Classification of Eastern Min dialects and reconstruction of the 100-item wordlist for Proto-Eastern Min

Marina Lorentz (Institute of Linguistics, RSUH, Moscow; lorentzmarina8@gmail.com)

Journal of Language Relationship, № 21/1-2, 2023 - p.117-155

Abstract: In this paper, I propose an updated classification of the Eastern Min subgroup of the Sinitic family, based on its basic vocabulary, along with the onomasiological reconstruction of the 110-item Swadesh list for Proto-Eastern Min. A layer of Austroasiatic vocabulary, detected in the Eastern Min basic vocabulary, confirms the possible existence of an archaic substrate in the modern area of distribution of the dialects in question, leaving traces at the lexical level. A new phylogenetic tree confirms, with some minor deviations, the two traditionally accepted sub-branches (Funing and Houguan), previously based on phonetic criteria. The research also examines the relationship of the Eastern group with Putian dialect, confirming its independent status due to the lack of common innovations with the Southern and Eastern branches of Min.

Keywords: dialectology, Old Chinese language, Middle Chinese language, Min dialects, Eastern Min dialects, Putian dialect, lexicostatistics, basic lexicon

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