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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter Mouton August 16, 2018

Typological variation across Mandarin dialects: An areal perspective with a quantitative approach

  • Pui Yiu Szeto EMAIL logo , Umberto Ansaldo and Stephen Matthews
From the journal Linguistic Typology

Abstract

This study explores the range and diversity of the typological features of Mandarin, the largest dialect group within the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan family. Feeding the typological data of 42 Sinitic varieties into the phylogenetic program NeighborNet, we obtained network diagrams suggesting a north-south divide in the Mandarin dialect group, where dialects within the Amdo Sprachbund cluster at one end and those in the Far Southern area cluster at the other end, highlighting the impact of language contact on the typological profiles of various Mandarin dialects.

Acknowledgements

Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the 9th International Conference in Evolutionary Linguistics (CIEL-9) held at the Yunnan Minzu University in August 2017 and the 12th Conference of the Association for Linguistic Typology (ALT 2017) held at the Australian National University in December 2017. We’d like to thank the audience for their insightful feedback. We’re also grateful for the constructive criticism and detailed comments by the editors and anonymous reviewers.

Abbreviations

1/2/3

1st/2nd/3rd person

abl

ablative

acc

accusative

clf

classifier

comit

comitative

comp

comparative

compl

completive

cop

copular

dat

dative

dis

disposal

ego

egophoric

erg

ergative

exp

experiential

impf

imperfective

indf

indefinite

indir

indirect

inst

instrumental

loc

locative

obj

objective

pfv

perfective

pl

plural

pn

proper noun

poss

possessive

prog

progressive

prt

particle

quot

quotative

sg

singular

sur

surpass

vbz

verbalizer

Author contributions

Pui Yiu Szeto: Study conception and design, data collection, data analysis and interpretation, drafting of manuscript, critical revision; Umberto Ansaldo: Data analysis and interpretation, critical revision; Stephen Matthews: Data analysis and interpretation, critical revision

Appendix. Dialect features

123456789101112131415161718192021
Ma1++++++++
Ma2+++++++
Ma3++++++
Ma4+++++++++
Ma5+++++++
Ma6+++++++
Ma7+++++++
Ma8++++++++
Ma9++++++++++
Ma10++++++++
Ma11+++++++++
Ma12++++++++
Ma13+++++++++++
Ma14+++++++++++
Ma15++++++++++
Ma16++++++++++
Ma17++++++++++
Ma18++++++++
Ma19+++++++++++
Ma20+++++++++++
Ma21+++++++++
Ma22+++++++++++
Ma23++++++++++++
Ma24+++++++++
Ma25+++++
Ma26++++++++++
J1+++++++++++
J2++++++++++
W1++++++++++
W2+++++++++
Hu1+++++++++++
X1+++++++++++
X2++++++++++
G1++++++++++
G2++++++++++++
Mi1+++++++++
Mi2++++++
Ha1+++++++
Ha2+++++++++
Y1++++++++++++
Y2++++++++++++
P1++++++++++++

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Received: 2017-12-04
Revised: 2018-02-16
Published Online: 2018-08-16
Published in Print: 2018-08-28

© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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