Comparative Study Between Chengguan Dialect And Yanghe Dialect In Cili,Hunan

The population in Cili county is equally split between Tujia people and Han people. Taking Yanghe dialect as the representative of Tujia villages and Chengguan dialect as that of the southwest Mandarin dialect districts, this thesis uses diverse research methods mainly like the static description, the comparison and the investigation to conduct an in-depth survey on the dialects and obtains abundant data. Through the description and comparative analysis on Yanghe dialect and the county dialect, it seeks the substratum of Tujia language in Chinese dialects within the areas inhabited by Tujia people, probes into the current situation of language use in the areas inhabited by Tujia people and analyzes and sorts out the lexical characteristics of Yanghe dialect. This thus provides linguistic materials for the academic world to know and understand the researches on Cili dialects and lays a good foundation for further work on Cili dialects.This thesis consists of four parts.As the first part, the Introduction mainly states the background,purpose and significance of the selected topic and the geography and demography, historical development and language use in Cili county.Besides, it presents the research method and procedures of this thesis and introduces the respondents in this survey.Part Two displays the comparison tables between Chengguan dialect and Yanghe dialect in respet of the pronounciation and their lexical classification. In this part, near 3000 entries of words and expressions are listed. Considering they are linked to astronomy, geography, season,agriculture, adjectives or else, they can be divided into 28 categories.The third part compares the vocabulary of Chengguan dialect and that of Yanghe dialect. It analyzes the connections and differences between the vocabularies in two places by comparing them in four aspects, including the word-formation, the meaning, the motivation of word-formation and the reserved ancient words. It is found out that the difference between these two dialects is that the vocabularies are corresponding and overlapping.Part Four part discusses about the fade-out and disappearance of Tujia language. The reasons for and the effects behind the Chinesization of Tujia language are explored in three aspects, i.e. the origin and development of the Tujia people in Cili county, its activities and the flow of the ethic group.