It is generally believed that the phonological modification of diminutive in Wuhan and some of its neighboring dialects is a matter of R-suffixation. The actual changes are, however, so different from the typical R-suffixation. In this paper, we suggest that the modified forms in Wuhan represents the residues of diminutive nasal endings, and not a result of the R-suffixation.
In the diminutive rimes of Wuhan Dialect, the original codas are replaced by /n/ and the original vowels are neutralized as a result of vowel nasalization，eventually yielding
and 
. For example,"
Within the framework of the grammaticalization cycle (Tsao, 2006) and also on the basis of a the cross-dialectal comparison, we find convergent rime changes in a number of other dialects similar to those in Wuhan. Thus, in this paper, we argue that the diminutive forms in Wuhan dialect are residues of nasal suffixation, instead of R-suffixation. The nasal suffixation results in syllabic changes and vowel convergences. We believe that in the past diminutive nasal endings were productive in Wuhan, as in the case of the Wu dialects. Towards the end of the grammaticalization cycle, however, the nasalized vowels, which served as the diminutive marker at that stage, are denasalized, ending with the diminutive forms in today’s Wuhan dialect.