Part 1 of my Cantonese General Knowledge Series™: The Mysterious Tone 2

canto has a tone change where nouns change their tone to a rising tone (tone 2) to mark a couple things:

verbs that get turned into nouns (nominalization)
making nouns smaller (diminuatives) or more familiar
adjective reduplication
certain adverbs
for funsies

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for reference, I'll include a tone graph here so you have a visual to work off of as well

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in situations -, you change the original tone of the syllable and turn it into tone 2. the only exception is when you have a tone 1 or a tone 2, which don't change in these environments

i'll give a bunch of example so this will make more sense in a sec

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some verbs will change their tone to make a related noun

- 掃 sou3 'to sweep' > 掃 sou2 'broom'
- 話 waa6 'to say' > 話 waa2 'language'
- 油 jau4 'to paint/varnish' > 油 jau2 'paint/varnish'
- compare 煲 bou1 'to boil' > 煲 bou1 'pot'

autosegmental rep for the linguines:

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the basic idea is that there's this high tone floatin around that just tacks onto the verb to make it into a noun. for words that already have a high tone like 煲, tacking on another high tone doesn't change anything

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also related to nouns, this tone change can make nouns smaller, or it can make something more familiar

- 鏡 geng3 'mirror' > 眼鏡 ngaan5 geng2 'glasses'
- 台 toi4 'stage' > 臺/枱 toi2 'table'
- 裙 kwan4 'dress' > 圍裙 wai4 kwan2 'apron'

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- 頭 tau4 'head' > 阿頭 aa3 tau2 'boss'
- 陳 can4 'Chan' > 陳sir can2 soe4 'Mr. Chan'
- 弟弟 dai4 dai2, 阿妹 aa3 mui2
- both the original tone + the changed tone exist for certain family titles: 婆婆 po4 po2/po4 po4, 爺爺 je4 je4/je4 je2, 嫲嫲 maa4 maa4/maa4 maa2

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there are a couple proposed etymologies for this floating tone for nouns.

a) it's the equivalent of erhua/兒化 in northern varieties, so the floating high tone is derived from a 兒 ji1 whose tone stuck around.

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this suffix can be found in words like 乞兒 hat1 ji1 'beggar', but ji1 is largely unproductive in the language

b) it could also be the elision of 子, which is fairly common. compare:

- 日子 jat6 zi2 ~ 日 jat2 'special day'
- 面子 min6 zi2 ~ 面 min2 'reputation, face'

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if we look to other Yue varieties, we can see some parallels.

- in 小江白話 in Guangxi, the suffix 兒 nyi1 /ɲi˥/ forms diminuatives and is used in reduplicated adjective constructions (discussed next)

ex: 豬兒 [tʃy˦˥ ɲi˥] or [tʃy˦˥ ŋ˥] zyu1 nyi1 or zyu1 ng1 (piglet)

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- in other varieties you see some nasal consonant (m, n, ng) being attached to the syllable and changing the tone

廣西容縣 (Rongxian): 碟 tep4 'plate' > tem2 'little plate'

廣東信宜 (Xinyi): 老鼠 lou5 syu2 'rat' > lou5 syun2 'small rat'

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knowing this, the course of change was likely the suffix 兒 going from nyi with a high tone to -n/-ng, then disappearing altogether, only keeping the high tone around

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when adjs reduplicate, the 2nd syllable gets the tone 2

- 紅 hung4 'red' > 紅紅地 hung4 hung2 dei2 'reddish'
- 靜 zing6 'quiet' > 靜靜雞 zing6 zing2 gai1 'quietly'
- 略 loek6 'brief' > 略略 loek6 loek2 'briefly'

going back to 小江白話, 紅紅地 is hung6 hung6 nyi1 紅紅兒

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a small subset of adverbs are also formed from this tone change

- 一個人 jat1 go3 jan4 'a person' > 一個人 jat1 go3 jan2 'by oneself'
- 幾何 gei2 ho4 'how much' > 幾何 gei2 ho2 'how often'
- 一陣 jat1 zan6 'a moment' > 一陣 jat1 zan2 'in a moment, in a sec'

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sometimes the meaning is a bit opaque

- 蝶 dip6 > 蝴蝶 wu6 dip2 'butterfly'
- 華 waa4 > 溫哥華 wan1 go1 waa2 'Vancouver'
- 牛 ngau4 'cow' > 沙嗲牛米 saa3 de1 ngau2 mai5 'satay beef vermicelli' (maybe it's a diminuative here? idk)

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- 教會 gaau3 wui6 vs gaau3 wui2 - the difference here feels more like "the (Catholic) Church" vs. "a church"
- 男人老狗 naam4 jan4 lou5 gau2 'as a real man should' > 男人 naam4 jan2 'man'

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and my favourite chaotic example to finish this off

- 蛋 daan2 'egg'
- 黃 wong4 'yellow (adj)'
- 蛋黃 daan6 wong2 'egg yolk'
- 白 baak6 'white (adj)'
- 蛋白 daan2 baak2 (or daan2 baak6) 'egg white'
- 蛋白質 daan2 baak6 zat1 'protein'

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a final note for ppl wanting to familiarize themselves with Jyutping: when looking things up in an online dictionary, the original tone will usually be written with a *2 tacked on, and it'll look something like this

廣東話 (gwong2 dung1 waa6*2)

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totally forgot to mention that it happens for english loanwords sometimes too! compare:

number: lam1 baa2
number one: lam1 baa1 wan1
partner: paat1 laa4 or paat1 laa2
level: le1 fou2
level one: le1 fou1 wan1

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