การแปรของวรรณยุกต์ภาษาเลย อำเภอเชียงคาน จังหวัดเลย

Abstract

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate variation of tones and tonal characteristics of Loei dialect spoken in Chiang Khan District, Loei Province. Informants in 8 sub-districts of Chiang Khan District provided the data for this study. Applying Gedney’s Tone Box as the theoretical framework revealed that the Loei dialect tonal system in Chiang Khan consists of 5 tonemes. The pattern of splits and coalescences was found to be the same for all areas outside of Na-Saw Sub-District. There were only 4 tones identified in Na-Saw Sub-District’s tonal system, as C1 and C234 have merged with each other. The phonetic characteristics of the tones, based on an acoustical analysis using Praat, differed according to the different locations. Findings from this study suggest that phonetic characteristics of tones in Loei vary by region.

Keywords: Dialectology, Tonal variation, Thai dialects, Northeastern Thai dialect, Loei dialect