Dialect Geography of lexemes with Initial clusters /mr/ and /ml/ in Southern Thai : Songkhla Lake Basin
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Abstract
This study investigates the initial clusters /mr/ and /ml/ as used in Southern Thai dialect within the Songkhla Lake Basin area, with an emphasis on distinguishing phonological variations according to their geographical
distributions. The research involved recording native speakers from the provinces of Nakhon Si Thammarat, Phatthalung, and Songkhla as they said 79 selected monosyllabic target words, and then phonetically transcribing the various pronunciations for analysis. The results indicate that phonological variations of the initial clusters /mr/ and /ml/ are indeed dissimilar. That is, the initial cluster /mr/ has 14 variants, and the initial cluster /ml/ has 9 variants. Words with the initial clusters /mr/ and /ml/, as used in the Songkhla Lake Basin area, can be grouped into three patterns of distribution: 1) words where the initial clusters /mr/ and /ml/ are used in all areas; 2) words where the initial clusters /mr/ and /ml/ are used only in certain areas; and 3) words where the initial clusters /mr/ and /ml/ are not used in any of the areas.It was found that phonological variations of the initial clusters /mr/ and /ml/ can be used to accurately differentiate and distinguish dialectal groups more effectively than what the lexical distributions of other phonemic contrasts can provide.
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