A Phonological Study On Shiqishi Tuhua

Dong’an, lying in the southwestern part of Hunan Province, is a bi dialectaldistrict where exists Xiangnan Tuhua and Xinan Guanhua. Since its discovery, theresearch of Xiangnan Tuhua has obtained the recognition by dialect academia day byday. This dissertation focuses on one dialect of Xiangnan Tuhua group-ShiqishiTuhua of Dong’an. Based on the field investigation materials made by the author,this thesis explores some important features of initial consonants, simple orcompound vowels and tones of Shiqishi Tuhua and the differences and connectionsbetween Shiqishi Tuhua and its neighbor dialects from the perspectives ofsynchronic typology and diachronic evolution. As for the initial consonants, itmainly studies the characteristics of such phenomena as "ancient voiceless initialconsonants becoming implosive","light labial read as heavy labial","Zhi zu read asDuan zu" and "ancient voiced initial consonants becoming voiceless". As for thesimple or compound vowels, it explores the early phonetic phenomena of theShiqishi Tuhua such as "Zhiwei into yu","close chain changes of high vowels inGuo Jiao Xiao" and "Yang phonology becoming Yin phonology".The dissertation is composed by the following five parts.In the exordium, we present the general information about the location, history,and population of Dong’an and Shiqishi, as well as the previous studies and theresearch methods and significance.In the second chapter, we mainly illustrate the phonetic system of ShiqishiTuhua, including the initial system, the final system and the tonal system. Theexperimental phonetic method has been employed in this chapter to provide anaccurate description and scientific analysis of the tone of Shiqishi Tuhua.In the third chapter, we explore the development of Shiqishi Tuhua and itsphonetic features by comparison with Middle ancient Chinese sound systemdiachronically. Besides, we analyses the literary reading and colloquial reading ofShiqishi Tuhua.In the fourth chapter, we sketch the differences and connections betweenShiqishi Tuhua and its neighbor dialects-Huaqiao Tuhua and Gaofeng Tuhua, usingthe comparative and analytical methods.In the fifth chapter, we study the special phonological phenomena of ShiqishiTuhua:"ancient voiceless initial consonants becoming implosive","Zhiwei into yu", "vowel pattern" and "ancient voiced initial consonants becoming voiceless".The last part is a conclusion. The results reveal that Shiqishi Tuhua has manyancient phonological phenomena tinted with strong Wu dialect and ancient Xiangdialect.