The Study Of Linguistic Geography On Han Dialects In Xiangjiang River Valley

This is a research of Chinese dialects along Xiang River valley from the perspective of dialect geography by investigaging dialects and drawing dialects maps in order to display dialects geographically,to study the distribution rules and the linguistic value of distribution and then to discuss rules for dialects evolution and contact.Maps for dialects are a main part of this dissertation on which the argument is based.With an investigation of 108 places in 49 counties,it provides 46 maps for dialects,representing features of dialects along Xiangjiang River Valley from aspects of dialects distribution in different areas,pronunciation, vocabulary,grammar and so on.Except the maps for dialects,it can be divided into eleven chapters.The first chapter introduces object of this paper,reviews and analyzes the present situation and history of applying dialect geography to Chinese dialects research,presents the research content,flow of thoughts,methods and significance.Chapter Two to Five research some phonetic phenomena of dialects in areas around Xiang River,presenting evolutional phenomena of de-nasal sound,transition from round lip to flat one and from multiple vowels to single vowel in Chinese dialects along Xiang River valley,presenting the undistinguishable phenomena between "zhi,zhang" and "duan',"yimu", and "yingmu" in ancient time through the distribution of capital consonant of several words,discussing the specific content and the application significance of comprehensiveness of phonetic system in "Qieyun" by showing the confusion of "Liushe" and "Xiaoshe",with tone distribution of several words discussing the tone diffusing route as well as the importance of factors like tone number in tone evolution.Chapter Six to Nine is a research of vocabulary evolution of Chinese dialects in areas of Xiang River from aspects like language for babies,kinship appellation,body appellation and farming tools with the result that language for babies is comparatively conservative.It shows that in order to solve the conflict resulted from the dialects contact different words have to be used to assume different meanings originally assumed by one word.while the vocabulary evolution can well illustrate the development of local economic and Cultural development. This article points out that,in long-term communication, vocabulary forms with different characteristics contend with each other,many integrated pronuciations,integrated words,integrated phrases appear but under the influence of popular etymology,local dialects re-explain and re-adjust these contaminated forms.The formation of these contaminated forms and their interaction with popular etymology are presented in detail.Also presented are different spreading channels for language projects in different periods.Chapter Ten depicts repeated aspect of Niyuan Pinghua and dialects around,comparing related categories of Chinese dialects along Xiang River valley.It argues that the supplementary aspect originates from repeated aspect.It also analyzes the cause and process of this evolution and further evolution.Chapter Eleven summarizes the whole text,with the point that in spreading and communication process,conflicts appear among different dialects in areas of Xiang River and one of the way to deal with these conflicts is to produce integrated forms, dialects and dialect projects spreading are of different characteristics in different periods.In long-term interaction, differences among dialects with different characteristics gradually disappear and the tendency to become the same leads to dialects with regional features.It can be judged from this article that Chinese dialects in the whole areas around Xiang River can be roughly divided into four regions:mainstream region,northwest region,southeast region,six southern counties region.Great changes have taken place in Xiang dialects due to the contact and diffusing of different dialects. Some linguistic projects tend to be more similar in Hengzhou Pian and Yongquan Pian of Xiang dialect and the same applies to Loushao Pian and Changyi Pian.