A Study Of The Phonology Of Two Chinese Textbooks In The Qing Dynasty

The Chinese textbooks for foreign learners based on Beijing dialect during the Qing Dynasty have important value on the research history on Beijing Mandarin. The Pronounciation of the Characters During the Qing Dynasty and Beijing Mandarin Pronounciation Chart are two Mandarin textbooks during Meiji Period of Japan, which used Beijing dialect as standard Mandarin. This dissertation based on these two textbooks to study the phonetic system of them, in the meantime, probes into the phonetic features and change diachronically, comparing with Collection Languages From Then On. The perpose is to find the development evolutionary rules of modern Mandarin based on Beijing dialect.The initial, rhyme and tone system in The Pronounciation of the Characters During the Qing Dynasty and Beijing Mandarin Pronounciation Chart were more or less the same as those in today’s Mandarin. Diachronically, Collection Languages From Then On, The Pronounciation of the Characters During the Qing Dynasty and Beijing Mandarin Pronounciation Chart reflected the development and evolutionary rules of Beijing phonetics throughout the period.From initial aspect, the initials Zhi, Zhao pronounced apico-dental and retroflex, but now remained retroflex mostly; the initial Yi pronounces [z] today; the entering tone of Zhi, Zhuang and Zhang had literary and colloquial readings. From final aspect, io, uo had already disappeared during the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China; the development of o, uo, e had two ways; some entering tone of Zeng and Geng had the literary and colloquial readings of [ts] and [ts]; some of the characters had both alveolar nasal and velar nasal. In terms of tone, the record manifested the evolution towards uniform.To sum up, these three textbooks manifested the uniform of Beijing Mandarin, which also reflected the process and evolutionary rules of Beijing Mandarin during the Qing Dynasty to modern Mandarin.