A Study On Retroflex And Non-retroflex For Zhaoyuan Mandarin

There is variation between retroflex and non-retroflex consonants in Zhaoyuan, Heilongjiang, a kind of Northeast Mandarin. The variation has relation to with some factors such as spoken/written context, retroflex/non-retroflex context, age and educational level. The retroflex and non-retroflex consonants tend to confuse in the people with older age and low educational level in spoken context. The object consonants tend to be retroflex and non-retroflex in retroflex and non-retroflex context respectively. In the end, I propose that Station Dialect is an important origin for retroflex/non-retroflex confusion in Zhaoyuan.