Based on the subgrouping in Hammarström et al. (2022), Adur Niesu is a verb–final syllable–tone Burmo–Qiangic language; see Figure 2 and Figure 3. Its morphology is largely isolating. A large number of phonemic consonants in Adur Niesu are generated by voicing, aspiration and prenasalization. The grammatical function of Adur Niesu is mainly conveyed by using clitics and postpositions. Property-denoting modifiers follow the head noun. However, noun and genitive modifiers precede the head noun. Tense is not a grammatical category in Adur Niesu. The relation of the event time to some temporal reference point is expressed by lexical means, such as a²¹ŋu³³ ‘now’, a²¹ȵi⁵⁵ ‘the past’ and i²¹sɛ²¹ʂɿ⁴⁴a³³ɬo⁴⁴ ‘the ancient past’. Its aspectual classes are expressed strictly analytically, by verbal enclitics, TAM auxiliaries, and periphrastic constructions. Adur Niesu forms its yes/no questions by reduplicating the last syllable of the verb or auxiliary. It is topic-prominent, frequently employing topic–comment constructions.

A close dialect of Adur Niesu is Nuosu. Nuosu, also meaning ‘black people’, is a relatively well-studied variety of Nuosu proper (Chen et al. 1985; Bradley 1990; Chen and Wu 1998; Lama 1998; Hu 2001, 2010; Gerner 2013). Both Niesu and Nuosu are classified under Nuosu proper (Lama 2012); see Figure 3. People using the autonym of Nuosu include Shynra, Yynuo, and Qumusu speakers, whose population is estimated to be about 1.9 million (Bradley 2001).

The mutual intelligibility between Adur Niesu and Nuosu is relatively low (Bradley 2001), which is mainly due to phonological differences (see Table 1, and also Pan 2001; Matisoff 2006; Hajek 2006; Lama 2012).

While Adur shares many words with Suondi Niesu, it is phonologically different from Nuosu. If their geographic distribution is considered, Suondi Niesu is sandwiched between Adur Niesu and Nuosu. According to Lama (2022), there are two shared phonological innovations in Adur Niesu and Suondi Niesu, making them different from Nuosu. The first one is the lenition of the voiceless nasals, namely, making the voiceless nasals m̥ and n̥ voiced; see Table 2. The second innovation is that the *o sound in Proto-Nuosu proper is fronted and raised to i in Adur and Suondi Niesu; see Table 2.

There are additional innovations to subgroup Adur Niesu and Suondi Niesu under one node, and support Lama’s (2022) claim that they should be the first group to branch off from Proto-Nuosu proper. For example, the Proto-Loloish (PL) stops in Table 3 change to affricates in Adur and Suondi Niesu. It is also interesting to observe an intermediate stage towards affrication in the Jiaojihe (literally ‘intercourse river’ or 交际河) variety of Adur Niesu, which is to the south of Butuo and adjacent to the northeastern border of Yunnan. In Jiaojihe variety, the velar plosive is kept and the fricative is epenthesized. This could be considered as a shift of place of articulation from velar plosive to retroflex affricate, and is probably a feature of Proto-Adur Niesu.

Another innovation is the insertion of a medial /w/ to form diphthongs after velars (see Matisoff 2006; Bradley 2008). See examples in Table 4. The diphthongization is still stable in Adur Niesu. According to Lama (2022), the diphthongization, however, is being lost among young Suondi Niesu speakers, while this feature has still been kept among the elder Suondi speakers.

Moreover, velars in Nuosu are more palatalized in Suondi Niesu and Adur Niesu, if followed by the front vowel /i/ (see Table 5).

There are also phonological features which make Adur Niesu distinctive from Suondi Niesu. Table 3 shows that Adur Niesu retroflexizes the alveolar affricates in Suondi Niesu. The retroflexization, as a typical feature of Adur Niesu, is the reflex of PL or PTB *r and PL *ʃ or *s; see Table 6.

Vowel-wise, the front vowel /i/ in Suondi Niesu, as well as Nuosu, corresponds to back vowel /ɯ/ in Adur Niesu if they are preceded by alveolo–palatal sounds (see Table 7).

3. Segmental Phonology

This section starts with Adur Niesu consonants and then moves on to vowels. After introducing the syllable and the phonotactics, segmental changes in both vowels and consonants will be covered.

3.1. Consonants

Table 8 demonstrates the 41 phonemic consonants of Adur Niesu: nine plain plosives, three prenasalized plosives, eleven fricatives, four nasals, two laterals, nine affricates and three prenasalized affricates. Suondi Niesu has the same consonant inventory as Adur Niesu (Lama 2012; Mise 2020). Compared with Nuosu, Adur Niesu lacks voiceless nasals /m̥/ and /n̥/ (see Section 2). Depending on whether a consonant can precede either the unrounded palatal [j] or the rounded labiovelar [w], Adur Niesu consonants can be divided into two groups: the J-group, marked in the solid box, and the W-group, marked in the dotted box. The other consonants cannot be followed by the glides.

3.1.1. Plain Plosives

The plain plosives are differentiated from the prenasalized plosives (see Section 3.1.5). They are produced through three places of articulation: bilabial, dental, and velar, as shown in Table 9, respectively. The three-way contrast among the plain plosives is achieved with voiced vs. voiceless unaspirated vs. voiceless aspirated. While the velar group cannot go with the J-glide, the bilabial and dental groups cannot go with the W-glide. It should be noted that the diphthongs [jɛ] and [wɛ] are two allophones of /ɛ/ and [wi] is an allophone of /i/ (see Section 3.2.1).

1	a	bi⁵⁵	‘to emerge, come out’	bɛ³³ [bjɛ³³]	‘male penis’
		pi⁵⁵	‘to take out, make appear’	pɛ³³ [pjɛ³³]	‘to jump’
		p^hi⁵⁵	‘classifier (e.g., of limbs, legs)’	p^hɛ³³ [p^hjɛ³³]	‘to foster the domestic animals in another family’
	b	di³³	‘be wicked’	dɛ³³ [djɛ³³]	‘to make, manufacture’
		ti³³	‘only’	tɛ³³ [tjɛ³³]	‘to hold, to embrace’
		t^hi³³	‘to mean, to refer to’	t^hɛ³³ [t^hjɛ³³]	‘to exchange’
	c	ga³³	‘road’	gi³³ [gwi³³]	‘to leave’
		ka³³	‘to take, hold’	kɛ³³ [kwɛ³³]	‘to estimate’
		k^ha³³	‘to want’	k^hi³³ [k^hwi³³]	‘to share’

3.1.2. Fricatives

The eleven fricatives are articulated at six places: bilabial, dental, retroflex, alveolo–palatal, velar and glottal (see Table 10).

At each place, except glottal, the fricative pair contrasts in terms of voicing. The five pairs of fricatives are exemplified in the following minimal pairs. No fricatives can go with a glide, neither the J-glide nor the W-glide.

2	a	vi⁵⁵	‘pig’	fi⁵⁵	‘cliff, stomach’
	b	zi⁵⁵	‘to pay off, to unload’	si⁵⁵	‘to kill’
	c	ʑo³³	‘sheep’	ɕo³³	‘to grow, to raise’
	c	ʐa³³	‘to shout’	ʂɯ³³	‘be toilsome’
	d	ɣo³³	‘blue, green’	xo³³	‘a ring (for keeping animals or for crematorium)’
	e	-		ho³³	‘to marry’

3.1.3. Nasals and Laterals

The nasals have four places of articulation: bilabial, dental, alveolo–palatal and velar, and the laterals have just one: dental (see Table 11).

Unlike Nuosu, the Niesu bilabial and dental nasals do not have a voicing contrast. They can go with the J-glide. The velar nasal can go with the W-glide.

3	a	mi³³	‘name’	b	ma⁵⁵	‘to teach’	c	mɛ³³ [mjɛ³³]	‘to lift with feet (as in wrestling)’
		ni³³	‘female’		na⁵⁵	‘to coax’		nɛ³³ [njɛ³³]	‘black’
		-			ŋa⁵⁵	‘to install’		ŋi³³ [ŋwi³³]	‘front’
		ȵi³³	‘also’		ȵa⁵⁵	‘be late’

There is a contrast between voiced /l/ and voiceless /ɬ/. When the laterals precede the front vowel /ɛ/, they may be palatalized, showing free variation.

4	a	li⁵⁵	‘to lick’	b	lɛ³³	‘a verbal classifier (e.g., amount of the effort)’	[lɛ³³]	or	[ljɛ³³]
		ɬi⁵⁵	‘be young’		ɬɛ³³	‘to extract’	[ɬɛ³³]	or	[ɬjɛ³³]

3.1.4. Affricates

Niesu, both Adur and Suondi, has three sets of affricates, produced at dental, retroflex and alveolo–palatal, respectively. Each set shows a three-way contrast in terms of voicing and aspiration, as exemplified below (see Table 12).

5	a	dzi³³	‘be left over’	tsi³³	‘to leave something behind’	ts^hi³³	‘to fall quickly’
	b	ɖʐɯ³³	‘money’	ʈʂɯ³³	‘to feed, make eat’	ʈʂ^hɯ³³	‘rice, crop’
	c	dʑi³³	‘to fall down’	tɕi³³	‘a classifier (e.g., clothes)’	tɕ^hi³³	‘to arrive’

3.1.5. Prenasalized Consonants

Voiced plosives and affricates are prenasalized in Adur Niesu (see Table 13). The prenasalized consonants are treated here as unitary segments, not consonant clusters, on the ground that (1) they are contrastive with other consonants, such as ndo²¹ ‘to fall down’ vs. do²¹ ‘speech, word’, ŋga³³ ‘be clever’ vs. ga³³ ‘road’, and nɖʐa³³ ‘to sprinkle water for cooking the corn rice’ vs. ɖʐa³³ ‘sparrow’; (2) the nasal is always homorganic with the following plosives or affricates; and (3) the nasal–obstruent onsets only appear in the syllable-initial position. Lama (1998) also considers prenasalized obstruents in Nuosu, a close dialect of Adur Niesu, unitary segments, not consonant clusters, after acoustic analysis.

The prenasalized plosives can also be followed by the glides.

6	a	mbi³³	‘to divide’	mbɛ³³ [mbjɛ³³]	‘to shoot’
	b	ndo³³	‘to drink’	ndɛ³³ [ndjɛ³³]	‘a kind of black bowl painted with lacquer tree liquid’
	c	ŋga³³	‘be clever’	ŋgi³³ [ŋgwi³³]	‘to chew’
	d	ndza⁵⁵	‘adjacency’
	e	nɖʐa⁵⁵	‘be good’
	f	ndʑi⁵⁵	‘to catch’

3.1.6. Glides

Adur Niesu distinguishes between two glides: the unrounded palatal j and the rounded labiovelar w. The former is non-phonemic and the latter is phonemic. The glides are treated as part of the rhyme of a syllable, but not an element in a complex consonant. The reason is based on economy. By doing this, the sum of the diphthongs formed by the two glides is only four, including three allophonic diphthongs, [wɛ], [wi] and [jɛ] (see Section 3.2.1), and one phonemic diphthong, /wa/ (see Section 3.2.4), exemplified below. Bradley (2008) treated the glide /w/ as an element in complex consonants, or labialized velars. However, if similar treatment is made to the glide j, there would be as many as 17 complex consonants, including 13 allophonic complex consonants, such as [b^j], [p^j], [p^hj], [d^j], [m^j], and [l^j] and four phonemic ones: g^w, k^w, k^hw and ŋ^w. This greatly exceeds the sum of the diphthongs formed by the two glides.

7	a	pɛ³³ [pjɛ³³]	‘to jump’	t^hɛ³³ [t^hjɛ³³]	‘to exchange’
	b	gɛ³³ [gwɛ³³]	‘to compete with speaking skills’	k^hɛ³³ [k^hwɛ³³]	‘to chop’
	c	gwa³³	‘be of high capacity’	k^hwa³³	‘to share excessive important livestock, e.g., female pig, cattle (but need to pay back)’
		ga³³	‘road’	k^ha³³	‘to want’
	d	gi³³ [gwi³³]	‘to leave, to go’	k^hi³³ [k^hwi³³]	‘to share’

3.2. Vowels

There are 10 monophthongs and one diphthong in Adur Niesu: /i/, /ɨ/, /ɯ/, /o/, /u/, /ɛ/, /ɨ̠/, /a/, /ɔ/, /u̠/, and /wa/. Lama (2012), Mahai (2015, 2019) and Mise (2020) reported similar monophthongs in Suondi Niesu. But different symbols are used, namely, the /ɿ ɿ̠/ set in Mise (2020) is represented as /ɨ ɨ̠/ in the present study, and /e/ in Lama (2012) as /ɛ/ in the present study. All Adur vowels are oral. The monophthongs are organized by height (high, mid, low) and backness (front, central, back). A feature of Adur Niesu vowels is high vowel fricativization, occurring with the two high central vowels, /ɨ/ and /ɨ̠/, and the two high back vowels /u/ and /u̠/.

It should be noted that the Adur vowel /ɯ/ is more advanced and lower than the cardinal IPA [ɯ]. Due to this deviation, it is not impossible to transcribe this vowel as /ə/, such as in the Nuosu vowel inventory in Lama (2002). In the present study, /ɯ/ is used, mainly because the Adur Niesu /ɯ/ is categorically closer to the cardinal IPA [ɯ] in terms of vowel height and backness. This symbol /ɯ/ is also adopted in describing Nuosu vowels (Lama 1998; Edmondson et al. 2017).

Another way of organizing Niesu vowels is to categorize them into tense and lax vowels (Chen et al. 1985; Lama 2002) (see Table 14). This is useful for the description of vowel assimilation (see Section 3.4.2). It should be noted that the tense/lax contrast in the tradition of Southeast Asian languages have been applied in reversed fashion to the terms that are used in talking about Germanic languages (Maddieson and Ladefoged 1985). The principal component of the tense/lax distinction in Adur Niesu, as well as other Yi languages, is a difference in the laryngeal setting, namely, the tense vowels are more laryngealized than the lax ones (Lama 2002; Esling and Edmondson 2002). Therefore, the lax vowels are closer in the vowel space and, thus, higher, while the tense vowels are more open and, thus, lower (Edmondson et al. 2017). Therefore, Adur Niesu monophthongs can be paired as below. This pairing also displays frequent assimilation results discussed in Section 3.4.

3.2.1. Front Vowels

The Adur Niesu front vowels are distinguished by height. The minimal pairs are below.

8	a	fi³³	‘to throw’	fɛ³³	‘mouse’	fa³³	‘golden pheasant’
	b	dzi³³	‘be left over’	dzɛ³³	‘to carve’	dza³³	‘rice, food’
	c	ts^hi³³	‘ten’	ts^hɛ³³	‘deer’	ts^ha³³	‘be hot’
	d	tɕ^hi³³	‘to arrive’	tɕ^hɛ³³	‘to jump’	tɕ^ha³³	‘to caw (e.g., crow)’

The vowel /i/ cannot follow the retroflexes and the velar fricatives. It has an allophone [wi] when it occurs with velar stops.

9	a	ŋgi³³	[ŋgwi³³]	‘to chew’
	b	gi³³	[gwi³³]	‘to leave’
	c	ki³³	[kwi³³]	‘to dare’
	d	k^hi³³	[k^hwi³³]	‘to share’
	e	ŋi³³	[ŋwi³³]	‘front’

The vowel /ɛ/ has two diphthong allophones, [jɛ] and [wɛ]. The diphthong [jɛ] occurs when it follows the J-group consonants and the diphthong [wɛ] occurs when it follows the W-group consonants of velar.

10	a	mbɛ³³	[mbjɛ³³]	‘to shoot’	gɛ³³	[gwɛ³³]	‘to compete with speaking skills’
	b	mɛ³³	[mjɛ³³]	‘to lift with feet’	k^hɛ³³	[k^hwɛ³³]	‘to chop’
	c	ɬɛ³³	[ɬjɛ³³]	‘to extract’	(o⁵⁵)ŋɛ³³	[ŋwɛ³³]	‘be hungry’
	d	nɛ³³	[njɛ³³]	‘black’	kɛ³³	[kwɛ³³]	‘to estimate’

3.2.2. Central Vowels

Adur central vowels contrast one another in terms of height. The contrast between ɨ and ɨ̠, regarding the retractedness or tenseness, also exists in Nuosu (Edmondson et al. 2017).

11	a	pɨ³³	‘to exhibit speaking skills’	pɨ̠³³	‘be not generous’
	b	p^hɨ³³	‘be painful, be spicy’	p^hɨ̠³³	clf (for farmland)
	c	zɨ³³	‘to buy’	zɨ̠³³	‘to press’
	d	ʂɨ³³	‘to die’	ʂɨ̠³³	‘to roar’

Vowels ɨ and ɨ̠ only occur with 17 consonants: the three plain bilabial plosives, the six dental fricatives and affricates, the six retroflex fricatives and affricates, and the two dental laterals. Both of them are subject to high vowel fricativization, each having two allophones in the form of fricative vowels, namely, [z̩] and [z̩̠], when they follow the plosives and the dentals, and [ʐ̍] and [ʐ̠̍] when they follow the retroflex sounds. Therefore, the phonetic realizations of the examples in (11) are (12a) to (12d). See more examples in (12e) to (12m). According to Edmondson et al. (2017, p. 89), Nuosu expresses ‘dragon’ with the fricative vowel [v] as an allophone of /u/, thus transcribed phonetically with labialization: l˞ʷː³³ ‘dragon’ (cf. lu³³ as the phonemic form). However, in Adur Niesu, lip rounding is not observed in the pronunciation of ‘dragon’ (see 12l) or in the other examples transcribed with labialization in Edmondson et al. (2017). Therefore, the laterals are incompatible with /u/ and /u̠/ in Adur Niesu. Similar to Nuosu, the laterals in Adur Niesu will end up being rhoticized after the high vowel fricativization. Similar rhoticization is reported in Ersu, a Na–Qiangic language spoken in Liangshan (Chirkova and Handel 2013).

12	a	pɨ	[pz̩³³]	‘to exhibit speaking skills’	pɨ̠³³	[pz̩̠³³]	‘be not generous’
	b	p^hɨ³³	[p^hz̩³³]	‘be painful, spicy’	p^hɨ̠³³	[p^hz̩̠³³]	clf (for farmland)
	c	zɨ³³	[zz̩³³]	‘to buy’	zɨ̠³³	[zz̩̠³³]	‘to press’
	d	ʂɨ³³	[ʂʐ̍³³]	‘to die’	ʂɨ̠³³	[ʂʐ̠̍³³]	‘to roar’
	e	bɨ	[bz̩³³]	‘to give’	(ʐɨ̠³³)bɨ̠³³	[bz̩̠³³]	‘a bamboo trap’
	f	sɨ³³	[sz̩³³]	‘again, still’	sɨ̠³³	[sz̩̠³³]	‘tree’
	g	dzɨ³³	[dzz̩³³]	‘to ride (horse)’	dzɨ̠³³	[dzz̩̠³³]	clf (for vehicles)
	h	ts^hɨ³³	[ts^hz̩³³]	‘he, she, it’	ts^hɨ̠³³	[ts^hz̩̠³³]	‘generation’
	i	ʐɨ³³	[ʐʐ̍³³]	‘be big’	ʐɨ̠³³	[ʐʐ̠̍³³]	‘soul’
	j	ɖʐɨ³³	[ɖʐʐ̍³³]	‘teeth’	ɖʐɨ̠³³	[ɖʐʐ̠̍³³]	‘to exist’
	k	ʈʂɨ³³	[ʈʂʐ̍³³]	‘to squeeze oil’	ʈʂɨ̠³³	[ʈʂʐ̠̍³³]	‘to pull’
	l	lɨ³³	[lz̩³³]	‘dragon’	lɨ̠³³	[lz̩̠³³]	‘to shake’
	m	ɬɨ³³	[ɬz̩³³]	‘wind’	ɬɨ̠³³	[ɬz̩̠³³]	‘to escape’

The rounded vowel /o/ may be reduced to [ə] by some Adur Niesu speakers. Other than this, large-scale patterned vowel centralization is not found in Adur Niesu.

13

a⁴⁴ȵo³³

‘many’

[a⁴⁴ȵo³³]

or

[a⁴⁴ȵə³³]

3.2.3. Back Vowels

Similar to /ɨ/ and /ɨ̠/, the vowel /u/ contrasts with /u̠/ in terms of retractedness. Although the Adur vowel /ɯ/ is more advanced and lower than the cardinal IPA [ɯ], it is discussed with other back vowels.

14	a	p^hu³³	‘price, value’	p^hu̠³³	‘to dig’	-
	b	ʂu³³	‘to do’	-		ʂɯ³³	‘to find’
	c	ŋgu³³	‘to boast’	ŋgu̠³³	‘to rub with hands’	ŋgɯ³³	‘buckwheat’

The phonemic contrast between /u/ and /u̠/ is not symmetric. Consonants that can occur with /u/ may not have a contrast with /u̠/. For instance, zu³³ ‘to irritate’ has no contrastive pair as *zu̠³³, and k^hu³³ ‘to steal’ lacks a contrast as *k^hu̠³³. It is, therefore, observed that /u/ and /u̠/ start to merge as one phoneme. According to the main consultants, the following pairs are interchangeable, showing free variations.

15	a	su̠³³ga⁵⁵	‘be rich’	su̠³³ga⁵⁵	or	su³³ga⁵⁵
	b	bu̠⁵⁵	‘grass’	bu̠⁵⁵	or	bu⁵⁵
	c	gu̠⁵⁵	‘to sew the clothes’	gu̠⁵⁵	or	gu⁵⁵
	d	ku̠⁵⁵	‘to know how’	ku̠⁵⁵	or	ku⁵⁵
	e	vu̠⁵⁵	‘to run over’	vu̠⁵⁵	or	vu⁵⁵
	f	fu̠⁵⁵	‘to work hard’	fu̠⁵⁵	or	fu⁵⁵
	g	mu̠⁵⁵	‘to sip’	mu̠⁵⁵	or	mu⁵⁵
	h	ŋgu̠⁵⁵	‘to stab’	ŋgu̠⁵⁵	or	ŋgu⁵⁵

Another observation is that the retracted /u̠/ is forming a complementary distribution with /u/ by occurring with the high-level tone 55 only. While the lax /u/ bears tone 33, the tense /u̠/ bears tone 55 in (16). Mise (2020) also indicates that tone 55 causes vowel tenseness in Suondi Niesu. Therefore, it is possible for the two phonemes to merge or become allophonic in the future.

16	a	du³³	‘wing’	*du̠³³	du̠⁵⁵	‘be stealthy’
	b	ŋu³³	‘be’	*ŋu̠³³	(kɔ³³lɔ³³)ŋu̠⁵⁵	‘be angry’
	c	tu³³	‘to lift’	*tu̠³³	tu̠⁵⁵(m̩³³)	‘be promising’

Both /u/ and /u̠/ are noteworthy in that they lead to syllabic consonants if they are preceded by /m/. It was clearly observed from the consultants that the two syllables below were not produced with any rounding of the lips.

17

mu³³

[m̩³³]

‘to do’

mu̠³³

[m̩̠³³]

‘to blow up’

Due to high vowel fricativization, like /ɨ/ and /ɨ̠/, /u/ and /u̠/ have an allophone of their own in the form of the fricative vowel [v̩] and [v̩̠] when they are preceded by velar consonants. It was observed from the consultants that the upper teeth touched the inner side of the lower lip when they pronounced these syllables, without any rounding of the lips.

18	a	ŋgu³³	[ŋgv̩³³]	‘to boast’	ŋgu̠³³	[ŋgv̩̠³³]	‘to rub with hands’
	b	gu³³	[gv̩³³]	‘be firm’	gu̠³³	[gv̩̠³³]	‘to protect (food, cubs)’
	c	ku³³	[kv̩³³]	‘to call’	ku̠⁵⁵	[kv̩̠⁵⁵]	‘to know how’
	d	k^hu³³	[k^hv̩³³]	‘to steal’	-

A final feature of /u/ and /u̠/ is that they may be substituted with a syllabic bilabial trill [ʙ̩] after labial and dental plosives. The trill substitution is subject to personal habit, thus forming free variation. But the trill substitution is more preferred after voiced labial and dental plosives, and less preferred after voiceless ones.

		/u/		/u̠/
19	a	[bu²¹] or [bʙ̩²¹]	‘a clan’	[bu̠³³] or [bʙ̩̠³³]	‘to write’
	b	[pu²¹] or [pʙ̩²¹]	‘to carry’	-
	c	[p^hu³³] or [p^hʙ̩³³]	‘value’	[p^hu̠³³] or [p^hʙ̩̠³³]	‘to dig’
	d	[du³³] or [dʙ̩³³]	‘wing’	[du̠⁵⁵] or [dʙ̩̠⁵⁵]	‘be stealthy’
	e	[tu³³] or [tʙ̩³³]	‘to lift’	-
	f	[t^hu³³] or [t^hʙ̩³³]	‘silver’	[t^hu̠³³ (or t^hʙ̩̠³³) ʂa³³]	’a kind of evil spirit’
	g	[mbu³³] or [mbʙ̩³³]	‘be trapped’	[mbu̠³³] or [mbʙ̩̠³³]	‘to squint’
	h	[ndu²¹] or [ndʙ̩²¹]	‘to beat’	[tjɛ³³ndu̠³³ (or ndʙ̩̠³³)]	‘be fat’

The mid-high oral vowel /o/ forms a phonemic contrast with the mid-low one /ɔ/ in terms of the openness of the mouth.

20	a	bo³³	‘mountain’	bɔ³³	‘to demand’
	b	p^ho³³	‘to run’	p^hɔ³³	‘to reverse’
	c	ko³³	‘side, location’	kɔ³³	‘be capable’

3.2.4. Diphthong

While no diphthong is reported in the Nuosu vowel inventory (Lama 1998, 2002; Gerner 2013; Edmondson et al. 2017), different numbers of diphthongs in Suondi Niesu are reported: /ie ui ue/ in Lama (2012), /uɑ ue ui/ in Mahai (2015) and /ua ui/ in Mise (2020). Due to the close relation between Suondi and Adur Niesu, it is suspected that not all reported diphthongs in Suondi Niesu are phonemic.

In Adur Niesu, phonetically, there are four diphthongs, [jɛ], [wɛ], [wi] and [wa]. But the only phonemic diphthong in Adur Niesu is /wa/. It can only occur with velar consonants, or the W-group. Minimal pairs are as shown below.

21	a	gwa³³	‘be of large capacity’	ga³³	‘to wear’
	b	kwa³³	‘fire pit’	ka³³	‘to take’
	c	k^hwa³³	‘to share excessive important livestock, e.g., female pig, cattle (but need to pay back)’	k^ha³³	‘to want’
	d	ŋwa⁵⁵	‘to break apart’	ŋa⁵⁵	‘to install’

3.3. The Syllable and Phonotactics

Adur Niesu syllable structure is relatively simple. All are open syllables. Adur Niesu segments are organized into syllables as below (see Figure 4).

The onset can be any of the 41 consonants. The on-glides are either j or w. The vowel slot can be filled by any of the 10 monophthongs or the syllabic consonants if there is no glide in the syllable. The J-glide only occurs with /ɛ/, and the W-glide occurs with all front vowels, namely, /i/, /ɛ/ and /a/. But syllables involving a glide must be preceded by an onset, such as (22a) to (22f). In this case, all slots are filled. The onset and on-glide slots can be optional; see (22g) to (22h). The following are examples of all possible syllables in Adur Niesu. Most Adur Niesu syllables are made up of a consonant and a vowel.

22	a	ŋgwi³³	‘to chew’
	b	kwi³³	‘to dare’
	c	mbjɛ³³	‘to shoot’
	d	gwɛ³³	‘to break’
	e	k^hwa⁵⁵	‘be happy’
	f	ŋwa⁵⁵	‘to break apart’
	g	a⁴⁴mo³³	‘mother’
	h	o³³	‘head’

Without considering the three basic tones of Adur Niesu, there are 308 attested syllables. Allophonic realizations are indicated in Table 15.

3.4. Segmental Changes in Vowels

In the previous sections, some vowel changes were discussed: allophones of the front vowels in Section 3.2.1, occasional vowel reduction in Section 3.2.2, and high vowel fricativization in Section 3.2.2 and Section 3.2.3. In the present section, another four vowel changes are presented: vowel lowering, vowel centralization, vowel assimilation and vowel fusion.

3.4.1. Vowel Lowering and Centralization

The high vowel /u/ may be lowered to /o/, forming a free variation. The reason why the change is considered a lowering, rather than a raising, is that the high vowel /u/ is more common in the speech of both the elder and young population.

23	a	su⁴⁴ʐɨ³³	‘the elder’	[su⁴⁴]~[so⁴⁴]
	b	ʑu³³	‘to catch’	[ʑu³³]~[ʑo³³]

It is common for the Adur Niesu back vowel /u/ to be centralized as /ɨ/ if it follows the sibilant fricatives.

24	nɛ³³	‘black’	+	su³³	‘people’	→	nɛ³³su³³	or	nɛ³³sɨ³³	‘Niesu people or Niesu language’
	a²¹		+	su⁵⁵		→	a²¹su⁵⁵	or	a²¹sɨ⁵⁵	‘we (inclusive)’
	zo³³	‘study’	+	ʂu³³	nominalizer	→	zo³³ʂu³³	or	zo³³ʂɨ³³	‘those (who are) studying’

3.4.2. Vowel Assimilation

Vowel assimilation is another case of vowel lowering in Adur Niesu. Nearly all assimilations in Adur Niesu are regressive, and most occur between tense and lax vowels (see Section 3.2), namely, the preceding lax vowel will be lowered to a tense vowel, or become more laryngealized; see Table 14. Recall in Section 3.2 that the tense vowels are treated as those which are more laryngealized than the lax ones, and thus have a lower position than the lax ones (Maddieson and Ladefoged 1985; Lama 2002; Edmondson et al. 2017). Therefore, the rhyme of the first syllable is assimilated in terms of the tenseness of the following rhyme. Compare the examples in (25a) to (25d). /ɛ/, /a/ and /ɨ̠/, belonging to the tense group, lower the vowel of the first syllable from the lax one to its tense counterpart, namely, from [o] to [ɔ] and from [i] to [ɛ], respectively. But if the following rhymes do not belong to the tense group, assimilation does not occur.

25	a	o³³	‘head’	+	ȵɛ³³	‘hair’	→	ɔ³³ȵɛ³³	‘hair’
		o³³	‘head’	+	ʨ^hɯ³³		→	o³³ʨ^hɯ³³	‘head’
	b	o³³	‘related to mother’s brother’	+	ka⁵⁵	‘middle’	→	ɔ³³ka⁵⁵	‘mother’s middle brother’
		o³³	‘related to mother’s brother’	+	ɖʐɨ̠⁵⁵	‘young’	→	ɔ³³ɖʐɨ̠⁵⁵	‘mother’s younger brother’
		o³³	‘related to mother’s brother’	+	ʐɨ³³	‘big’	→	o⁴⁴ʐɨ³³	‘mother’s elder brother’
	c	ȵi²¹	‘two’	+	ma³³	clf	→	ȵɛ²¹ma³³	‘two pieces’
		ȵi²¹	‘two’	+	bu²¹	‘clan’	→	ȵi²¹bu²¹	‘two clans’
	d	ŋi³³	‘mouth’	+	lɛ³³		→	ŋɛ³³lɛ³³	‘mouth’
		ŋi³³	‘mouth’	+	tɕo³³	‘direction’	→	ŋi³³tɕo³³	‘front’

More examples are as below.

26	a	ʐɨ³³	‘water’	+	tsɨ̠³³	‘to get drenched’	→	ʐɨ̠³³tsɨ̠³³	‘to get drenched by rain’
	b	mu³³	‘ground’	+	lɨ̠³³	‘to shake’	→	mu̠⁴⁴lɨ̠³³	‘earthquake’
	c	o³³	‘head’	+	ma³³	general classifier	→	ɔ³³ma³³	‘head, mind’
	d	ni³³	‘female’	+	nɖʐa⁵⁵	‘be good, pretty’	→	nɛ³³nɖʐa⁵⁵	‘beautiful woman’
	e	do²¹	‘speech’	+	ma³³	general classifier	→	dɔ²¹ma³³	‘speech, word’
	f	zɯ³³	‘son, man’	+	k^hɔ³³	‘be capable’	→	za³³k^hɔ³³	‘hero, brave man’
	g	ʑo³³	‘sheep’	+	la³³	‘breeding’	→	ʑɔ³³la³³	‘ram that is not castrated’
	h	zɯ³³	‘son, man’	+	tɕ^hɛ³³	‘hard’	→	za³³tɕ^hɛ³³	‘tough man’
	i	ni³³	‘red’	+	ʈʂɨ̠³³ʈʂɨ̠³³	‘ide’	→	nɛ⁴⁴ʈʂɨ̠³³ʈʂɨ̠³³	‘bright red’
	j	ni³³	nɖʐa⁵⁵	+	ni³³	vɛ³³	→	nɛ³³nɖʐa⁵⁵nɛ³³vɛ³³	‘beautiful woman’

Some of the assimilations are more phonetic in nature, since they can be restored to the original vowel in slow and careful speech; but some are more morpholexical in nature, since they cannot be restored to the original vowel, even using slow and careful speech. If restoration is forced in the latter case, new meanings will be produced. All examples in (27) are phonetic assimilations and those in (28) are morpholexical assimilations.

27		casual speech	careful speech
	‘tough man’	za³³k^hɔ³³	zɯ³³k^hɔ³³
	‘brightly red’	nɛ⁴⁴ʈʂɨ̠³³ʈʂɨ̠³³	ni⁴⁴ʈʂɨ̠³³ʈʂɨ̠³³
	‘see’	ɣo²¹ŋo³³	ɣɯ²¹ŋo³³

28	With assimilation		Without assimilation
	dɔ²¹ma³³	‘speech, language’	do²¹ma³³	‘one piece of speech’
	ʑɔ³³la³³	‘ram’	ʑo³³la³³	‘the sheep come’
	za³³tɕ^hɛ³³	‘capable man’	zɯ³³tɕ^hɛ³³	‘the man is capable’
	nɛ³³ndʐa⁵⁵	‘beautiful woman’	ni³³ndʐa⁵⁵	‘the woman is beautiful’
	ɔ³³ʈʂɨ̠⁵⁵	‘plait’	o³³ʈʂɨ̠⁵⁵	‘to plait’
	ɔ³³ma³³	‘head, mind’	o³³ma³³	‘a head’

The tenseness/laxness-induced assimilation can also be relative. As long as the following vowel is tenser, or lower, than the preceding vowel, regressive assimilation can be triggered. For example, although /o/ is laxer than /ɔ/, it is tenser and lower than /ɯ/; therefore, assimilation occurs in (29). Since /u/ is not tenser than /i/, assimilation is not triggered in ȵi²¹bu²¹ ‘two households’ in (25c) (cf. ȵɛ²¹ma³³ ‘two pieces’).

29

ɣɯ²¹

‘to obtain’

+

ŋo³³

‘to see’

→

ɣo²¹ŋo³³

‘see’

3.4.3. Vowel Fusion

Vowel fusion in Adur Niesu results in vowel substitution of the rhyme of the preceding syllable, such as ʑa³³ (ʑi³³ ‘to go’ + a³³ ‘attitudinal marker’) ‘let’s go’. Although it is also possible for vowel fusion to occur intraclausally, it is more common at the clause end. In (30) and (31), the rhyme of the first syllable is replaced by the following vowel at the clause’s final position, and in (32), the vowel fusion occurs in the clause.

30	la³³=sɨ³³ o⁴⁴	→	la³³=so⁴⁴
	come=rep pfv		come=rep.pfv
	‘(He) came again.’

31	ʂu³³ + o⁴⁴ → ʂɔ⁴⁴
	lɯ³³	ts^hɨ³³	tɕi³³	ʂa³³mu³³ȵi³³	a³³ts^hi³³~ts^hi³³	mu³³	ndu²¹	ʂɨ²¹=ʂɔ⁴⁴.
	cow	this	clf	toilsome:do:exst	extreme~redpl	do	beat	die=nmlz.att
	‘This cow was beaten to death pathetically.’

32	ts^hɨ³³ + a²¹=sɨ²¹ → ts^ha²¹=sɨ²¹
	ŋo³³	ts^ha²¹=sɨ²¹
	1pl	3sg.neg=know
	‘We do not know it.’

3.5. Segmental Changes in Consonants

Segmental changes in Adur Niesu consonants are not widely observed. Lenition and clanlects are presented.

3.5.1. Lenition of the Velar Consonants

Briefly, the velar stops can be lenited in spontaneous speech as velar fricatives; see (33).

33	lenition	ŋo³³ ‘we’	→	ɣo³³
	lenition	ko³³ ‘when, if’	→	xo³³
	lenition	ga⁴⁴ɖʐɨ³³ ‘absolutely’	→	ɣa⁴⁴ɖʐɨ³³

3.5.2. Aspiration of the Clanlects

Variations in aspiration change between different clans are found, or ‘clanlects’. One of the main consultants is a descendant of the dʑɛ²¹nɛ³³ clan, and another one is of the su̠³³ga⁵⁵ clan. Both of them live in the same village since they were born. The following two words are not aspirated in the speech of the dʑɛ²¹nɛ³³ descendant, while they are aspirated in the speech of the su̠³³ga⁵⁵ descendant. But the aspirated affricate in the three words has wider usage among Adur Niesu speakers. Other than the two words, both consultants share similar phonological system of Adur Niesu.

			dʑɛ²¹nɛ³³ clan	su̠³³ga⁵⁵ clan
34	a	‘he, she, it’	tsɨ³³	ts^hɨ³³
	b	‘this’	tsɨ³³	ts^hɨ³³

3.6. Syllable Reduction

It is common for Adur Niesu syllables to be reduced in continuous speech. There are three types of syllable reduction being observed in the field: complete reduction including the segment and tone, partial reduction with a floating tone left, and partial reduction with the initial consonant left.

The syllable is so reduced that a particle is left to signal the existence of a clause; see (35b) where ts^hɨ²¹mu³³ ‘doing so’ is reduced.

35	a.	ts^hɨ²¹	mu³³	ta³³,		hɛ³³ŋga⁵⁵	lɯ³³o³³=sa⁴⁴	lɯ³³ʂɨ³³	ŋgɔ³³	la³³.
		this	do	nf		Han Chinese	cow:head=com	cow:foot	collect	come
		‘By doing so, the Han Chinese come to collect the head and feet of the (killed) cow.’
	b.	ta³³,	he³³ŋga⁵⁵		lɯ³³o³³=sa⁴⁴		lɯ³³ʂɨ³³	ŋgɔ³³	la³³.
		nf	Han Chinese		cow:head=com		cow:foot	collect	come
		‘By doing so, the Han Chinese come to collect the head and feet of the (killed) cow.’

It is often the segments of the whole syllable being deleted. After the reduction, the tone becomes a floating tone and reassociates itself onto the preceding syllable. For example, in (36a) to (36c), the second syllable is reduced, namely, ʂɨ in a³³ʂɨ⁵⁵ ‘what’, sɨ in a²¹sɨ²¹t^hɯ³³ ‘when’ and hi in a²¹hi³³ ‘cannot’. But the tone is left. The tonal trace can be observed on the remaining preceding syllable. Namely, the original tone of the preceding syllable is overridden by the floating tone, where a³³ changes to a⁵⁵ in (36a) and a²¹ changes to a³³ in (36c). Since the first syllable a²¹ bears the same 21 tone with the deleted syllable in (36b), the overriding is not evident. In (36a) and (36b), other than the syllable reduction, the fricative glottal /h/ can often be epenthesized, namely, ha⁵⁵ and ha²¹.

36	a	a³³ʂɨ⁵⁵	tsɨ⁵⁵	→	a⁵⁵ / ha⁵⁵	tsɨ⁵⁵
		what	do		what	do
		‘to do what’
	b	a²¹sɨ²¹t^hɯ³³		→	a²¹t^hɯ³³ / ha²¹t^hɯ³³
		‘which:time’			‘which:time’
		‘when’
	c	a²¹hi³³ mu³³ (neg=can do) ‘cannot’ → a³³mu³³
		tɯ²¹	ʑi³³	a³³	mu³³	t^hɯ³³	dʐɨ̠³³
		rise	go	neg.can	do	place	exst
		‘(Someone) cannot stand up, but keep staying there.’

In a polar interrogative, on the surface, there seems to be a tone change: 55 > 21 / 55 _. However, the tone lowering from 55 to 21 is not a tone change (cf. tone sandhi in Section 4.2 and Section 4.3), but in fact the result of the floating tone associated with the interrogative particle a²¹ after syllable reduction, which is exemplified below. The floating tone of the interrogative particle overrides the tone of the preceding syllable. Meanwhile, the preceding high front vowel [i] is assimilated by the interrogative particle a²¹ and lowered to [ɛ] (see Section 3.4). If the lowered vowel [ɛ] occurs with the J-group consonants, it will subsequently change to the phonetic diphthong allophone [jɛ], namely, pɛ²¹ [pjɛ²¹] in (37b) and ndɛ²¹ [ndjɛ²¹] in (37d).

		basic form	meaning	reduplicated form + interrogative particle	result	meaning
37	a	si⁵⁵	‘to kill’	si⁵⁵~si⁵⁵ + a²¹	si⁵⁵~sɛ²¹	‘to kill or not’
	b	pi⁵⁵	‘to dig’	pi⁵⁵~pi⁵⁵ + a²¹	pi⁵⁵~pɛ²¹	‘to dig or not’
	c	vi⁵⁵	‘to shoulder’	vi⁵⁵~vi⁵⁵ + a²¹	vi⁵⁵~vɛ²¹	‘to shoulder or not’
	d	ma²¹ma²¹ ndi⁵⁵	‘to bear fruit’	ma²¹ma²¹ ndi⁵⁵~ndi⁵⁵ + a²¹	ma²¹ma²¹ ndi⁵⁵~ndɛ²¹	‘to bear fruit or not’
	e	ndʐɨ³³ ʑi⁵⁵	‘to be drunk’	ndʐɨ³³ ʑi⁵⁵~ʑi⁵⁵ + a²¹	ndʐɨ³³ ʑi⁵⁵~ʑɛ²¹	‘to be drunk or not’

It is particularly useful to contrast the above syllable reduction with reduplication for intensification in Adur Niesu. Without the effect of the interrogative particle, when two high-level tones are adjacent to each other, there is no change of the tone and of the vowel.

		basic form	meaning	reduplicated form	meaning
38	a	si⁵⁵	‘to kill’	si⁵⁵~si⁵⁵	‘to kill fiercely’
	b	ma²¹ma²¹ ndi⁵⁵	‘to bear fruit’	ma²¹ma²¹ ndi⁵⁵~ndi⁵⁵	‘to bear a lot of fruits’
	c	ndʐɨ³³ ʑi⁵⁵	‘to be drunk’	ndʐɨ³³ ʑi⁵⁵~ʑi⁵⁵	‘to be quite drunk’

Moreover, the syllable reduction also occurs to other vowels bearing the high-level tone 55; see (39a) to (39c), accompanied by vowel assimilation. However, the syllable reduction does not occur to syllables bearing other non-high-level tones; see (39d) and (39e). Likewise, the vowel assimilation will not occur.

		basic form	meaning	reduplicated form
39	a	tʂɨ⁵⁵	‘be correct’	tʂɨ⁵⁵~tʂɨ⁵⁵ + a²¹ or tʂɨ⁵⁵~tʂɨ̠²¹	‘be correct or not’
	b	sa⁵⁵	‘to finish’	sa⁵⁵~sa⁵⁵ + a²¹ or sa⁵⁵~sa²¹	‘to finish or not’
	c	p^ho⁵⁵	‘to dig the earth’	p^ho⁵⁵~p^ho⁵⁵ + a²¹ or p^ho⁵⁵~p^hɔ²¹	‘to dig the earth or not’
	d	p^hi³³	‘be polite’	p^hi⁴⁴~p^hi³³ + a²¹	‘be polite or not’
	e	fi³³	‘to throw’	fi⁴⁴~fi³³ + a²¹	‘to throw or not’

Sometimes, the syllable may not be completely reduced, leaving not only the tone, but also the onset. The leftover will go with the preceding syllable; see (40). Mahai (2019) reports another kind of partial reduction, namely, the initial consonant is deleted, with only the rhyme left, such as ʑa²¹o⁵⁵ for ʑa²¹ʑo⁵⁵ ‘potato’ and ŋo²¹i⁵⁵ for ŋo²¹ȵi⁵⁵ ‘the two of us (exclusive)’. However, we did not have a similar observation about this reduction in Adur Niesu in the field.

40	a²¹ŋu³³ ‘now’ → aŋ³³
	aŋ³³	ts^hi⁴⁴~ts^hi³³=ko⁴⁴=na³³,			li⁵⁵sa³³	ts^hɨ²¹	ma³³	ka³³
	present	neat~neat=moment=dsc			official seal	one	clf	take
	a³³tu̠³³	ɔ²¹la³³mu³³hi⁵⁵	bɨ³³	xa³³	ʑi³³	o³³	di⁴⁴.
	Adur	name	give	away	go down	pfv	quot
	‘(Someone) said that at this exact moment, (you) took an official seal and went to give (it) to Uolamuhi who is from the Adur region.’

Syllable reduction can also create the environment for vowel assimilation. For example, ts^hɨ²¹ mu³³ ɔ⁴⁴nɔ³³ (this do if) ‘if it is like this’ changes to ts^hɔ³³ɔ⁴⁴nɔ³³, with the syllable mu³³ being deleted, namely, ts^hɨ³³ ɔ⁴⁴nɔ³³, and tone 33 being reassociated to the preceding syllable and the rhyme then being assimilated by the following tenser vowel ɔ.

41	a	o²¹,	ts^hɨ²¹	mu³³	ɔ⁴⁴nɔ³³,	ŋo³³	ts^hɨ³³	a²¹=sɨ²¹.
		intj	this	do	if	1pl.excl	3sg	neg=know
		‘Oh, if it is something like this, we do not know it.’
	b	o²¹,	ts^hɔ³³ɔ⁴⁴nɔ³³,	ŋo³³	ts^hɨ³³	a²¹=sɨ²¹.
		intj	this	1pl.excl	3sg	neg=know
		‘Oh, if it is something like this, we do not know it.’

4. The Suprasegmentals

Adur Niesu employs suprasegmentals as an important means for lexical contrast, like many other syllable–tone languages of East and Southeast Asia. In Adur Niesu, two types of tonal alternation should be distinguished: tone sandhi and tone change. Similar distinction is made in Prinmi (Ding 2014) and in Yongning Na (or Narua) (Michaud 2017).

Tone sandhi refers to the phonologically conditioned tonal alternation by adjacent tones, regardless of the morphosyntactic factors. The most productive sandhi rule of Adur Niesu is 33 > 44 / _ 33, such as su³³ ‘people’ + ʐɨ³³ ‘big’ > su⁴⁴ʐɨ³³ ‘the elder’.

Tone change is governed by rules that are confined to specific morphosyntactic environments. It is the dominant form of tonal alternation in Adur Niesu. The tone change appears in the following morphosyntactic contexts: (1) compound words, (2) prefixed words, (3) patient marking, and (4) yes–no interrogation generated by reduplication.

Finally, floating tones in Adur Niesu can generate a surface kind of tonal alternation, although, in fact, it is the result of syllable reduction. After the syllable reduction, the tone becomes a floating tone and reassociates itself onto the preceding syllable, such as the so-called tonal change regarding the possessive pronouns, where the tone of the reduced genitive marker *ni²¹ of Proto-Nuosu proper was retained by the plain personal pronouns in Adur Niesu.

4.1. The Three Basic Tones

Identical to Suondi Niesu, Adur Niesu has three basic tones: high-level tone 55, mid-level tone 33, and low-falling tone 21. The minimal contrast between these three tonal categories is exemplified below (see Figure 5).

42	a	di²¹	‘to say’	di³³	‘be not good’	di⁵⁵	‘to wear (shoes)’
	b	ti²¹	‘to bury’	ti³³	‘be only’	ti⁵⁵	‘to make wear (shoes)’
	c	vi²¹	‘guest’	vi³³	possessive pronominal enclitic	vi⁵⁵	‘pig’
	d	hi²¹	‘to say’	hi³³	‘house’	hi⁵⁵	‘eight’
	e	ts^hɨ²¹	‘his, her, its’	ts^hɨ³³	‘he, she, it’	ts^hɨ⁵⁵	‘family line’
	f	to²¹	‘can’	to³³	‘to respond’	to⁵⁵	‘to light up’

There is a 44 (high-mid level) tone in Adur Niesu. See Bradley (1990) for the discussion of tone 44 in Nuosu. However, it is seen largely in cases of tone sandhi, which often results from either tone 33 or tone 21 in syllable combination. There is no co-occurrence of tone 44 with tone 55 at the lexical level. In Figure 6, tone 44 is slightly higher than tone 33 in the word pi³³mo⁴⁴ ‘priest’, but tone 55 is much higher than tone 33 in the word nɛ³³ndʐa⁵⁵ ‘pretty woman’.

Tone 44 often appears in particles at the clause boundary, such as the sequential clitic ɕi⁴⁴ and change of state clitic o⁴⁴ in (43), and clause linker lɯ⁴⁴ in (44). If the clause boundary is occupied by content words, tone 44 is not used, such as lɨ̠³³ ‘to trap’ in (44). If not used at the clause boundary, tone 44 only appears in a few morphemes in Adur Niesu as citation forms, namely, mo⁴⁴ as a hesitator, sa⁴⁴ the comitative, di⁴⁴ the quotative, and ȵo⁴⁴ the experiential clitic.

43	no²¹	a²¹mu³³	ts^hɨ³³	ȵɛ²¹	ma³³
	2pl.poss	daughter	this	two	clf
	tʂ^hɨ⁵⁵=ɕi⁴⁴,	o³³no³³	xa³³	a⁴⁴nɛ³³,
	tie=seq	distance	release	after
	no²¹	zɯ³³	ma⁴⁴	sa³³	o⁴⁴.
	2pl.poss	son	clf.def	comfortable	csm
	‘After (you) tie up your two daughters and abandon them in the wilderness, your son will recover.’

44	to⁵⁵	pa²¹nɛ²¹=ko³³	lɨ̠³³,	ga²¹mo²¹=ko³³	tsi⁴⁴		tɯ³³	lɯ⁴⁴,
	stamp	mud=loc	trap	road:big=loc	place inside		cont	clnk
	bi⁵⁵la³³	a³³=to²¹ mu³³		t^hɯ³³	i⁵⁵	dʐɨ̠³³	ta³³, ….
	exit:come	neg=can do		t/here	lie	cont	nf
	‘(The horse, the bull and all the big beasts) stamped on (the frog) into the mud, (who was) being stuck firmly in the road2, and (the frog) could not come out, staying there,….’

4.2. Tone Sandhi: 33 > 44 / _ 33

The most productive tone sandhi in Adur Niesu is 33 > 44 / _ 33, regardless of the morphosyntactic environment. Other phonological processes may also occur, such as vowel assimilation in (45f) and (45g). The fundamental function of this tone sandhi is to dissimilate two adjacent same tone.

45	a	su³³ ‘people’	+	ʐɨ³³ ‘big’	→	su⁴⁴ʐɨ³³	‘the elder’
	b	a³³	+	nɛ³³	→	a⁴⁴nɛ³³	‘after’
	c	bu³³	+	dzɯ³³	→	bu⁴⁴dzɯ³³	‘mate’
	d	ɔ³³	+	nɔ³³	→	ɔ⁴⁴nɔ³³	‘if’
	e	pu³³	+	t^hɯ³³	→	pu⁴⁴t^hɯ³³	‘Butuo (place name)’
	f	ti³³ ‘cloud’	+	nɛ³³ ‘black’	→	tɛ⁴⁴nɛ³³	‘dark cloud, nimbostratus’
	g	tʂ^hɯ³³ ‘rice, oryza sativa’	+	dza³³ ‘grain’	→	tʂ^ha⁴⁴dza³³	‘rice’

This sandhi rule can also mark the compounding of the verbs. The rise to tone 44 suggests that it is a compound word and the interpretation is from left to right; see (46). But if the tone is not raised, namely, xɯ³³dzɯ³³ and ŋɯ³³dzɯ³³, the interpretation of xɯ³³ and ŋɯ³³ changes to ‘meat’ and ‘fish’, respectively. The expressions are thus understood as phrases, not words, meaning ‘to eat the meat’ and ‘to eat the fish’.

46	a	xɯ³³ ‘to cut off’ or ‘meat’	+	dzɯ³³ ‘eat’	→	xɯ⁴⁴dzɯ³³	‘to cut and eat’
	b	ŋɯ³³ ‘to borrow’ or ‘fish’	+	dzɯ³³ ‘eat’	→	ŋɯ⁴⁴dzɯ³³	‘to borrow and eat’

However, exceptions about this lexical tone sandhi can easily be found in Adur Niesu, such as nɛ³³su³³ ‘the Niesu people’, ʐɨ³³lo³³ ‘well, sink’, ŋgɯ³³fu³³ ‘buckwheat pie’, and ȵɛ³³ɖʐɨ³³ ‘sun’. This sandhi pattern is also found in Nuosu (see Lama 1998 and Bradley 1990 for sandhi rules of Nuosu), but with higher productivity than in Adur Niesu. For example, this sandhi rule applies to bo⁴⁴fu³³ ‘cheekbone’ in Nuosu, but not to bo³³fu³³ ‘cheekbone’ in Adur Niesu.

This tone sandhi seldom occurs in phrases in Adur Niesu. In (47), where all expressions can be understood as phrases, this sandhi rule does not apply. For example, (47d) does not refer to a particular kind of snake, but a generic term to cover all snakes living or happening to be found in the water. However, this restriction seems less rigid in Nuosu. Gerner (2013) reported that the demonstrative would rise to tone 44 in Nuosu if there was a following classifier of tone 33, such as ts^hɨ⁴⁴ma³³ (this clf) ‘this one’ and ts^hɨ⁴⁴bo³³ (this clf.pl) ‘these ones’. In contrast, the tone of the demonstrative is not raised in Adur Niesu, namely, ts^hɨ³³ma³³ ‘this one’. According to the Adur consultants, if the demonstrative is raised in tone, it means emphasis. It is more natural to keep the original tone 33 in this combination.

47	a	ʐɨ³³	‘water, river’	+	dʑi³³	‘clean’	→	ʐɨ³³dʑi³³	‘clean water’
	b	lɯ³³	‘cow’	+	tʂ^hɨ³³	‘manure’	→	lɯ³³tʂ^hɨ³³	‘cow’s manure’
	c	ɣo³³	‘bear’	+	ʈʂɨ³³	‘bile’	→	ɣo³³ʈʂɨ³³	‘bile of the bear’
	d	ʐɨ³³	‘water, river’	+	ʂɨ³³	‘snake’	→	ʐɨ³³ʂɨ³³	‘snake(s) in the water (not a kind of snake)’

4.3. Tone Sandhi: 21 > 44 / 21 _

This is another relatively productive sandhi rule in Adur Niesu. Similar to the sandhi rule 33 > 44 / _ 33, this rule is again a case of tone dissimilation. Unlike 33 > 44 / _ 33, the sandhi rule 21 > 44 / 21 _ mainly occurs at the phrasal level, such as the auxiliary verb constructions from (48a) to (48c) and the noun phrases from (48d) to (48e). Its effect at the word level is not commonly found in Adur Niesu, for example, sɨ²¹ ‘to curse’ + tɕ^hɯ²¹ ‘to revile’ → sɨ²¹tɕ^hɯ²¹ ‘to curse’. If the adjacent tones are different, this sandhi rule does not apply, for example, dzɯ³³ ‘to eat’ + do²¹ ‘can’ → dzɯ³³do²¹ ‘can eat’.

48	a	ndu²¹	‘hit’	+	to²¹	‘can’	→	ndu²¹to⁴⁴	‘can hit’
	b	sɨ²¹	‘know’	+	to²¹	‘can’	→	sɨ²¹to⁴⁴	‘can understand’
	c	pu²¹	‘carry’	+	to²¹	‘can’	→	pu²¹to⁴⁴	‘can carry’
	d	ts^hɨ²¹	‘his, her, its’	+	ɖʐɨ²¹	‘lower part’	→	ts^hɨ²¹ɖʐɨ⁴⁴	‘beneath him/her/it (lit. the part below him/her/it)’
	e	ŋa²¹	‘my’	+	tɕo²¹	‘direction’	→	ŋa²¹tɕo⁴⁴	‘to me (lit. my direction)’

4.4. Tone Change in Compounds

Compounding is a productive means of word formation in Adur Niesu. Tone change can serve as a phonological criterion to distinguish compound words from phrases.

4.4.1. Tone 33 > 21/_ zɯ³³

33 > 21 / _ zɯ³³ occurs in compound words of animacy marked with the diminutive marker zɯ³³, grammaticalized from the noun meaning ‘son’.

49	a	tʂ^hɨ³³	‘dog’	+	zɯ³³	→	tʂ^hɨ²¹zɯ³³	‘puppy’
	b	mu³³	‘horse’	+	zɯ³³	→	mu²¹zɯ³³	‘pony’
	c	ŋɯ³³	‘fish’	+	zɯ³³	→	ŋɯ²¹zɯ³³	‘young fish’
	d	ʂu³³	‘pheasant’	+	zɯ³³	→	ʂu²¹zɯ³³	‘young pheasant’

If the tone change does not occur, the meaning is also changed, namely, it becomes a nominal–nominal genitive phrase meaning ‘the offspring of the animal^′.2 Compare (50) with (49).

50	a	tʂ^hɨ³³	‘dog’	+	zɯ³³	→	tʂ^hɨ³³zɯ³³	‘dog’s offspring’
	b	mu³³	‘horse’	+	zɯ³³	→	mu³³zɯ³³	‘horse’s offspring’
	c	ŋɯ³³	‘fish’	+	zɯ³³	→	ŋɯ³³zɯ³³	‘fish’s offspring’
	d	ʂu³³	‘pheasant’	+	zɯ³³	→	ʂu³³zɯ³³	‘pheasant’s offspring’

Moreover, if the compound words with the diminutive marker refer to inanimate beings, such as mountains, the tone change does not occur.

51	a	bo³³	‘mountain’	+	zɯ³³	→	bo³³zɯ³³	‘small mountain’
	b	ʐɨ³³	‘water, river’	+	zɯ³³	→	ʐɨ³³zɯ³³	‘small river, creek’
	c	sɨ̠³³	‘tree’	+	zɯ³³	→	sɨ̠³³zɯ³³	‘small tree’
	d	t^ha³³	‘jar’	+	zɯ³³	→	t^ha³³zɯ³³	‘small jar’

This tone change does not happen to all animate beings if there is a ready expression for their offspring. For example, since there is an expression for ‘calf’, namely, ko³³li³³zɯ³³, lɯ³³zɯ³³ is, therefore, a phrase, meaning ‘offspring of the cow’, without the tone change. Other examples are:

								Meaning	Terminology for offspring
52	a	ʑo³³	‘sheep’	+	zɯ³³	→	ʑo³³zɯ³³	‘offspring of the sheep’	ʑɔ³³la³³zɯ³³ ‘lamb’
	b	lɯ³³	‘cow’	+	zɯ³³	→	lɯ³³zɯ³³	‘offspring of the cow’	ko³³li³³zɯ³³ ‘calf’
	c	ʑɛ³³	‘chicken’	+	zɯ³³	→	ʑɛ³³zɯ³³	‘offspring of the chicken’	ʑɛ³³tsɨ⁵⁵zɯ³³ ‘chick’

4.4.2. Tones 33 > 21/_ pa⁵⁵ and 33 > 21/_ pu³³

The two rules of tone change are discussed together since both of them occur in similar semantic environment, namely, about the masculine gender of animate beings. The words are compounded with an animal formative and the masculine morpheme pa⁵⁵ and pu³³. Morpheme pa⁵⁵ is a reflex of PTB *p/ba ‘male, father, 3^rd pronoun’ and pu³³ is of PTB *pu ‘male, masculine suffix’ (see Matisoff 2003). Adur Niesu uses the former to refer to ‘parents’, namely, p^ha⁵⁵mo⁵⁵, with additional aspiration. Both pa⁵⁵ and pu³³ will cause the preceding 33 tone to be lowered. The dog word tʂ^hɨ³³ can go with either masculine morpheme, and its tone is lowered in both compounding; see (53a) and (53g). Bearing the male morpheme pa⁵⁵, the word ‘horse’ mu²¹pa⁵⁵ has extended its meaning to cover both male and female horses. As a consequence, another gender morpheme is needed to specify whether it is a male or female horse in modern Adur Niesu, namely, mu²¹pu³³ ‘male horse’ and mu²¹mo²¹ ‘female horse’. In some cases, the masculine marker pu³³ is voiced, such as in lɛ²¹bu³³ ‘ox’, but the tone change rule still holds.

53	33 > 21/ _ pa⁵⁵
	a	tʂ^hɨ³³	‘dog’	+	pa⁵⁵	→	tʂ^hɨ²¹pa⁵⁵	‘male dog’
	b	mu³³	‘horse’	+	pa⁵⁵	→	mu²¹pa⁵⁵	‘male horse, horse’
	33 > 21/ _ pu³³
	c	fɛ³³	‘mouse’	+	pu³³	→	fɛ²¹pu³³	‘male mouse’
	d	mu³³	‘horse’	+	pu³³	→	mu²¹pu³³	‘male horse’
	e	ʂu³³	‘pheasant’	+	pu³³	→	ʂu²¹pu³³	‘male pheasant’
	f	fa³³	‘golden pheasant’	+	pu³³	→	fa²¹pu³³	‘male golden pheasant’
	g	tʂ^hɨ³³	‘dog’	+	pu³³	→	tʂhɨ²¹pu³³(tʂ^hɨ²¹mo²¹)	‘male dog (and female dog)’

However, if the preceding syllable bears the 55 tone, it will not be lowered due to the masculine syllable, for example, tʂ^hɨ⁵⁵bu³³ ‘male goat’ and vi⁵⁵pa⁵⁵ ‘female pig’.

4.4.3. Tone 33 > 21/_ mo²¹

This tone change occurs if the preceding syllable bearing tone 33 is followed by the feminine morpheme mo²¹, a reflex of Proto-Loloish *ʔəC-ma³ ‘mother’ (Bradley 1979). Like many Tibeto–Burman languages, Adur Niesu mo²¹ can also function as an augmentative morpheme (see Matisoff 1992). This rule of tone change is effective if mo²¹ is used for two functions, i.e., a feminine marker and an augmentative marker, regardless of the animacy of the word. If the preceding syllable does not bear tone 33, this tone change does not apply, such as vi⁵⁵mo²¹ (pig:female) ‘female pig’ and tɕi⁵⁵mo²¹ (eagle:female) ‘female eagle’.

54	a	mu³³	‘horse’	+	mo²¹	→	mu²¹mo²¹	‘female horse’
	b	ʑo³³	‘sheep’	+	mo²¹	→	ʑo²¹mo²¹	‘female sheep’
	c	lɯ³³	‘cow’	+	mo²¹	→	lɯ²¹mo²¹	‘female cow’
	d	ɣo³³	‘bear’	+	mo²¹	→	ɣo²¹mo²¹	‘female bear’
	e	t^ha³³	‘jar’	+	mo²¹	→	t^ha²¹mo²¹	‘big jar’
	f	ʐɨ³³	‘water’	+	mo²¹	→	ʐɨ²¹mo²¹	‘big river’
	g	bo³³	‘mountain’	+	mo²¹	→	bo²¹mo²¹	‘big mountain’
	h	pi³³	‘priest’	+	mo²¹	→	pi²¹mo²¹	‘big (highly experienced) priest’

Similar to the masculine marker pa⁵⁵ in mu²¹pa⁵⁵ which covers both male and female horse as a general term, mo²¹ can also be lexicalized with its feminine meaning being implicit, such as dʑɯ²¹mo²¹ ‘bee, queen bee’. But this rule of tone change still holds because of the feminine marker.

However, this tone change does not apply to other meanings derived from mo²¹. In Adur Niesu, besides ‘female’ and ‘big’, mo²¹ can also function as a nominal meaning ‘woman’ and ‘master’, such as nɛ³³mo²¹ (black Yi:woman) ‘the women of the Black Yi (the historical noble class)’, ma⁵⁵mo²¹ (teach:master) ‘teacher’, and a postposed modifier meaning ‘old’, such as ts^ho³³mo⁴⁴ (people:old) ‘old people’ and ɣo³³mo⁴⁴ (bear:old) ‘(old) bear’. This tone change does not apply to the above three meanings. Note the contrast between pi³³mo⁴⁴ ‘priest’ and pi²¹mo²¹ ‘big (highly experienced) priest’. The former is a general term and also the title to refer to a Yi priest, and the latter is only used for priests with experiences and achievements. For example, while dʑɯ³³k^hɯ³³pi³³mo⁴⁴ means simply ‘Priest Jike’, pi²¹mo²¹dʑɯ³³k^hɯ³³ is a nominal–nominal phrase, meaning ‘Jike, the highly experienced and accomplished priest’. Additionally, this rule of tone change serves as a criterion to distinguish two confusing meanings in Adur Niesu, namely, ‘old’ and ‘big’. In many languages of the world, ‘old’ and ‘big’ can be colexified (Rzymski et al. 2019). If this tone change occurs in compound words, the meaning is not ‘old’, but ‘big’, for example, sɨ̠²¹mo²¹ ‘big tree’. To express ‘old tree’, a phrase is needed, namely, sɨ̠³³ a³³mo²¹ (tree old) ‘old tree’.

4.4.4. Tone 33 > 21/_ ȵi⁵⁵

This rule of tone change occurs in the semantic environment of dual marking, with the plural pronouns compounded with the dual morpheme ȵi⁵⁵.

55	a	t^hu³³	‘they’	+	ȵi⁵⁵	→	t^hu²¹ȵi⁵⁵	‘the two of them’
	b	no³³	‘you (pl)’	+	ȵi⁵⁵	→	no²¹ȵi⁵⁵	‘the two of you’
	c	ŋo³³	‘we (exclusive)’	+	ȵi⁵⁵	→	ŋo²¹ȵi⁵⁵	‘the two of us (exclusive)’

It should be noted that the dual marker ȵi⁵⁵ is derived from, but different from, the cardinal word ȵi²¹ ‘two’. This can be proved by the evidence from a³³sɨ⁵⁵ȵi⁵⁵ (1pl.inclusive dual) ‘the two of us (inclusive)’ where, without tone 33 on the preceding syllable, the dual marker still bears tone 55, not tone 21. Otherwise, ȵi²¹ will be considered to colexify ‘dual’ and ‘two’, which is an unlikely proposal for Adur Niesu.

4.4.5. Tone 33 > 44/ ha²¹ _

This tone change occurs in interrogatives of quantity, such as ‘how many’ and ‘how long’. The interrogative words are compounds, formed by the interrogative morpheme ha²¹ and the adjectival roots; see Table 16. Both ha²¹ and the adjectival roots are bound morphemes, and cannot be used as full words. This tone change is also found in Nuosu; see Table 16.

Adur Niesu ha²¹ should follow the derivational chain from the category of selection a²¹sɨ²¹ ‘which’ to the category of manner ha²¹mu³³ (how:do) ‘how’.

First, typologically, the derivational direction from the interrogative category of selection to that of manner is attested, not the other way around (see Hölzl 2018, p. 83). Second, Adur Niesu ha²¹ ‘how’ and a²¹sɨ²¹ ‘which’ are closely related; the former should be a form after syllable reduction of the latter. After the syllable reduction of sɨ from a²¹sɨ²¹, a fricative glottal /h/ can often be epenthesized, such as ha²¹ʐɨ⁴⁴ / a²¹ʐɨ⁴⁴ ‘how big?’ and ha²¹ȵo⁴⁴ / a²¹ȵo⁴⁴ ‘how many?’. The epenthesized form now becomes the dominant form of this morpheme. A similar epenthesis is shown in (36).

Adur Niesu ha²¹ can be interchangeably pronounced as a²¹sɨ²¹ as in a²¹sɨ²¹mu³³ / ha²¹mu³³ (how:do) ‘how’ and as a²¹sɨ²¹t^hɯ³³ / ha²¹t^hɯ³³ (which:time) ‘when’. Therefore, a²¹sɨ²¹ means both ‘which’ and ‘how’ in Adur Niesu. Treating a²¹sɨ²¹ as the how form in Adur Niesu is attested by PL *ʔəs (Bradley 1979, p. 334). The Nuosu k^hɯ²¹ should be a reflex of the Proto-TB *ka (Matisoff 2003). Unlike Adur Niesu, Nuosu k^hɯ²¹ has lost its etymological connection with its modern which word ɕi⁴⁴ (Shynra) and ɕa⁴² (Yynuo). The possible reason is that, at a certain historical moment, there used to be two which words in Nuosu: the canonical which lexeme, cognate of the Proto-TB *ka, and an innovation derived from other interrogatives (e.g., where and what). Gradually, the innovative form replaced the old which lexeme (Ding 2022).

Functioning as the interrogative category of selection, or ‘which’, a²¹sɨ²¹ is an adjective, placed after the head noun, such as ts^ho³³ a²¹sɨ²¹ ma³³ (people, which clf) ‘which person’. Due to its being used for another function, namely, the interrogative of manner, the which word a²¹sɨ²¹ has changed its adjectival word class, and is used as an adverb in the how word, placed before verbs, namely, a²¹sɨ²¹mu³³ (how:do) or ha²¹mu³³ (how:do) ‘how’. As a consequence, after the functional change, it is no longer acceptable to pronounce ha²¹ȵo⁴⁴ ‘how many/much’ as *a²¹sɨ²¹ȵo⁴⁴ or a²¹sɨ²¹ ma³³ ‘which one’ as *ha²¹ ma³³ in Adur Niesu. The irreversibility between ha²¹ and a²¹sɨ²¹ in the selection interrogative and the quantity interrogative suggests that ha²¹ has become a different morpheme with different word class and different function from a²¹sɨ²¹ ‘which’, although it is derived from the which morpheme. The derivational path in Adur Niesu is proposed as below (see Figure 7 and also Ding 2022).

4.5. Tone Change in Prefixed Words

Tone change occurs to the prefixes a³³- and i³³-, which are used in the formation of property-denoting words, kinship terms, and animal words.

4.5.1. Tone 33 > 44/ _ 33 in Dimensional Words

This tone change is most popular in a³³-/i³³- prefixed property-denoting words in Adur Niesu.

The words in Table 17 are called stative verbs of dimensional extentives in Bradley (1995). In modern Adur Niesu, the positive dimensional words are prefixed by a³³-, and the negative ones are prefixed by i³³-, both sharing the same root. This derivational pattern is not productive in modern Nuosu and Niesu. However, historically, the positive and negative forms may have different roots, such as Nuosu a⁴⁴lɨ³³ ‘heavy’ and ʑo⁴⁴so³³ ‘light’, and Adur Niesu a⁴⁴ʐɨ³³ ‘big’ and ɛ⁵⁵ʦɨ³³ ‘small’. According to Bradley (1995), the historical development is that the original negative dimensional words were replaced by forms that have the prefix i³³- plus the positive dimensional words. The negative dimensional word ‘small’ in the big/small pair has persisted and has not been replaced by the i³³-prefixed positive form in Nuosu and Niesu in Table 17. In the cases of ‘heavy/light’, while the replacement of the negative extentive forms by the positive forms occurs in Adur Niesu, the negative forms ʑo⁴⁴so³³ (Shynra Nuosu), or i³³so³³ (Yynuo Nuosu) ‘light’, have survived. But a different prefix ʑo³³-, rather than i³³-, is added to so³³ ‘light’ in Shynra Nuosu (see Ding 2022).

It can be observed that this tone change spreads to all dimensional extentives in Adur Niesu, but not in Nuosu.

4.5.2. Tone 33 > 44/ _ 33 in Kinship and Animal Words

This tone change is also related to the prefix a³³- in other word formations besides the dimensional words. Although many of them have lost productivity, historically, it has several other semantic functions in Adur Niesu, including kinship terms, color words, and animal words. See Matisoff (2018) for a cross-linguistic study of Proto-Tibet–-Burman *a-prefix.

In modern Adur Niesu, this tone change only has certain productivity in kinship terms and animal names, besides the dimensional words. Given names of Adur Niesu are mostly bisyllabic, such as ga³³ko³³, a given name often for female. One of the syllables of the given name can be taken and prefixed by a³³- to express endearment with this tone change, such as a⁴⁴ko³³.

56	a	a-prefixed kinship terms
		a⁴⁴bo³³	‘father’s sister’
		a⁴⁴ta³³	‘father’
		a⁴⁴p^hu³³	‘grandfather’
		a⁴⁴mo³³	‘mother’
	b	a-prefixed endearment addresses
		a⁴⁴ko³³	often for female
		a⁴⁴si³³	often for female
		a⁴⁴ga³³	often for male
		a⁴⁴t^hi³³	often for male
		a⁴⁴ndza³³	both for female and male

This rule of tone change still applies to a large number of animal words, with some exceptions (e.g., a³³ɣo⁴⁴ ‘bear’ and a²¹ɖʐa³³ ‘sparrow’).

57	a	a⁴⁴ȵɛ ³³	‘cat’
	b	a⁴⁴fɛ³³	‘mouse’
	c	a⁴⁴lɛ³³	‘goat’
	d	a⁴⁴du³³	‘fox’
	e	a⁴⁴ɬɨ³³	‘pigeon’
	f	a⁴⁴dʑɯ³³	‘raven’
	g	a⁴⁴ɣo³³	‘hoopoe bird’

The a-prefix in color terms are lexicalized without any tone change, such as a³³ni³³ ‘red, be red’, a³³t^hu³³ ‘white, be white’, a³³nɛ³³ ‘black, be black’, and a³³ʂɨ³³ ‘yellow, be yellow’. If the tone change rules apply, the meanings will be changed. For example, the consultants indicate that a⁴⁴t^hu³³, with the tone of the prefix raised to 44, means ‘thick (e.g., book)’ (see Table 17), but not ‘white, be white’ anymore.

4.6. Tone Change in Patient Marking

There are three rules of tone change about patient marking, which are discussed together: patient³³ > 44 / _ 33; patient³³ > 21 / _ ko³³; 21 > 44 / patient³³_.

Since Adur Niesu is SOV, if there is only one argument in the clause, it could be agent or patient. In some cases, the default context is clear to tell the meaning, such as xɯ³³dzɯ³³ (meat eat) ‘to eat the meat’ as a non-reversible event. However, in many cases, ambiguity emerges. To disambiguate, other than the contexts, there are two main means to mark the patient of the clause.

First, the tone change of patient³³ > 44 / _ 33 is addressed. This tone change is on the patient. The argument is mostly monosyllabic personal pronouns before the main verb. The patient will change from tone 33 to tone 44. This strategy is often used when the main verb bears tone 33.

58	nɯ³³	hi²¹	ŋo⁴⁴	kɯ³³.
	2sg	say	1pl	make listen
	‘You tell us (of it).’

59	i³³	ŋa⁴⁴	ɣɯ³³=a²¹=da³³.
	sg.log	1sg	win=neg=sp
	‘He/she cannot win over me.’

Compare (60a) and (60b). With the tone change, the ambiguity in (60a) can be eliminated in (60b). Despite the ambiguity in (60a), it will often be understood, without the tone change, as a resultative construction ‘someone stole his (belongings)’ in Adur Niesu, where the patient is placed sentence initially as the topic and the rest the comment.3 Due to the analytic morphology of Adur Niesu, there is the possibility that this tone change is caused by some floating tone marking patient. However, since we do not have any supporting evidence, it is synchronically an issue of tone change.

60	a	ts^hɨ³³	ts^ho³³	k^hu³³.
		3sg	people	steal
		‘Someone stole his (belongings).’ or ‘he stole someone’s (belongings).’
	b	ts^hɨ³³	ts^ho⁴⁴	k^hu³³.
		3sg	people.p	steal
		‘He stole someone’s (belongings).’
	c	ts^hɨ³³	ts^ho²¹=ko³³	k^hu³³.
		3sg	people=dom	steal
		‘He stole someone’s (belongings).’

If the monosyllabic arguments are replaced by polysyllabic ones, the tone change cannot apply. To disambiguate (61a), an analytic means by differential object marker ko³³ is used to mark the patient; see (61b). Similarly, since there is the way to disambiguate, (61a), without the marking, it will often be understood as ‘dʑɛ²¹nɛ³³ stole su̠³³ga^55′s (belongings)’.

61	a	su̠³³ga⁵⁵	dʑɛ²¹nɛ³³	k^hu³³.
		surname	surname	steal
		‘dʑɛ²¹nɛ³³ stole su̠³³ga^55′s (belongings).’ or ‘su̠³³ga⁵⁵ stole dʑɛ²¹nɛ^33′s (belongings).’
	b	su̠³³ga⁵⁵	dʑɛ²¹nɛ³³=ko³³	k^hu³³.
		surname	surname=dom	steal
		‘su̠³³ga⁵⁵ stole dʑɛ²¹nɛ^33′s (belongings).’

The differential object marker (DOM) can also be used with monosyllabic patients for disambiguation; see (60c). In this case, the tone change rule of patient³³ > 21 / _ ko³³ is applied. The citation tone 33 of the person pronoun will be lowered to tone 21; see (62). The tone lowering or dissimilation before the DOM occurs regardless of the tonal value of the main verb.

62	a	ts^hɨ³³	ts^ho³³	si⁵⁵.
		3sg	people	kill
		‘Someone killed him.’ or ‘He killed someone’
	b	ts^hɨ³³	ts^ho²¹=ko³³	si⁵⁵.
		3sg	people=dom	kill
		‘He killed someone.’
	c	ts^hɨ³³	ts^ho³³	vi⁵⁵.
		3sg	people	carry on shoulder
		‘Someone shouldered him.’ or ‘He shouldered someone’
	d	ts^hɨ³³	ts^ho²¹=ko³³	vi⁵⁵.
		3sg	people=dom	carry on shoulder
		‘He shouldered someone.’
	e	xo³³t^hi⁵⁵ɬa²¹ba³³	ʦ^hɨ²¹=ko³³	a²¹=hi²¹.
		name	3sg=dom	neg=say
		‘Hotihlabba ignored him.’
	f	nɯ³³	ŋa²¹=ko³³	p^hu⁴⁴	la³³.
		2sg	1sg=dom	save	come
		‘You come to save me.’

While the above two rules of tone change apply to the argument, the tone change 21 > 44 / patient³³_ applies to the main verb; see Table 18.

Specifically, if the main verb bears tone 21, to mark the patient, the original tone 21 of the main verb will be raised to tone 44, suggesting the preceding argument is the patient of the verb, no longer the agent. In (63a), the citation form ‘to find, search’ in Adur Niesu is ʂɯ²¹. If it is changed to tone 44, the preceding pronoun becomes the patient; see (63b). It is also acceptable to use the DOM in (63c) with the patient changing its tone to 21. Please note that tonal rising for patient marking does not occur to the main verb bearing tone 33, such as ku³³ ‘to steal’, and such a sentence is not acceptable, i.e., *ts^hɨ³³ ts^ho³³ k^hu⁴⁴ (3sg people steal, intended meaning: ‘he stole someone’s belongings’).

63	a	ŋa³³	ʂɯ²¹	o⁴⁴.
		1sg	find	pfv
		‘I searched (, but in vain).’
	b	ts^hɨ³³	ŋa³³	ʂɯ⁴⁴.
		3sg	1sg	find
		‘He (is) looking for me.’
	c	ts^hɨ³³	ŋa²¹=ko³³	ʂɯ⁴⁴.
		3sg	1sg=dom	find
		‘He (is) looking for me.’

The following pairs are only contrastive in the tone of the verb. If the original tone 21 is changed to 44, the meaning is also changed; see (64) to (66).

64	a	ts^ho³³	ndu²¹=ʂɨ³³	ŋu³³.
		people	beat=nmlz	cop
		‘(This wound) is (caused) by (someone’s) beating.’
	b	ts^ho³³	ndu⁴⁴=ʂɨ³³	ŋu³³.
		people	beat=nmlz	cop
		‘(This is) something (used) to beat people’

65	a	a⁴⁴ta³³	pu²¹=nɯ⁴⁴=ɕi⁴⁴	ʐɨ³³	kɯ³³	la³³.
		father	carry=impf=seq	water	throw	come
		‘Father carried (something) and threw into the water.’
	b	a⁴⁴ta³³	pu⁴⁴=nɯ⁴⁴=ɕi⁴⁴	ʐɨ³³	kɯ³³	la³³.
		father	carry=impf=seq	water	throw	come
		‘(Someone) carried the father and threw (him) into the water.’

66	a	ŋa³³	bɨ²¹	o⁴⁴.
		1sg	give	pfv
		‘I gave (it to someone).’
	b	ŋa³³	bɨ⁴⁴	o⁴⁴.
		1sg	give	pfv
		‘Something (was) given to me.’

4.7. Tone Change in Reduplication for Interrogation

There are two rules for tone change to generate reduplication for yes–no interrogations: 33 > 44 / _ 33 and 21 > 33 / 21 _. It is clear that the two rules are consistently tone dissimilation, namely, adjacent same tones trigger dissimilation.

The first tone change, namely, 33 > 44 / _ 33, is productive in reduplicating monosyllabic verbs for yes–no questions; see (67). The first monosyllabic verb with tone 33 will rise to tone 44. See Figure 8 for the tone change.

67	a	zɨ³³	+	zɨ³³	→	zɨ⁴⁴~zɨ³³	‘to buy or not’
	b	ndo³³	+	ndo³³	→	ndo⁴⁴~ndo³³	‘to drink or not’
	c	la³³	+	la³³	→	la⁴⁴~la³³	‘to come or not’
	d	tɕo³³	+	tɕo³³	→	tɕo⁴⁴~tɕo³³	‘to turn or not’

The tone change rule is not applicable to disyllabic or multisyllabic verbs for interrogative. Therefore, it serves as a criterion to distinguish words and phrases in Adur Niesu. While (68a) and (68b) are verbs without the tone change, (68c) and (68d) are verb phrases with the tone change.

68	a	ɬɛ³³p^hɔ³³	‘to fight back’	+	p^hɔ³³	→	ɬɛ³³p^hɔ³³~p^hɔ³³	‘to fight back or not’
	b	hi³³tɕ^hi³³	‘to fall down’	+	tɕ^hi³³	→	hi³³tɕ^hi³³~tɕ^hi³³	‘to fall down or not’
	c	ʐɨ³³ndo³³	‘to drink water’	+	ndo³³	→	ʐɨ³³ndo⁴⁴~ndo³³	‘to drink water or not’
	d	dzɯ³³tɕ^hi³³	‘want eat (something)’	+	tɕ^hi³³	→	dzɯ³³tɕ^hi⁴⁴~tɕ^hi³³	‘to want or not want to eat’

Another rule of tone change found in interrogations, namely, 21 > 33 / 21 _, differs from 33 > 44 / _ 33 in that it occurs in both word and phrase. For example, (69h) and (69i) are words and (69j) is a phrase; the tone change 21 > 33 / 21 _ is still applicable.

69	a	hi²¹ ‘to say’	+	hi²¹	→	hi²¹~ hi³³	‘to say or not’
	b	ʂɯ²¹ ‘to find’	+	ʂɯ²¹	→	ʂɯ²¹~ʂɯ³³	‘to find or not’
	c	vu²¹ ‘to sell’	+	vu²¹	→	vu²¹~vu³³	‘to sell or not’
	d	gɯ²¹ ‘to play’	+	gɯ²¹	→	gɯ²¹~gɯ³³	‘to play or not’
	e	su²¹ ‘to resemble’	+	su²¹	→	su²¹~su³³	‘to resemble or not’
	f	ndu²¹ ‘to hit’	+	ndu²¹	→	ndu²¹~ndu³³	‘to hit or not’
	g	ŋo²¹ ‘to think’	+	ŋo²¹	→	ŋo²¹~ŋo³³	‘to think or not’
	h	a³³go²¹ ‘empty’	+	go²¹	→	a³³go²¹~go³³	‘be empty or not’
	i	mo³³ŋgo²¹ ‘to undo the curse’	+	ŋgo²¹	→	mo³³ŋgo²¹~ŋgo³³	‘to undo the curse or not’
	j	xɯ³³vu²¹ ‘to sell the meat’	+	vu²¹	→	xɯ³³vu²¹~vu³³	‘to sell the meat or not’

As was discussed in Section 3.6, on the surface, there seems to be a third rule of tone change regarding reduplication for interrogation: 55 > 21 / 55 _. However, the tone lowering from 55 to 21 is not a tone change, but the result of the floating tone associated with the interrogative particle a²¹ after syllable reduction.

4.8. Effect of Floating Tone

Finally, the effect of the floating tone is discussed. On the surface, it appears to be a kind of tonal alternation. However, different from tone sandhi and tone change, it is the effect of the tone of an additional syllable after syllable reduction, such as tone 21 left after the reduced interrogative particle a²¹ in Section 3.6.

Another case of floating tone is about tone 21 in Adur Niesu possessive pronouns. Tone 21 was originally borne by the Proto-Nuosu proper genitive marker *ni²¹. This genitive marker is reduced in Adur Niesu and Nuosu, but still kept in Yynuo Nuosu as ni⁴², such as a³³p^hu³³=ni⁴² t^hɯ⁴²ʑɨ³³ (grandfather=gen book) ‘grandfather’s book’. Lama (2022) reports the tonal change from Proto-Nuosu proper 21 to modern Yynuo Nuosu 42.

Therefore, the genitive marker overrides its floating tone to Adur Niesu plain personal pronouns, e.g., ŋa³³ + *ni²¹ → ŋa²¹ ‘my’. Take the noun phrases of locational description for example, modified by the possessive pronouns. Adur Niesu locational concepts are mainly expressed through nouns, such as ɖʐɨ²¹ ‘lower part’ and ŋi³³ ‘front’. Most examples in (70) also experience tone dissimilation, namely, 21 > 44 / 21 _ in Section 4.3.

70	a	ts^hɨ²¹ ‘his, her, its’	+	ɖʐɨ²¹ ‘lower part’	→	tshɨ²¹ɖʐɨ⁴⁴	‘beneath him/her/it (lit. the part below him/her/it)’
		ts^hɨ²¹ ‘his, her, its’	+	tɕo²¹ ‘direction’	→	ts^hɨ²¹tɕo⁴⁴	‘to him/her/it (lit. his/her/its direction)’
		ts^hɨ²¹ ‘his, her, its’	+	ŋi³³ ‘front’	→	ts^hɨ²¹ŋi³³	‘in front of him/her/it (lit. his/her/its front)’
	b	ŋa²¹ ‘my’	+	ɖʐɨ²¹ ‘lower part’	→	ŋa²¹ɖʐɨ⁴⁴	‘beneath me (lit. the part below me)’
		ŋa²¹ ‘my’	+	tɕo²¹ ‘direction’	→	ŋa²¹tɕo⁴⁴	‘to me (lit. my direction)’
		ŋa²¹ ‘my’	+	ŋi³³ ‘front’	→	ŋa²¹ŋi³³	‘in front of me (lit. my front)’
	c	nɯ²¹ ‘your (sing.)’	+	ɖʐɨ²¹ ‘lower part’	→	nɯ²¹ɖʐɨ⁴⁴	‘beneath you (lit. the part below you)’
		nɯ²¹ ‘your (sing.)’	+	tɕo²¹ ‘direction’	→	nɯ²¹tɕo⁴⁴	‘to you (lit. your direction)’
		nɯ²¹ ‘your (sing.)’	+	ŋi³³ ‘front’	→	nɯ²¹ŋi³³	‘in front of you (lit. your front)’

5. Conclusions

This study describes the segmental and suprasegmental phonology of Adur Niesu, a Loloish (or Ngwi) language spoken mainly in Liangshan, Sichuan, in southwest China. There are 41 phonemic consonants: nine plain plosives, three prenasalized plosives, eleven fricatives, four nasals, two laterals, nine affricates and three prenasalized affricates. Compared with Nuosu, a close dialect of Adur Niesu, it lacks voiceless nasals /m̥/ and /n̥/. There are 10 monophthongs and one diphthong in Adur Niesu. A feature of Adur Niesu vowels is high vowel fricativization, occurring with the two high central vowels /ɨ/ and /ɨ̠/, and the two high back vowels /u/ and /u̠/. Adur Niesu’s syllable structure is relatively simple. All are open syllables. The following segmental changes are reported: vowel lowering, vowel centralization, vowel assimilation, vowel fusion, consonant lenition, and aspiration of clanlects. It is common for Adur Niesu syllables to be reduced in continuous speech. There are three main types of syllable reduction: complete reduction including the segment and tone, partial reduction with a floating tone left, and partial reduction with the initial consonant left. There are three contrastive tones in Adur Niesu, namely, high-level tone 55, mid-level tone 33, and low-falling tone 21. There is also a sandhi tone 44. There are two types of tonal alternation: tone sandhi and tone change. Tone sandhi occurs at both the word and phrasal levels, and is conditioned by the phonetic environment; tone change occurs due to the morphosyntactic environment. Moreover, some seeming tonal alternation is the result of the floating tone after syllable reduction.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

Not applicable.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Notes

1

Abbreviations: 1: first person, 2: second person, 3: third person, att: attitudinal maker, clf: classifier, clnk: clause linker, com:comitative, cont: continuous, csm: change of state marker, def: definite, dom: differential object marker, dsc: discourse clitic, excl: exclusive, exst: existential verb, impf: imperfective, intj: interjection, loc: locative, log: logophor, neg: negation, nf: non-final marker, nmlz: nominalizer, p: patient, pfv: perfective, pl: plural, poss: possessive, quot: quotative, redpl: reduplication, rep: repetitive, seq: sequential marker, sg: singular, sp: second part

2

It can refer to a grown-up animal, as long as it is some animal’s offspring.

3

Adur Niesu resultative construction expresses the result happening to the affected entity, structured as affectee + instigator + complement clause, such as below. It does not follow the canonical SOV word order, but is construed in a topic–comment articulation.

lɛ²¹bu³³	ts^hɨ³³	si⁵⁵	dzɯ³³	o⁴⁴.
cow:male	3sg	kill	eat	pfv
‘He killed the ox and ate (it).’

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Figure 1. Distribution of Adur Niesu.

Figure 2. Phylogenetic position of Nuosu proper.

Figure 3. Internal subgroupings of Nuosu proper.

Figure 4. Syllable structure of Adur Niesu.

Figure 5. Adur Niesu tones exemplified by syllable [ma].

Figure 6. Compare Adur Niesu tone 44 with tone 33 and tone 55.

Figure 7. The derivation of Adur Niesu which, how, and related categories.

Figure 8. The tone change with monosyllabic verb la³³ ‘come’.

Table 1. Exemplifying the phonological differences between Niesu and Nuosu.

	Adur Niesu	Suondi Niesu	Shynra Nuosu
‘arrive’	ʨ^hi³³	ɕi³³	ɕi³³
‘die’	ʂɨ³³	sɨ³³	sɨ³³
‘dog’	tʂ^hɨ³³	ʦ^hɨ³³	k^hɯ³³
‘half’	ʨɛ³³p^hjɛ³³	ʨɛ³³p^hjɛ³³	ʨɛ³³p^ha³³
‘head’	o³³ʨ^hɯ³³	o³³ʨ^hi³³	i³³ʨ^hi³³
‘mate’	bu⁴⁴dzɯ³³	bo⁴⁴dzɯ³³	bo⁴⁴dzɯ³³
‘nose’	na²¹bi⁵⁵	na²¹bi⁵⁵	n̥a²¹bi⁵⁵
‘reciprocal, together’	dʐɨ³³	dʐɨ³³	ʥɨ³³
‘first half of the month’	ʐɨ³³	ʐɨ³³	ʑɨ³³
‘see’	ŋɯ²¹	ŋɯ²¹/ hɯ²¹	hɯ²¹
‘take’	ɕi²¹	si²¹	si²¹
‘second half of the month’	djɛ³³	djɛ³³	dɔ³³
‘waist, middle’	ʥo⁵⁵	ʥo⁵⁵	ʥu⁵⁵
autonym	njɛ³³su³³	njɛ³³su³³	nɔ³³su³³

The identical words are highlighted among Adur Niesu, Suondi Niesu and Shynra Nuosu.

Table 2. Niesu phonological innovations (Lama 2022).

Proto-Nuosu Proper	Shynra Nuosu	Suondi Niesu	Adur Niesu	Meaning
*m̥a⁵⁵mo²¹	m̥a⁵⁵mo²¹	ma⁵⁵mo²¹	ma⁵⁵mo²¹	‘teacher’
*m̥o⁵⁵	m̥o⁵⁵	mi⁵⁵	mi⁵⁵	‘soldier’
*a³³n̥i³³	a³³n̥i³³	a³³ni³³	a³³ni³³	‘red’
*n̥a²¹bi⁵⁵	n̥a²¹bi⁵⁵	na²¹bi⁵⁵	na²¹bi⁵⁵	‘nose’
*t^ho⁵⁵	t^ho⁵⁵	t^hi⁵⁵	t^hi⁵⁵	‘upper part’
*vo⁵⁵	vo⁵⁵	vi⁵⁵	vi⁵⁵	‘pig’
*lo⁵⁵	lo⁵⁵	li⁵⁵	li⁵⁵	‘hand’
*zo⁵⁵	zo⁵⁵	zi⁵⁵	zi⁵⁵	‘to entertain’

Table 3. Examples of affrication in Niesu.

	Shynra Nuosu	Suondi Niesu	Adur Niesu (Jiaojihe)	Adur Niesu (Tuojue)	PL/PLB/PTB
‘dog’	k^hɯ³³	ʦ^hɨ³³	k^hʂɨ³³	ʈʂ^hɨ³³	*kwe²
‘bird nest’	k^hɯ³³	ʦ^hɨ³³	k^hʂɨ³³	ʈʂ^hɨ³³	*kʷəy¹
‘to untie’	p^hu³³	ʦ^hɨ³³	k^hʂɨ³³	ʈʂ^hɨ³³	*pre¹
‘evening’	k^hɯ⁵⁵	ʦ^hɨ⁵⁵	k^hʂɨ⁵⁵	ʈʂ^hɨ⁵⁵	*ʔ-kutᴸ
‘sun’	gɯ³³	dzɨ³³	gʐɨ³³	ɖʐɨ³³	*m-ka-n

The reconstruction *kwe² (PL), *pre¹ (PL), and *ʔ-kutᴸ (PL) are taken from Bradley (1979); *kʷəy¹ (PLB) and *m-ka-n (PTB) from Matisoff (2003).

Table 4. Examples of diphthongization in Niesu (Lama 2022, with revision).

Proto-Nuosu Proper	Shynra Nuosu	Suondi Niesu	Adur Niesu	Meaning
*gwo³³	bo³³	gwi³³	gwi³³	‘to go’
*gi⁵⁵	gi⁵⁵	gwi⁵⁵	gwi⁵⁵	‘be childless’
*k^he³³	k^he³³	k^hwe³³	k^hwɛ³³	‘to chop’
*ŋge³³	ŋge³³	ŋgwe³³	ŋgwɛ³³	‘to lie, cheat’
*k^ha⁵⁵	k^ha⁵⁵	k^hwa⁵⁵	k^hwa⁵⁵	‘be happy’

Table 5. Examples of palatalization in Adur Niesu.

	Shynra Nuosu	Suondi Niesu	Adur Niesu
‘to jolt or winnow (e.g., grain)’	k^hi⁵⁵	ʨi³³	ʨi³³
‘to ladle; scoop out with a spoon’	k^hi⁵⁵	ʨ^hi⁵⁵	ʨ^hi⁵⁵
‘spade hoe, a three-spiked digging tool’	(lɔ⁵⁵)gɔ²¹	gɔ³³	(la⁵⁵)ʥi⁵⁵
‘to put the roof on (a thatched house)’	ki⁵⁵	-	ʨ^hi⁵⁵

Table 6. Examples of retroflexes in Adur Niesu.

	Shynra Nuosu	Suondi Niesu	Adur Niesu (Jiaojihe)	Adur Niesu (Tuojue)	PL/PTB
‘gallbladder’	ʨɨ³³	-	kʂɨ³³	ʈʂɨ³³	*m/s-kri(y)-s
‘copper’	ʥɨ³³	dzɨ³³	gʐɨ³³	ɖʐɨ³³	*gre²
‘skin’	nʥɨ³³	ndzɨ³³	ŋgʐɨ³³	nɖʐɨ³³	*re¹
‘big’	ʑɨ³³	zɨ³³	ʐɨ³³	ʐɨ³³	*k/ʔ-ri²
‘foot’	ɕɨ³³	sɨ³³	ʂɨ³³	ʂɨ³³	*kre¹
‘to die’	sɨ³³	sɨ³³	ʂɨ³³	ʂɨ³³	*ʃe²
nominalizer	su³³	ʂu³³	ʂu³³	ʂu³³	*su¹

All reconstructions are taken from PL in Bradley (1979), except *m/s-kri(y)-s (PTB) from Matisoff (2003).

Table 7. Examples of correspondence to back vowel /ɯ/ in Adur Niesu.

	Shynra Nuosu	Suondi Niesu	Adur Niesu (Tuojue)
‘to become’	ʥi²¹	ʥi²¹	ʥɯ²¹
‘bee’	ʥɨ³³	ʥɨ³³	ʥɯ³³
‘leaf’	tɕ^hi³³	tɕ^hi³³	tɕ^hɯ³³
‘egg’	tɕ^hi²¹	tɕ^hi²¹	tɕ^hɯ²¹
‘to precipitate (e.g., rain)’	ʥi²¹	ʥi²¹	ʥɯ²¹

Table 8. Adur Niesu consonants.

	Bilabial	Dental	Retroflex	Alveolo–Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	mb	nd			ŋg
	b	d			g
	p	t			k
	p^h	t^h			k^h
Fricative	v	z	ʐ	ʑ	ɣ
	f	s	ʂ	ɕ	x	h
Affricate		ndz	nɖʐ	ndʑ
		dz	ɖʐ	dʑ
		ts	ʈʂ	tɕ
		ts^h	ʈʂ^h	tɕ^h
Nasal	m	n		ȵ	ŋ
Lateral		l
		ɬ

Table 9. Adur Niesu plosives.

Bilabial	Dental	Velar
b	d	g
p	t	k
p^h	t^h	k^h

Table 10. Adur Niesu fricatives.

Bilabial	Dental	Retroflex	Alveolo–Palatal	Velar	Glottal
v	z	ʐ	ʑ	ɣ
f	s	ʂ	ɕ	x	h

Table 11. Adur Niesu nasals and laterals.

Bilabial	Dental	Alveolo–Palatal	Velar
m	n	ȵ	ŋ
	l
	ɬ

Table 12. Adur Niesu affricates.

Dental	Retroflex	Alveolo–Palatal
dz	ɖʐ	dʑ
ts	ʈʂ	tɕ
ts^h	ʈʂ^h	tɕ^h

Table 13. Adur Niesu prenasalized consonants.

Labial	Dental	Retroflex	Alveolo–Palatal	Velar
mb	nd			ŋg
	ndz	nɖʐ	ndʑ

Table 14. Tense/lax pairs of monophthongs in the Adur dialect.

Monophthongs	Lax vowel	i	ɨ	ɯ	o	u
Monophthongs	Tense vowel	ɛ	ɨ̠	a	ɔ	u̠

Table 15. Adur Niesu phonotactics.

	ɨ	ɨ̠	i	ɛ	ɯ	a	o	ɔ	u	u̠	wa
zero	-	-	+	+	-	+	+	+	-	-	-	5
b	z̩	z̩̠	+	jɛ	-	+	+	+	+	+	-	9
mb	-	-	+	jɛ	-	+	+	+	+	+	-	7
p	z̩	z̩̠	+	jɛ	-	+	+	+	+	-	-	8
p^h	z̩	z̩̠	+	jɛ	-	+	+	+	+	+	-	9
d	-	-	+	jɛ	+	+	+	+	+	+	-	8
nd	-	-	+	jɛ	+	+	+	+	+	+	-	8
t	-	-	+	jɛ	+	+	+	+	+	+	-	8
t^h	-	-	+	jɛ	+	+	+	+	+	-	-	7
m	-	-	+	jɛ	-	+	+	+	m̩	m̩̠	-	7
n	-	-	+	jɛ	+	+	+	+	-	-	-	6
l	z̩	z̩̠	+	jɛ	+	+	+	+	-	-	-	8
ɬ	z̩	z̩̠	+	jɛ	+	+	+	+	-	-	-	8
g	-	-	wi	wɛ	+	+	+	+	v̩	v̩̠	+	9
ŋg	-	-	wi	wɛ	+	+	+	+	v̩	v̩̠	-	8
k	-	-	wi	wɛ	+	+	+	+	v̩	v̩̠	+	9
k^h	-	-	wi	wɛ	+	+	+	+	v̩	v̩̠	+	9
ŋ	-	-	wi	wɛ	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	9
v	-	-	+	+	-	+	+	+	+	+	-	7
f	-	-	+	+	-	+	+	-	+	+	-	6
z	z̩	z̩̠	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	-	-	9
s	z̩	z̩̠	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	-	10
ʐ	ʐ̍	ʐ̠̍	-	+	+	+	+	+	+	-	-	8
ʂ	ʐ̍	ʐ̠̍	-	+	+	+	+	+	+	-	-	8
ʑ	-	-	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	-	-	7
ɕ	-	-	+	+	-	-	+	-	-	-	-	3
ɣ	-	-	-	-	+	+	+	+	-	-	-	4
x	-	-	-	-	+	+	+	+	-	-	-	4
h	-	-	+	+	-	+	+	+	-	-	-	5
dz	z̩	z̩̠	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	-	-	9
ndz	z̩	z̩̠	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	-	-	9
ts	z̩	z̩̠	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	-	-	9
ts^h	z̩	z̩̠	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	-	-	9
ɖʐ	ʐ̍	ʐ̠̍	-	-	+	+	+	+	+	-	-	7
nɖʐ	ʐ̍	ʐ̠̍	-	+	+	+	+	+	+	-	-	8
ʈʂ	ʐ̍	ʐ̠̍	-	+	+	+	+	+	+	-	-	8
ʈʂ^h	ʐ̍	ʐ̠̍	-	+	+	+	+	+	+	-	-	8
dʑ	-	-	+	+	+	+	+	+	-	-	-	6
ndʑ	-	-	+	+	-	+	+	+	-	-	-	5
tɕ	-	-	+	+	+	+	+	+	-	-	-	6
tɕ^h	-	-	+	+	+	+	+	+	-	-	-	6
ȵ	-	-	+	+	-	+	+	+	-	-	-	5
	ɨ	ɨ̠	i	ɛ	ɯ	a	o	ɔ	u	u̠	wa	308

Table 16. Adur Niesu and Nuosu interrogatives of quantity.

Meaning	Shynra Nuosu	Adur Niesu
how big?	k^hɯ²¹ʑɨ⁴⁴	ha²¹ʐɨ⁴⁴
how thick (e.g., tree, string)?	k^hɯ²¹fu⁴⁴	ha²¹fu⁴⁴
how high?	k^hɯ²¹m̥u⁴⁴	ha²¹mu⁴⁴
how long (distance)?	k^hɯ²¹ʂo⁴⁴	ha²¹ʂɯ⁴⁴
how long (time)?	k^hɯ²¹ho⁴⁴	ha²¹ȵo⁴⁴
how wide (2-dimensional)?	k^hɯ²¹fi⁴⁴	ha²¹fi⁴⁴
how wide (3-dimensional)?	k^hɯ²¹ʥɨ⁴⁴	ha²¹dʐɨ⁴⁴
how thick?	k^hɯ²¹tu⁴⁴	ha²¹t^hu⁴⁴
how many?	k^hɯ²¹ȵi⁴⁴	ha²¹ȵo⁴⁴
how heavy?	k^hɯ²¹lɨ⁴⁴	ha²¹lɨ⁴⁴

Table 17. Adur Niesu dimensional words.

Meaning	Shynra Nuosu	Adur Niesu
big	a⁴⁴ʑɨ³³	a⁴⁴ʐɨ³³
small	ɛ⁵⁵ʦɨ³³	ɛ⁵⁵ʦɨ³³
thick (e.g., tree, string)	a³³fu³³	a⁴⁴fu³³
slender	i⁴⁴fu³³	i⁴⁴fu³³
high	a³³m̥u³³	a⁴⁴mu³³
low	i⁴⁴m̥u³³	i⁴⁴mu³³
long (distance)	a³³ʂo³³	a⁴⁴ʂɯ³³
short	i⁴⁴ʂo³³	i⁴⁴ʂɯ³³
long (time)	a³³ho⁴⁴	a⁴⁴ȵo³³
short	i³³ho⁴⁴	i⁴⁴ȵo³³
wide (2-dimensional)	a³³fi³³	a⁴⁴fi³³
narrow	i⁴⁴fi³³	i⁴⁴fi³³
wide (3-dimensional)	a³³ʥɨ³³	a⁴⁴dʐɨ³³
narrow	i⁴⁴ʥɨ³³	i⁴⁴dʐɨ³³
thick (e.g., book)	a³³tu³³	a⁴⁴t^hu³³
thin	i⁴⁴tu³³	i⁴⁴t^hu³³
many	a⁴⁴ȵi³³	a⁴⁴ȵo³³
few	i⁴⁴ȵi³³	i⁴⁴ȵo³³
heavy	a⁴⁴lɨ³³	a⁴⁴lɨ³³
light	ʑo⁴⁴so³³	i⁴⁴lɨ³³

Table 18. Adur Niesu argument marking through tone.

	Meaning	Agent marking	Patient marking
argument + ndu²¹	‘to beat’	ndu²¹	ndu⁴⁴
argument + ʂɯ²¹	‘to find’	ʂɯ²¹	ʂɯ⁴⁴
argument + pu²¹	‘to carry’	pu²¹	pu⁴⁴
argument + bɨ²¹	‘to give’	bɨ²¹	bɨ⁴⁴
argument +nɯ²¹	‘to chase’	nɯ²¹	nɯ⁴⁴

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Ding, H. Phonology of Adur Niesu in Liangshan, Sichuan. Languages 2023, 8, 164. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8030164

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Ding H. Phonology of Adur Niesu in Liangshan, Sichuan. Languages. 2023; 8(3):164. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8030164

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Ding, Hongdi. 2023. "Phonology of Adur Niesu in Liangshan, Sichuan" Languages 8, no. 3: 164. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8030164

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Ding, H. (2023). Phonology of Adur Niesu in Liangshan, Sichuan. Languages, 8(3), 164. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8030164

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Phonology of Adur Niesu in Liangshan, Sichuan

Abstract

1. Introduction

2. About Adur Niesu

3. Segmental Phonology

3.1. Consonants

3.1.1. Plain Plosives

3.1.2. Fricatives

3.1.3. Nasals and Laterals

3.1.4. Affricates

3.1.5. Prenasalized Consonants

3.1.6. Glides

3.2. Vowels

3.2.1. Front Vowels

3.2.2. Central Vowels

3.2.3. Back Vowels

3.2.4. Diphthong

3.3. The Syllable and Phonotactics

3.4. Segmental Changes in Vowels

3.4.1. Vowel Lowering and Centralization

3.4.2. Vowel Assimilation

3.4.3. Vowel Fusion

3.5. Segmental Changes in Consonants

3.5.1. Lenition of the Velar Consonants

3.5.2. Aspiration of the Clanlects

3.6. Syllable Reduction

4. The Suprasegmentals

4.1. The Three Basic Tones

4.2. Tone Sandhi: 33 > 44 / _ 33

4.3. Tone Sandhi: 21 > 44 / 21 _

4.4. Tone Change in Compounds

4.4.1. Tone 33 > 21/_ zɯ33

4.4.2. Tones 33 > 21/_ pa55 and 33 > 21/_ pu33

4.4.3. Tone 33 > 21/_ mo21

4.4.4. Tone 33 > 21/_ ȵi55

4.4.5. Tone 33 > 44/ ha21 _

4.5. Tone Change in Prefixed Words

4.5.1. Tone 33 > 44/ _ 33 in Dimensional Words

4.5.2. Tone 33 > 44/ _ 33 in Kinship and Animal Words

4.6. Tone Change in Patient Marking

4.7. Tone Change in Reduplication for Interrogation

4.8. Effect of Floating Tone

5. Conclusions

Funding

Institutional Review Board Statement

Informed Consent Statement

Data Availability Statement

Conflicts of Interest

Notes

References

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4.4.1. Tone 33 > 21/_ zɯ³³

4.4.2. Tones 33 > 21/_ pa⁵⁵ and 33 > 21/_ pu³³

4.4.3. Tone 33 > 21/_ mo²¹

4.4.4. Tone 33 > 21/_ ȵi⁵⁵

4.4.5. Tone 33 > 44/ ha²¹ _