A Study Of Hakka Phonetics In Dongxin Town,Guiping Of Guangxi

The northern part of Guiping(桂平)City is a relatively concentrated area of Guiping Hakka dialect.In Dongxin(垌心)Township,the population is predominantly Hakka,with a small number of Cantonese-speaking residents living among them.The Hakka people in Dongxin of Guiping went through a migration from the central Hakka dialect area to a non-central Hakka area.In addition,before the establishment of Dongxin Township,it was under the jurisdiction of Jintian(金田)Town,Guiping City,and was deeply influenced politically,economically,culturally,and linguistically by the local Cantonese dialects,resulting in inevitable phonetic variations due to extensive contact.Based on field investigation and experimental phonetic analysis,this study provides a detailed and objective description of the phonetic system of Dongxin Hakka dialect.By comparing it with Middle Chinese and summarizing its diachronic phonetic features,it also compares it with the phonetics of the Yingde(英德)Hakka dialect.Furthermore,it explores the contact-induced phonetic variation of Dongxin Hakka dialect after contact with the local Cantonese dialect.The study found that Dongxin Hakka dialect retains most of the phonetic features of Hakka dialects,and has many phonetic similarities with the ancestral Yingde Hakka dialect,which linguistically demonstrates a close kinship between the two places.On the other hand,Dongxin Hakka dialect has also undergone a series of contact-induced phonetic variations with the local Cantonese dialect to varying degrees.This phenomenon of phonetic variation not only conforms to the development and evolution rules of Chinese phonetic history,but also has obvious factual evidence of contact.The internal and external conditions jointly promoted the evolution process of Dongxin Hakka dialect.Studying the phonetics of Dongxin Hakka dialect not only reveals the phonetic appearance of this dialect and fills the research gap of Hakka dialects in Guiping City,but also helps to comprehensively present the overall features and variation characteristics of Hakka dialects,providing linguistic facts for subsequent related studies.Additionally,in terms of practical significance,it can also provide some language facts for the revision of its family tree and the compilation of local chronicles.