The Origins and Evolution of Voiceless Nasals and Voiceless Laterals of the Zhuang Language in Northern Guangxi
A recent investigation on certain Zhuang dialects in northern Guangxi reveals a phonemic contrast between voiced nasals and laterals and their voiceless counterparts.This contrastive linguistic feature is unique within the Tai language family,to which Zhuang belongs.The voiceless nasals and laterals in Zhuang,initials retained from its ancestor language,typically appear in the odd-numbered tones and exhibit variations in terms of region,age,gender,and vocation.Currently,these sounds are gradually disappearing.The evolution process invovles initially transforming into pre-glottal nasals and laterals,followed by a merging into the voiced nasal and laterals.
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