Zhangzhou Yangping tone and its variations: going beyond convention

This study explores the encoding of Yangping tone in Zhangzhou Southern Min across three linguistic contexts. This tone is shown to have multiple realisations comprising a low level [22], a mid-level [33], a mid-falling with level [311], and a low falling with level [211], which are conditioned by positional factors and the phonetics of surrounding tones. The findings contradict prior auditory transcriptions and question certain conventional assumptions used to define a right-dominant tone sandhi system in Sinitic dialects. This study contributes valuable empirical data to the investigation of the typology of tone as an important linguistic phenomenon in China and worldwide.