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Consonant Alternations of Chinese Pidgin English in The Chinese and English Instructor (1862)

정성훈 1 Kim Sunhyo 2

1대만국립정치대학교
2대만중국문화대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This paper scrutinizes the consonant alternations of Chinese Pidgin English in The Chinese and English Instructor(1862) that has been known as the representative text of CPE. The Chinese and English Instructor was written by Tong Ting-shu who was a comprador of Guangdong province, and composed of six volumes. Particularly, a part of volume 4 and a total of volume 6 consisted of CPE phrases or sentences. Therefore two volumes are very important for analyzing phonology, morphology and syntax of CPE. The CPE had been used primarily in Chinese southeastern coast from the early 19th century to the beginning of 20th century, and is a representative pidgin as a mixture of Cantonese and English. In CPE many consonants are replaced to others: from a fricative to a plosive and consonants cluster simplification etc. In The Chinese and English Instructor, particularly, we can see several consonants alternation. Firstly, [v] replaced [f], [w], and [p]/∅. Cantonese dose not have the [v] sound, so it changed to other consonants. Secondly, English plosives replaced aspirated voiceless plosives or unaspirated voiceless plosives because of the phonological system of Cantonese. However, this alternation is inconsistent and very complicated. Thirdly, [š] replaced the [s] sound in the condition that some vowels come after [š] or under the last syllable. But this vowel always replaced [syu] under some conditions. Fourthly, all of [θ] and [ð] sounds replaced [d], but only in the case ‘thisee’ and ‘the’ [ð] replaced [l].

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