Author(s)

Yishan Huang

Linguistics Department, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.

Various criteria can be applied to classify Zhangzhou heteronyms into different categories at different layers, which include the distinction of grammatical categories and lexical meanings, the usage of a colloquial style versus a literary one, the usage of a general style versus a specific one, the phonemic correspondence between the literary and colloquial forms, as well as the number of pronunciations that polyphonetic characters have. Additionally, some patterns can also be generalised with respect to the relationship between different pronunciation forms across diphonetic, triphonetic, quadriphonetic, and quintophonetic characters. The results suggest that although heteronyms are abundant in Zhangzhou, they are essentially arranged in a systematic and generalisable way in the mental grammar of native speakers. This not only reflects a dynamic linguistic phenomenon of heteronyms in this Sinitic dialect, but also indicates the heterogeneous nature of human languages. The study has sought to expand our understanding of the arrangement of heteronyms in the Southern Min variety of Zhangzhou, and serve as a model to investigate how heteronyms are constructed in other Sinitic languages/dialects and beyond.

Heteronyms, Polyphonetic Characters, Zhangzhou, Pronunciations, Patterns

Huang, Y. (2019) Heteronyms in Zhangzhou: Pronunciations and Patterns. Open Journal of Modern Linguistics, 9, 365-381. doi: 10.4236/ojml.2019.95030.