Creaky voice and the dialectal boundary between Taizhou and Wuzhou Wu

This paper examines the linguistic affiliation of a small area of Jinhua district at the boundary to Taizhou district, Zhejiang province. The dialects used in this area are classified under the Wuzhou sub-group of Wu. According to the linguistic intuition of the informants from that narrow area, however, the local dialects are closer to the Taizhou than to the Wuzhou sub-group. Normalised fundamental frequencies of the yin-qu tone of a dialect in that area is compared with those of Taizhou and Wuzhou. It is found that the yin-qu pitch of the dialect under investigation is similar to those of Taizhou dialects. The most striking phonetic feature which the area shares with Taizhou is creaky voice associated with the shangsheng tones. Based on these findings, I suggest that the boundary between the Wuzhou and Taizhou sub-groups be moved westward to the Dapan mountain ridge and the dialects of that area be reclassified and included in the Taizhou sub-group. In addition, this paper suggests that the socalled Huangyan "mid-glottal stop" described by Chao Yuen Ren in 1928 is actually creaky voice