Abstract
It is generally believed that the diminutive rime changes in central China, such as Wuhan, Tuangfeng, and Jin dialects are originated from the r-suffixation, even though the changes are so different from the typical r-suffixation. In this paper, we suggest that the diminutive rime changes in Wuhan, Tuangfeng and Jin dialects are the residues of the diminutive nasal endings, instead of the r-suffixation. In the diminutive rimes of Wuhan, Tuangfeng, and Jin dialects, the original codas are dropped and the original vowels are neutralized and become front central vowel and back central vowel. Within the framework of the grammaticalization cycle(Tsao, 2006) and the cross-dialectal comparison, we find the convergent rime changes are similar to those of Wu dialects. Thus, in this paper, we argue that the diminutive rime changes in Wuhan, Tuangfeng, and Jin dialects are residues of nasal suffixation, instead of r-suffixation. The nasal suffixation results in the syllabic changes and vowel convergence into two groups of central vowels:. We believe that diminutive nasal endings were once productive in these dialects, as the case in Wu dialect. After the grammaticalization cycle, the diminutive nasal endings are denasalized and become the diminutive rime changes in what we see today. Keywords: diminutive rime change, vowel convergence, r-suffixation, diminutive nasal endings, grammaticalization cycle