A Study On Hakka Dialects In Chengdu

In the initial period of Qing Dynasty, some of the Hakkas mved from Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi into Sichuan. Some of their descendants keep up using Hakka Dialects as the means to communicate with each other in the Hakka village, while the others have forsaken their own Hakka Dialects and use the local superior ones. Now Hakka Dialects is still the main language of communication in 27 subdistrict offices and rural communities in Jinjiang, Jinniu, Chenghua, Longquanyi, Xindu and Qingbaijiang District, Chengdu.The dissertation is a diachronic and synchronic study of the Hakka Dialects in Chengdu, using linguistic and sociolinguistic research methods. The study is mainly based on the data collected from the author's field investigation to the Hakka area in Chengdu, and it also draws upon previous research on this particular subject. This dissertation is divided into five chapters. Chapter2-5 is the main parts of the study.Chapter1: Introduction. A brief account of the distribution, the origin, the background and reasons for migration about Hakkas in Chengdu, research done so far on the Hakka Dialects, the purposes, the objects of studies, the methods as well as sources of the materials for this research will be included in this chapter.Chapter2:The characteristics and differences. Introduces the phonological, lexical and grammatical characteristics based on a plenty of materials, compares and analyses the differences of Hakka Dialects in Chengdu, In order to discusses the similarities and differences of Hakka Dialects in Chengdu.Chapter3:Materials. The phonological, lexical and grammatical materials will be included in this chapter. Describes the phonetic systems of the dialects of Sansheng, Tianhui, Longtansi, Shiling, Xihe, Shibantan, Taixing and Longwang by the method of the traditonal dialectology, lists the pronunciation of 452 frequently used words and 25 syntax examples of areas mentioned above. Includes the homonyms of Shiling for diachronic comparison. 464 common vocabularies of Shiling, Longtansi, Shibantan and Longwang will be list in section IV.Chapter4:The change and variation of phonologic.This chapter analysis the change and variation on phonologic of Hakka Dialects in Chengdu from diachronic and synchronic respects. Firstly, The change of phonologic over the past 60 years will be analysised from the aspects of initials, finals and tones. The study is built on the basis of data collected in 1946 by Tonghe Dong and the author's field investigation. By comparing the change of phonologic over the past 60 years, found that the phonologic of Hakka Dialects in Chengdu has features of Chengdu Mandarin more and more.The factors result the change of phonologic not only the internal structure of Hakka Dialects, but also the Social, economic, cultural and other reasons.With the economic focus transferred to the eastern part of Chengdu and the process of urbanization in Hakka areas is accelerated, tremendous changes have taken place in the way of Hakka people's life in recent decades. This is a serious impact for the change and variation on phonologic of Hakka Dialects in Chengdu.Take "滚", "肺", "菊"as an example to study the language differences on gender, ages, job occupation and education from the perspective of sociolinguistics in Section III. To compared Such differences with the diachronic change, that will be found the Present and Future trends of Hakka Dialects in Chengdu.Chapter5: The language of life.The main description of this chapter is language of the living conditions of Hakkas in Shiling. language use and language attitude of the situation is emphasis.We have respectively studied language use in family, general social occasions and formal social occasions. The Hakkas have been using Hakka Dialects Rather than Chengdu Mandarin within the family. With the social occasions and communication object change, they choose different language for communication. They always use the Chengdu Mandarin in Formal occasions.The language attitude of Hakkas closely related with the users' age, vocational and educational level. The older with higher education prefer to use Hakka Dialects, and believe his Hakka Dialects is the standard. The younger with lower education prefer to use Mandarin, and believe his Hakka Dialects is the non-standard.Most of the Hakkas do not want to change the current situation, in spite of the Hakka Dialects used only within the family and acquaintances. More than half of the Hakkas even think that the Hakka Dialects will be replaced by Chengdu Mandarin.