Research On The Suffix "子" Of Yuxian Dialect

Yuxian belongs to Yangquan City, which is located in the middle east of Shanxi Province. Yuxian dialect pertains to Bingzhou dialect. So far, there are few research materials on the Yuxian dialects except Song Xinqiao's " General Review of Yuxian Dialect". The main outcome of speech sounds is based on the traditional research methods that is hearing and taking notes. As for the grammar, there is only a rough description and doesn't form a system. This thesis will adopt the method of experimental phonetics to study the suffix"子"of Yuxian dialect. We can get some data about its relevant pitch, tone length, sound intensity and timbre, and make some comparisons between Yuxian dialect and Putong hua, then work out the"子"speech sounds features. The author will also use the traditional methodology to investigate and record the grammatical structure and grammatical meaning of"子"to obtain its distinctiveness.This thesis is divided into five chapters.The first chapter outlines the current research situation on Shanxi dialects, especially the research results on Yuxian dialect, discusses the reasons and significance of this research, and shows the content and research methodologies.The second chapter introduces the geographic situation of Yuxian, indicating the reasons of internal differences within Yuxian dialect. Then, the author also gives a general introduction of Yuxian dialect's phonetic system in order to make comparisons with the experimental results.The third chapter introduces the preparation before the experiment, experimental purposes, and the experiment procedures.The four chapter studies the characteristics of the suffix"子"of Yuxian dialects, which includes its pitch, tone length, sound intensity, sound characteristics. The Suffix ""子"of Yuxian dialect has regional differences in the pronunciation. It pronounces [tsy(?)] in County town and nearby regions, while in North village (on the north of Xing Dao) it pronounces [tγ(?)]. This paper will take the north village's pronunciation as an example. The high pitch of'"子"in Yuxian dialects greatly depends on the high pitch trend of previous word's syllable. The high pitch of the suffix"子"always keep the same high pitch with the previous syllable or a little higher than previous syllable. As for the duration of pronunciation, since they are words with entering tone, when compared either from the average duration or maximum or minimum duration, the duration of the suffix"子"in Yuxian dialects is half of the Mandarin suffix"子"Sound intensity of the suffix'"子"in Yuxian dialects is almost the same with the previous syllable. The former syllable is louder than the latter syllable in the sound intensity of light tone syllable"子"and only after the Shangsheng "Ⅴ",the difference value of previous words and latter words'"子"sound intensity is comparatively large. As for the musical quality,"子"sounds rather ambiguous, which is the sound characteristics.The five chapter studies the grammar features of the suffix"子"of Yuxian dialects.Yuxian dialect suffix"子"includes suffix"子"and the affix"子"Most of affix"子"can be attached to noun, in addition, it can also be attached to the verbs, adjectives, quantifiers and the number phrases. Most of the word or phrase is still a noun after attachment. Some adjectives and verbs don't add affixes'"子"and maintain the original part of speech. If they are added the affixes"子"all of them become nouns. Affix"子"is not only has the function of word formation, but also change the part of speech. Suffix"子"is generally attached to the noun, especially the noun is the name. Most of the words are originally noun, they are still nouns and the part of speech stays the same if"子"is attached to them.This thesis conducts a comprehensive description of"子"It adopts the method comparison with Putonghua. These comparisons can help local people better learn Putonghua, and provide some new information for the Central District of Shanxi dialect study.