A Study On The Phonology Of Huaiji Yue Dialect

Huaiji county lies in thenorth of Zhaoqing city and thenorthwest of Guangdong province. There are two languages in the county,the Chinese language and a minority language, the Biao language. HuaijiYue dialect belongs to the subdialect Goulou (勾漏片) and is divided intoShangfang dialect and Xiafang dialect. Based on the investigation, theauthor describes thoroughly Shangfang dialect and Xiafang dialect andanalyses their phonological features. The paper includes seven chaptersas follows.In the first chapter, the geography, the administration and thepopulation, the history, the nationality existed in ancient times as wellas the origin of the inhabitants of Huaiji county are introduced. It alsoconcludes that Shangfang dialect and Xiafang dialect may come into beingin the end of Tang Dynasty.The second chapter provides the phonological systems of Shangfangdialect and Xiafang dialect.Compared with the ancient Chinese and the Guangzhou dialect, the commonfeatures and the differences between Shangfang dialect and Xiafang dialectare described in the third chapter.The fourth chapter discusses several features of Yue dialect in Huaijithrough the Chinese loan words of the Biao language. There are some commonphonological features in Yue dialect of Huaiji and the Chinese loan wordsin the Biao language, for example, the ancient fei-group initialspronounced as bilabial stop, the ancient voiced initials pronounced asunaspirated stops or affricates, which imply the close relation betweenHuaiji Yue dialect and the Chinese loan words in the Biao language.In the fifth chapter, the author analyses the present situation andthe reasons of language contact and competition in Huaiji county from anangle of sociolinguistic linguistics. Since the opening policy was raised,people speaking Shangfang dialect, Xiafang dialect and the Biao language have more contact with each other. In different situation and towarddifferent addressees, people switch their language code. As the dialectspoken in the Huaiji county town, Xiafang dialect has great superiority.And on the base of economic strength and population, Shangfang dialect iscompetitive too. While the Biao language lack competitive advantages. Witheconomic development, Guangzhou dialect has great influences on Huaijidialect so that some of original features of Huaiji dialect would vanishgradually.In the last two chapters, the sixth and seventh chapter, the tablesof monosyllable as well as the syllabaries of Shangfang dialect and Xiafangdialect are provided respectively.