The Beginning of Merging of the Tonal Categories B2 and C1 in Hong Kong Cantonese
香港粤语阳上阴去相混之始
Tak Sum Wong 黄得森

Abstract 摘要
It has been traditionally accepted that there are nine tonal categories in Cantonese with primarily six tonal contours at present. However, there has been a tendency of the merging of the tonal categories C1 and B2 in Hong Kong Cantonese recently such as pronouncing the morpheme “试” meaning examination in tone B2 or pronouncing the morpheme “社” in tone C1. In fact, this phenomenon was first discussed in the book by Siew-Yue Killingley “A New Look at Cantonese Tones: Five or Six?” published in 1985. In addition, Flynn has also briefly mentioned this in the domain of Hong Kong Cantonese in her paper presented in the First International Conference in the Dialect Yue (第一届国际粤方言研讨会). In Killingley’s work, she constructed the following five-toneme system of Malayan Cantonese (Killingley 1985, 24) with three pieces of supporting evidences: (1) The number of meaningful free forms with pitch contrast of the same syllable; (2) The number of syllable tokens containing a LR tone with six tonal distinctions; (3) The unexplained confusion in tonal identification involving native speakers/listeners. In addition, she would also like to extend this study to Hong Kong and mainland Cantonese. However, the examples given by Killingley are not consistent with the situation in contemporary Hong Kong if in Malayan Cantonese. Rather, it would be more reasonable to say that there is a tendency for the merging and it is at the very beginning stage only in Hong Kong. In summary, some tokens change from 3(5) to 5(3) permanently; some can be pronounced as both and some undergone tonal splitting to represent different meanings. The main reasons behind the alternation are given here: 1. as a result from sentence intonation; 2. as a means to differentiate meaning; 3. as a result of ambiguity; and 4. as a result of phonetic difficulty and similarity. In this article, the arguments given by Killingley are reviewed and a survey about this recent change in Hong Kong Cantonese was conducted. Finally, the reasons behind this phenomenon are discussed in detail.

传统之粤语九声说广为学者所接纳；若不计声调之长短，当代之广州话共有六个调型。然而，于近年之香港粤语中，部份阳上及阴去的字之发音有相混之势，如把“试“读作阳上调及把“社”读作阴去调。诚然，Siew-Yue Killingley于一九八五年出版之“A New Look at Cantonese Tones: Five or Six?”已首先谈及此现象。此外，张赛洋亦于第一届国际粤方言研讨会中简述该变化于香港之情况。以下列出Killingley于该书中对马来亚之广州话建构了一个五调位系统，并提出三项凭据以支持她的观点：（一）同音异调之单音词的数目；（二）持六调对立之音节的数目；及（三）操母语人士难以解释之声调混淆。此外，她亦想把该发现套用于香港及大陆之广州话。可是，Killingley给出之例子与当代香港之发音回异。因此，说香港话有开始相混之势较合理；简而言之，有些字音永久地从阴去调（阳上）读成阳上调（阴去）；或存二读；或按意义分化成两调。以下列出此交错现象之主因：一、受语调之影响；二、作为辨义手段；三、受词义含糊影响；及四、语音相似性与发音难度。本文评论Killingley提出之观点，调查此现象于香港话之现况、成因并展望未来之概况。

Keywords 关键词

Phonetics 语音学 Tonal merging 声调融合 Hong Kong Cantonese 香港粤语 The yue dialect 粤方言 Sound change 音变

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