The phonology of incomplete tone merger in dalian

Abstract

The thesis of tone merger in northern Chinese dialects was first proposed by Wang (1982), and further developed by Lien (1986), the migration of lib (Yangshang) into III (Qu) being a common characteristic. The present work aims to provide an update on the current state of tone merger in northern Chinese, with a special focus on Dalian, which is a less well-known Mandarin dialect spoken in Liaoning province in Northeast China.