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n = l in Fujian?

Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2006 9:38 am
by frank
Hi all,

I've recently come across some people from Fujian and i find it very hard to understand them when they're talking Mandarin.
E.g. their /n/ (both in initial as in final position) comes very close to an /l/, to name the clearest difference.
Is anybody here familiar with the variant of _Mandarin_ as spoken in Fujian. (Not that i wouldn't be interested in the local tongues :-).
And where does that n>l thing come from? Interference from one of the local languages? Or is this swithch n>l also common in other Chinese languages?

Groetjes,

Frank

Re: n = l in Fujian?

Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2006 2:55 pm
by anders
Many Mandarin dialects (and dialects of other groups as well) confuse n and l in various ways; in some they are in free variation, as in Lánzhou; others have only l (Nánjing) or only n (Chóngqìng)