A Study On The Phonological Evolution Of Datong Dialect In Past 100 Years

Datong lies in north in Shanxi Province. Datong dialect belongs to a vernacular of Dabao sub-dialect of Jin dialects. This essay focuses on the evolution of Datong dialect in the past 100 years and its future, which is very important to help to study the phonological development of Jin dialects.At the beginning of the 21th century, the Sweden scholar Bernhard Karlgren(1889-1978)investigated Datong dialect, the reach findings can be seen in his famous book Etude sur la phonologie chinoise. On that base, the author investigated the phonology of Datong dialect on early, medium and later stage of the 20th century, and comprise with Mr. Karlgren's findings.This essay discusses the phonological evolution of Datong dialect in the past 100 years, combining historical comparative method and field-work method. According to the author's research, Datong dialect developed steadily in the early and medium stage of the 20th century; and in the later stage, Datong phonology made quick progress and change, the whole phonology was becoming easier. On the other hand, this change is not great as a whole. At the same time, the change of Datong dialect is becoming a kind of prestige accent in its neighbour areas.As a conclusion, the evolution of Datong dialect is a very long process.