Jianli: Uni-, Di-, and Tri-Phonational Tone Systems

In Jianli, from the south to north, the phonation types are reduced from three (falsetto, modal, and breathy voices) to two (falsetto and modal voices) and to one (modal voice). The tone number decreases accordingly from ten in the south to seven or six in the central region and the north to five in the northernmost variety. Acoustic measurements are conducted to explore the correlation between phonation types (falsetto, modal, and breathy) and pitch. This chapter also studies the phonetic and phonological features of breathy syllables and reconstructs the evolutionary paths of the MC Ciqing groups, the evolution involving the transformation between voiced and voiceless initials and between breathy and modal phonations.