Soeinam Language

Soeinam language (or Soeinam Chinese, Soeinam, Mandarin: 綏南話, Soeinam: 綏南語, IPA: [sœi˥ nam˨ ŋiɔ˨]) is a tonal language derived from Middle Chinese.

Classification and Dialects


Initials
After going some changes, such as retroflex stops merge with retroflex sibiliants and some other changes:
 * /ɳ/ merged with /ɲ/. (娘母歸日)
 * Voiced labials become implosive.
 * Most voiced stops and affricatives become whether tenius (for level and entering) or nasal (rising or departing). (全濁清化)
 * Voiced dental sibilants all become voiced fricatives. (從母歸邪)
 * Voiced velars all become nasals. (群母歸疑)
 * New sound /p̪͡f/ (沛母) has been isolated from /pʰ/ when it's high rising tone (陰去) and entering tone (入聲).

Finals
A final of Soeinam contains medial, nucleus, and coda:
 * Medial: the glide before the coda. It can be /j/, /w/, or even zero medial.
 * Nucleus: the body of the final, most significant part of it. There are 6 codae available in Soeinam: /a/, /ɛ/, /i/, /u/, /ɔ/, and /œ/.
 * Coda: the ending of a final.

Some finals of words in Middle Chinese has change (most of them lose their medials) and here's some rule:
 * When medials exist, only syllables whose coda is /a/ can receive coda. For example, the final in Middle Chinese *iɛm become iam in Soeinam.

Tone System


There are at total 8 tones in Soeinam. There is no such a clear rule that one could know the contour of the tone by its name. The tone contour has changed since Soeinam was isolated from (Late) Middle Chinese. Here are the comparison of tones, beware that except for level tones there is no distinction between "dark" and "light" in rising and departing tones in Mandarin, and Cantonese has two kinds of dark entering: Soeinam has the voicing distinction like Taiwanese and Contonese do. All "dark" tones (whose initials are voiceless) in Soeinam receive high-starting tones (high, high rising, high falling, high), whereas those "light" tones receive low-starting tones (low falling, low, low rising, mid). Mandarin, which has the "simplified" version of tone system, has no such feature.

Tonal Sandhi
Tonal sandhi is common among Chinese languages including Taiwanese, Cantonese, and Mandarin as well. However, the degree of sandhi differs. Among all 3 languges mentioned, Taiwanese changes its tone most. Cantonese does not often change the tone of a word and is more unpredictable. In Mandarin, only a word of rising tone would alter its tone when its preceding another one also of rising tone.

Soeinam, nonetheless, do also alter some of its tones under certain circumstances, but not as often as Taiwanese does. Some rules are still explicit:
 * 1) Within a word, light level tone (21) would become dark rising tone (35) (In western dialects, it would become dark departing tone (51) instead).
 * 2) Within a word, light rising tone (22) would become light level tone (21).
 * 3) Within a word, characters with -p, -t, and -k finals would change their "color". That is, dark entering tone would become light one, vice versa.

Some comparisons
我曰綏南語

nga6 giat8 soei1-nam5-ngoe5 [ŋa˨ ɣi̯at̚˧ sœi̯˧˥ nam˨ ŋœ˨˩] (I speak Soeinam.)

故人具雞黍，邀我至田家.

ku3-njin5 koe7 ki1-sjoe2 joe1 nga6 chi3 din5-ka1 [ku˥ ɲin˨˩ kœ˩˧ ki˧˥ ɕœ˧˥ jœ˥ ŋa˨ tɕi˥˩ ɗin˨ ka˥] (My old friend has prepared meals and invites me to his house among fields.)

綠樹村邊合，青山郭外斜.

liak8-choe7 tshon1-pin1 gap8 tsheng1-sran1 kuak4-nguai7 zia5 [li̯a˩˧ tɕʰœ˩˧ tsʰɔn˧˥ pin˥ ɣap̚˧ tsʰɛŋ˧˥ ʂan˥ ku̯a˥˩ ŋu̯ai̯˩˧ zi̯a˨˩] (The green trees surround the village while the cyan mountain lies outside the city wall.)