The Diachrony of Tone Sandhi

This book investigates the diachronic change of the tone sandhi of Southern Min Chinese, which is known for its synchronic arbitrariness and opacity. It argues that in final-prominent tone sandhi, the change of final tones and the change of non-final tones can be highly independent and essentially different from each other. Accordingly, it proposes a new position-based diachronic approach to study the separate evolution of tones occurring at different positions. This book is the first study to rigorously and systematically explore the diachrony of Southern Min tone sandhi.

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Dr. Qing Lin is currently working as a lecturer in Chinese Language and Culture at the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies and hosting a project on the language documentation of the Chenghai dialect, a variety of Southern Min Chinese. Her main research interest is diachronic linguistics, particularly sound change. Further interests include the phonetics-phonology interface and phonetics-prosody interface. She has published papers on the historical change of Thai tones, the nasal rhymes and the nasal initials of Southern Min Chinese. During her PhD studies, she was awarded grants from the School, the University, and the International Chao-Xue Research Society for her research on Southern Min tones.

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