Abstract
This paper explores the diminutive sound change in Nan Kang of Hakka. The diminutive is a suffix following with the noun which expresses small and mini things. The diminutive is a bound morpheme and can result the root to change the morpheme. Moreover, when the diminutive attaches to the root, the original stem has some changes which bring about morph-phonemic change by the combination with phoneme and phoneme (Jiang Min Hua 2006 : 1-2). The forms of the diminutive in Nan Kang are affix type, nasalization type, and nasal consonant type. There are suffixes of ‘zi, zai, te, er, li, shang’ in the affix type. It is not universal that there is nasalization in Hakka. However, in Nan Kang it is a universal phenomenon. Therefore, this paper discusses the nasalized diminutive and the glottalized diminutive by the grammaticalization cycle which is proposed by Tsao Feng Fu 2006. We found out the proto form of the diminutive from phonetic, semantic and grammatical way and the diminutive development by typological sub dialect. Also it points out the negligence of traditional phonology: it believes that Chinese is an isolated language and neglect the influence and compact to the development when attaching affix.