Richard:
>(Or is this a fossil of a change of initial /N/ to /?/? I
>think has happened in some Mandarin Chinese dialects.)
No, the only oscillation in Mandarin I'm aware of is between
initial /n-/ and /l-/. However, what you're speaking of is
Cantonese, a different dialect. Words like /ngo/ 'I' can be
alternatively pronounced /o/. Likewise we have pairs
like /ngoi/ or /oi/ "to love".
= gLeN
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