Gradiency in Obstruent Devoicing in the Varieties of Wu Chinese

This paper describes devoicing processes of obstruents in the varieties of Wu Chinese. Results demonstrate a clear picture of obstruent devoicing and its interplay with tonal developments. Devoicing begins as a phonetic process, and at the beginning, voicing bar is retained for the voiced obstruent in intervocalic position and breathiness is a feature compensating for the devoicing in citation. And there is an interplay between phonation and tone, namely the breathiness is correlated with low pitch. Devoicing proceeds in a variegated way in different dialects. And finally, the devoicing becomes a phonological process as voiced stops are completely devoiced and there is no high versus low tonal contrast.