Phonological Research On Xiangnan Mandarin

Xiangnan Mandarin is a geographic term, which refers to those South-west Mandarin in the south of Hunan Province. Xiangnan Mandarin is a sub-dialect of South-west Mandarin in the Atlas of Chinese Language. From synchronic and diachronic linguistic methods, the paper focuses on the phonetic phenomena of Xiangnan Mandarin. Xiangnan Mandarin shares many similarities with other South-west Mandarin, but it also has many uniques. Compared with other South-west Mandarin, the most significant feature of Xiangnan Mandarin is the very differences in Xiangnan Mandarin. The paper puts forward that the differences among the Xiangnan Mandarin are the differences among the dialects in xiangnan (not including mandarin). It contains 9 chapters.The first chapter gives a brief introduction of the geography and dialects of Xiangnan Mandarin. The distributions and the formation of Xiangnan Mandarin are emphasized in this chapter.The second chapter is about the phonological systems of Xiangnan Mandarin. 12 representative dialects are introduced in this chapter.The third to the fifth chapter is the studies on the consonants, vowels, tones of Xiangnan Mandarin.In the sixth chapter, the paper summarized the phonological features of Xiangnan Mandarin. Based on the phonological features, Xiangnan Mandarin can be divided into two groups: North to the mountain part and South to mountain part.Compared with the Xiangnan Mandarin described in Report on a Survey of the Dialects of Hunan, Xiangnan Mandarin has changed a lot. The evolutions of Xiangnan Mandarin are pointed out in the seventh chapter.