Position-Sensitive Tone Correspondences in Chinese Loanwords in Mosuo: A Corpus Study

Abstract

This study is about how Chinese loans adapt to position sensitivity of Mosuo (Yongning Na) tones. We examined 167 items from Michaud’s Mosuo Dictionary and calculated the number of tone correspondences across syllable positions and historical strata. The results reveal that (1) tone correspondences display significant patterns conditioned by syllabic position such that initial syllables display more tonal distinctions than subsequent syllables; (2) departures from pattern (1) occur in predictable environments and semantic domains and are thus regular rather than random; (3) different historical strata display different patterns. Chi-square tests show that there are significant associations between source tones, Mosuo categories, and syllable position. The results support recipient-language primacy: i.e., surface patterns reflect Mosuo’s native constraints rather than close relations to Mandarin tones. This study presents a replicable corpus-based approach to the study of tonal contact in morphotonologically complex endangered languages.