Re: tonal languages

>  >Florian writes:
>
>  >>the infrequently used form of serial change only suits specified
>  >>word groups. the usage is very limited.
>
>  >Yeah, this is where I get lost. Could you give a couple of
>examples to clarify?
>
>I am sorry of what is not very clear, but unfortunately, i am not
>explain much more. What i wrote was not my own, but just a copy of
>what i found interesting in my book, plus some rephrasing, to make
>the text "stand alone". And i haven't started actively learning the
>language, so my help will be poor. As for the "infrequently used
>form", i guess it refers to exceptions, the few words not following
>the regular sandhi, and having tone paterns of their own.
Actually, I was thinking of this this morning in the shower, and
maybe some place names fall into this category? When I lived on the
mainland, I lived in Nanchang in Jiangxi province, but being a
Shanghai aficionado, I made frequent junkets to that fair city. When
talking with the natives about where I lived, I said "Nö(22)cang(44)"
and got blank stares. You'd need to get into "gangxi ei sanghhuei"
(provincial capital of Jiangxi), August 1st Square, and the rest, and
then people would click and say, "oh, Nö(22)cang(53)!". So maybe
that's an "infrequently used form".

Kou