Research On The Phonetics Of Susong Dialect

Susong county belongs to Anqing city of Anhui province and lies at the border of the three provinces:Anhui, Hubei and Jiangxi. According to Language Atlas of China, Susong dialect is a part of Huaiyue area of Gan dialect. This thesis which gives a detailed description of the phonology of Susong dialect, makes a conclusion of the evolvement rules of it, analyzes the phonological differences within Susong, and points out the relationship between Susong dialect and dialects of the areas around Susong, such as Gan dialects, Jianghuai dialects and other dialects and predicts the evolvement history of Susong dialect according to the synchronic distribution of phonological features of Susong dialect and the migration history of Susong.The thesis consists of six chapters.Chapter One is an introduction, including the geographical features, history and dialect of Susong, the relating researches on Susong dialect at present, research methodology, research purpose and the sources of corpus and articulating partners of the author.Chapter Two mainly expounds on the phonology of Susong dialect. It unravels the system of consonant, vowel and tone of Susong dialect in detail, enumerates the words that have similar sounds according to the system and lists the commonly used words in Susong dialect.Chapter Three offers the evolvement history of Susong dialect.Taking Guangyun as the fiduciary object, the author makes tables of the consonants, vowels and tones of the ancient and modern Susong dialect for comparison and draws a conclusion of the evolvement history of Susong dialect based upon the tables.Chapter Four touches upon the phonological differences within Susong dialect. It presents the phonological differences of different areas in Susong and tries to find out the reasons for the differences.Chapter Five is the core of the thesis which compares Susong dialect with dialects of areas that are around Susong. It first shows the differenciations of Gan dialect and the zhi and zhuang groups of Jianghuai Mandarin and describes the mutual influence and intense competition between the two, then reveals the distribution of (?) vowels and the reason for that; after that, the author studies the separations and reunions of hai tai, tan tan vowels and the development of the mergence of the zhi and wei rhymes into the yu rhyme in Susong dialect, the last part of Chapter five discusses the relationship between Susong dialect and dialects of the areas around Susong, such as Gan dialects, Jianghuai dialects and other dialects according to the synchronic distribution of phonological features of Susong dialect and the migration history of Susong.Chapter Six is a conclusion which summarizes the contents of the five chapters above and points out the limitations of the thesis.