The Research To The Opened And Closed Syllables Since The Mediaeval Times

The opened syllable and closed syllable are distinctive features to the Chinese phonological which can nominate phonetic sound. If the opened and closed syllables had some developments, the sound system changed in the mean time. So we study the changing progress of the opened and closed syllables can help us to find the phonological regular patterns. The connection in historical series and synchronic reference are the main methods in the five periods such as Sui-Tang,Song,Jin-Yuan,Ming-Qing dynasty and modern times. At the same time, We can study and analyze the development of the five initials systematically according to the analysis of the speech understanding and internal system.The historical development of the opened and closed syllables and the five initials have close relation and influence each other. Since the mediaeval times, six groups opened syllables of the final sounds turned to the closed syllables and eight groups closed syllables turned to the opened syllables serially. The development of the opened and closed syllables lost theirs balances. These imbalances embody in two aspects. One is the distribution inside the five initials, the other is different periods. There were some rules during the development of the opened and closed syllables. Firstly, there were compact relationship bwtween the changes of the opened and closed syllables and the five initials. If the initials were different, the development direction was differnt; secondly, the numbers of the changed words remained equivalent because of the systematicness of the phonetical struction so that there were opposite struction of the opened and closed syllables. The words of the laminals and the linguals have discrete changes whose degree of aperture was more bigger because of the initial since Song dynasty. After the two parts of the initials of the dentalveolar and velar had palatalization,the changes of jingzu (精组)did not continue. In the modern times,the discrete changes have finished by and large.We study the changes of the phonetics about the opened and closed syllables in the different periods from Suitang to the mordern times and compare the historical developments over all and systematically. Then we describe the changes of the Chinese phonetic,research the reasons of the changes and investigate the disciplines of the phonetic. This has certain significance to rich Chinese phonetical history and have provided valuable lingual materials which can be refered according to going deep into the development of Chinese phonetic system.