by amhoanna » Mon Apr 30, 2012 7:06 am
Yes, but a lot of it is "conditioned" by the following vowel.
When a back vowel follows, there are really only three options, AFAIK:
l-
z-
dz-
When -i- follows, AFAIK, any one of the three sounds above might still be used, but:
"l-" speakers may use "d-" instead. This seems to be more true in the Phils, and less true in TW. According to Niuc, this is also how things work in Bagan Hokkien.
"z-" speakers may use "j-" instead -- the palatalized fricative, like or much like the Portuguese /j/. TWese speakers tend to palatalize their fricatives before -i-, strongly if they're young, but this seems to be less true in Sing-Ma. I never hear middle-aged or younger TWese speakers saying "si" unpalatalized, except maybe for dramatic effect.
"dz-" speakers may use "dj-" instead. Ditto. TWese speakers tend to palatalize their affricates before -i-...
And there are speakers who use "g-" when -i- follows. I think these would mostly be "z-" and "dz-" speakers...
It's not that complicated. Basically, there's just three camps: an l- camp, a j- camp, and a j-/g- camp. The l-/d- thing and the z- vs dz- thing are poorly documented most likely b/c the differences are so small...
