Lan Silver Mandarin Speech Research

This paper discusses the phonological features and studies the synchronic features and the diachronic evolution of the initials, finals and tone in Lan-Yin Mandarin based on the data investigated by the author in 2001 and related publications on Lan-Yin Mandarin.In the respect of initials, the author mainly analyzes the types of initials of Zhi-xi (知系) characters, similarities and differences between Ni-mu (泥母) and Lai-mu (来母) , as well as the phonetic values of Zero-initial (零声母) , and describes geographical distributions of these initials in Lan-Yin Mandarin. Two problems are discussed emphatically. One is the changes of [ts] group initials followed by Hekouhu rhyme. We concludes that the strong friction of medial [u] causes the phonetic changes of [tsv]→[pfv]→[kv]. And Jian-xi (.见系) initials of some characters change together with [ts] group initials. The other is the initials' literal-colloquial differences of Kaikou Er'deng Jian-xi (见系) characters, in which two even three historical layers are founded. By the way of lexical diffusion, as well as variant pronunciations between the young and the old, the literal would replace the colloquial in the future, while Chinese characters could help maintaining the colloquial pronunciation.With regard to rhymes, the paper discusses the changes of nasal endings and merging of different rhymes of Yang-sheng Yun( 阳声韵) in Middle Chinese, and offers an in-depth inquiry into the layers of the literal-colloquial difference of Ru-sheng Yun (入声韵) . In addition, the phonetic values of high vowels and the construction of Chinese syllable are studied from the view of phonology.Nasal ending weakening and rhyme merging are two main changes of Yang-sheng Yun (阳声韵) . The former appears in the rhymes with high main vowel, and the latter occurs within Yang-sheng Yun (阳声韵) or between Yang-sheng Yun (阳声韵) and Yin-sheng Yun (阴声韵) . Both kinds of changes contribute to the phonological simplification of Lan-Yin Mandarin.The Ru-sheng-yun having literal-colloquial differences belong to Zeng-she (曾摄) and Geng-she (梗摄) , and show two or three historical layers. Resulting from dialect contact, this phenomenon indicates the close relations between Lan-Yin Mandarin and other dialects around it.The strong friction of high vowel is an important feature about rhymes in Lan-Yin Mandarin, which can lead to adjustion of phonological system. Based on the discussion of this phenomenon, some new ideas are put forward on the construction of Chinese syllable.As for tones, the paper studies the tone development in Lan-Yin Mandarin from the perspectives of citation tone (单子调) and sandhi tone (连续调) , especially probes into the tone-weakening (声调虚化) in sandhi tone and related theoretical problems. The paper also attempts to explain the formation and development of tone-weakening, and the phenomenon that light-tone is neither light nor short in Chinese dialects.One main feature of tonal change is the simplification of tone system resulting from tone-merging (调类合流) . Usually occurring between two generations, the merging of differenttones has no indispensable relation with the similarities of tone values. And some valuable phenomena such as unstable tone value and irregular tonal distribution appear during the merging process.The other important feature is tone-weakening (声调虚化) in sandhi tone which is monotonic in the polysyllabic word essentially. The value of sandhi tone mainly depends on the tone of the left syllable. The features of sandhi show the changing trend from tone to intonation in Lan-Yin Mandarin.