Goulou Yue

Goulou is one of the principal groups of Yue dialects. It is spoken around the Guangxi–Guangdong border, and includes the dialects of Yulin and Bobai.

Goulou
勾漏方言 Ngaulau Yut
Native to	Southern China
Region	Guangxi–Guangdong border
Speakers	10.3 million (2012)[1]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Yue Goulou
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
ISO 639-6	gulu
Glottolog	None guin1237  Goulou
Linguasphere	79-AAA-me
Goulou, among other Yue and Pinghua groups in Guangxi and Guangdong

Dialects

Yulin dialect is representative, though Bobai is better known.

• Yulin dialect
  • Bobai dialect
• Guangning dialect
• Huaiji dialect
• Fengkai dialect
• Deqing dialect
• Yunan dialect
• Shanglin dialect
• Binyang dialect
• Tengxian dialect

Phonology

Initials

Consonants of the Tengxian dialect^[2]

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t	tʃ	k	(ʔ)
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	tʃʰ	kʰ
	implosive	ɓ	ɗ
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Fricative	voiceless	f		ʃ		h
	voiced	v
	lateral		ɬ
Approximant	voiced		l	j
	labial			ɥ	w

Finals

Vowel nuclei^[2]

	Front		Central	Back
	unrounded	rounded
Close	i	y		u
Close-mid	e	ø		o
Open-mid	ɛ	œ		ɔ
Near-open			ɐ
Open			a

• Close vowel sounds may alternate between close vowel sounds [i, y, u] and near-close vowel sounds [ɪ, ʏ, ʊ].^[2]

Vowel combinations

			Oral			Nasal			Stop
Medial		coda	i	y	u	m	n	ŋ	p	t	k
Nucleus	Vowel	a	ai		au	am	an	aŋ	ap	at	ak
		wa	wai				wan			wat
			ɐi		ɐu	ɐm	ɐn	ɐŋ	ɐp	ɐt	ɐk
			wɐi				wɐn			wɐt
		i(ɛ)			iɛu	iɛm		iɛŋ	iɛp		iɛk
			(ei)					eŋ			ek
											wek
		i			iu	im	in		ip	it
		œ
				øy
		y
		ɔ	ɔi			ɔm	ɔn	ɔŋ	ɔp	ɔt	ɔk
					ou			oŋ			ok
		u	ui				un			ut

Tone

Bobai dialect is widely cited as having the most tones of any variety of Chinese, though it actually only has six, the same as most Yue dialects. The reason for the claim is that Bobai makes a four-way tonal distinction in checked syllables, whereas most other Yue dialects have three. In Yulin dialect just to the north of Bobai, however, neither entering tone is split: there are just two entering tones, 7 and 8. Lee (1993) believes that Bobai is innovative in having split 8, whereas Yulin (along with several neighboring interior Yue dialects) is innovative in having merged a former split in 7: proto-Yue probably had 7a, 7b, and 8.

Many Yue varieties exhibit a "changed tone" with some semantic content. Such tones occur in the Yulin dialect, in checked syllables only, marking diminutives. In such cases, the final stop -p, -t or -k is changed to a homorganic nasal -m, -n or -ŋ, respectively, and the pitch contour is also altered. This seems to be a trace of a now-lost suffix similar to ér (兒, Middle Chinese nye) in other Chinese varieties.^[3]