A Study Of Phonology In Shanbei Jin Dialect

This paper discusses the synchronic features and diachronic evolution of Shanbei Jin dialect basing on the data investigated by the author and of related publications. It covers five chapters, and the three of which constructs the main body of the paper.Chapter one is the general introduction of Shanbei, such as its geography, history, population and so on. Then a brief description of Shanbei dialect, the definition of what is called Shanbei Jin dialect in this paper, and a review of previous research on this topic is presented. In the end of this chapter, the meaning of the research, purpose, materials and study methods are given.Chapter two mainly discusses the pronunciation forms and evolution of the stops and affricates, ZhiZhuangZhang-zu (知庄章组) ,Yi-mu (疑母) and so on in Shanbei Jin dialect.The voiceless stops and affricates, the voiced stops and affricates of Ze-sheng (仄声) in Shanbei Jin dialect have distinguishing features. The voiceless stops and affricates are mainly pronounced as unaspirated surds, but some of them are pronounced as aspirated surds, which are all oral characters and most of them are in Shang-sheng (上声) and Qu-sheng (去声) . We believe the voiceless stops and affricates mixed with the voiced stops and affricates in the Tang-Wudai period (唐五代) in the form of lexical diffusion. However, this drift had not completed before it was substituted by the sound change that the voiced were pronounced as aspirated voiceless. Thus those which were originally voiceless and changed into the voiced followed the suit, that is, they were also pronounced as aspirated voiceless. All Shanbei Jin dialects have aspirated voiceless stops and affricates having come from the voiced. Generally, most of these voiceless stops and affricates are used in oral language. The numbers of voiced initials in Ze-sheng (仄声) now pronounced as aspirated voiceless stops and affricates in Shanbei dialects are different. For example, in southern dialects of Shanbei Jin dialect such as Yan-chuan (延川) the most of voiced stops and affricates in Ze-sheng (仄声) are aspirated voiceless, but as it is well-known that the Chinese authoritative dialects standardly are divided into two groups: Ping-sheng(平声)aspirating and Ze-sheng(仄声)unaspirating, and their constant influences on Shanbei Jin dialect have caused the latter to develop along with this line, consequently, the aspirated voiceless mainly remained in Bai-du(白读). ZhiZhuangZhang-zu(知庄章组)are now pronounced as [ts] group ro [t(?)] group in Shanbei Jin dialect. Generally, in characters of Kai-kou-hu (开口呼), Er-deng (二等) of Zhi-zu (知组) are pronounced as [ts] group, San-deng (三等) are pronounced as [t(?)] group, all Zhuang-zu (庄组) are pronounced as [ts] group, while Zhang-zu (章组) , except Zhi-she (止 摄) are pronounced as [t(?)] group. We believe that in Shanbei Jin dialect the difference between Zhuang-zu (庄组) , Zhi-er (知二) and Zhang-zu (章组) ,Zhi-san (知三) may represent early phonetic level, and such phonetic pattern had come into being in northwest dialect of the Tang-Wudai period (唐五代) .Yi-mu (疑母) ,Ni-mu (泥母) , Wei-mu (微母) ,Ying-mu (影 母) and Yu-mu (喻母) are associated in today's Shanbei Jin dialect. First, in some Shanbei Jin...