A Phonological Study Of Yue Dialects In Dongguan

This thesis regards the first-handed datum of Yue dialects in Dongguan as the research object, at the same time refers to the other datum of Yue dialect and historical datum. We sum up the phonological features by depicting the sound system of different Yue dialects in Dongguan. We also conclude the processes and rules of the phonological evolution of Yue dialects in Dongguan according to synchronic and diachronic comparisons.There are three chapters in this thesis.Chapter 1 is the introduction. It includes the introduction on the researches of Yue dialects in Dongguan formerly, and the purpose, the research value, investigation process of this study.Chapter 2 is the phonological features of Yue dialects in Dongguan. We describe the features of initials, finals and tones, and then sum up the samenesses and differences. According to the distinctive features, we divide the Yue dialects in Dongguan into five sub-clusters:Chengqu sub-cluster, Shuixiang sub-cluster, Yantian sub-cluster, Qiuling sub-cluster and Shanqu sub-cluster.Chapter 3 discusses some special topics of the initials, finals and tones. We focus on five topics:the historical division of initials of Jing(精),Zhuang(庄),Zhi(知),Zhang(章)；the changes of initials of Xi(溪),Xiao(晓),Xia(匣)；the changes of nasal endings and stop endings; the chain shift of Xie-Group vowel(蟹摄)and Zhi-Group vowel (止摄)；the changes from Shang tone of stressed consonant(浊上)to Yinqu tone(阴去).The end is the conclusion. It includes the summary of conclusions and the inadequacy of this thesis.