A Phonological Study Of The Xianghua Dialect In West Hunan

The Xianghua dialect is an unclassified Chinese dialect distributed in such counties as Yuangling, Luxi,Guzhang, Chenxi and Xupu belonging to the western part of Hunan. This paper explores some important features of initial consonants, simple or compound vowels and tones in the Xianghua dialect from the perspectives of synchronic typology and diachronic evolution, using the field investigation made by the author and the materials in the Xianghua dialect already published as the basic corpus. As for the initial consonants, it mainly studies the characteristics of such phenomena left over from the ancient times as "light labial read as heavy labial", " 知组 read as "端组- "来母 read as affricate and fricative", "心生书禅邪 ' read as affricate", analyzing the evolution of the full voiced initial consonant,见组 and 精庄章组l.As for the simple or compound vowels, it explores the early phonetic phenomena of the Xianghua dialect such as "the separation of 鱼虞, " the three divisions of 支指之" "纯四等韵 read as an open glottal consonant", dynamic evolution such as the classification of Yang phonology into phonology, the separation and combination of sixteen phonology, and regional flavours of the phenomena such as "close chain changes of high vowels in 蟹假果遇", " the classification of "支微 into "鱼, " the classification of Yang phonology into phonology and Yin phonology with necessary changes. The results reveal that the Xianghua dialect has strong inner integration with some differences, and many ancient phonological phenomena tinted with stiong W dialect and ancient Xiang dialect in a synchronic system interwoven by such multi-elements as a legacy of ancient sounds, self-creation and dialect permeation.