The Pronunciation Types Of The Endings Of The Middle Chinese Yangsheng Rhyme In Modern Chinese Dialects

Taking the 178 characters with Yangsheng Rhyme of 930 dialect points in "Database for the Linguistic Atlas of Chinese Dialects" as object,this dissertation summarizes the phonetics types of the endings of the Yangsheng Rhyme of the Middle Chinese(henceforth MC) represented by the phonetics of Qie Yun, analyses the developing situations of the nine she with Yangsheng Rhymes.And on this basis the dissertation discusses the way,conditions and motivation of the development of the endings of the Yangsheng Rhyme.This dissertation includes four chapters and other issues.The first chapter introduces the significance of writing the dissertation,study made by the predecessors and the object,way,purpose of writing the dissertation and the sources of the materials.Taking nasal consonant as ending,Yangsheng Rhyme is a large class of the MC ending system.The pattern of the ending of the Yangsheng rhyme in MC is that xianshen she ending with[-m],shanzhen she ending with[-n], dangjiangzenggengtong she ending with[-η].It is very important to study the phonetics types of the endings of the Yangsheng rhyme of the MC.First,it is indispensable to reconstruct the Chinese phonetics history.Second,it is helpful to know comprehensively the conformation pattern and the phonetics system of Chinese.Third,it is helpful to the study of general linguistics and historical comparative linguistics.Fourth,it can help people to study Putonghua and to communicate more smoothly.The main study body of this dissertation is the present endings of the characters with the MC Yangsheng Rhyme of Chinese dialect.178 characters which are often used in 930 dialect points are selected to be compared and analyzed.This dissertation mainly uses the theories of Descriptive linguistics,Historical-comparative linguistics,Phonological, Experimental phonetics and database to compare and analyze the materials and to explain the way,conditions and the reason of the development of the endings.The second chapter summarizes the pronunciation types of the endings of the MC Yangsheng Rhyme in modern Chinese dialects.There are eight pronunciation types of the endings of the MC Yangsheng Rhyme in modern Chinese dialects according to the 165540 Yangsheng Rhyme characters in 930 dialect points of the Database.①the type with the endings of [-m],[-n],[-η],②the type with the endings of[-n],[-η],③the type with one ending of[-n]or[-η],④the type with both the nasal ending and the nasal-vowel,⑤the type with both the nasal ending and the oral-vowel,⑥the type with all the nasal ending,the nasal-vowel and the oral-vowel,⑦the type with the nasal-vowel and the oral-vowel,⑧the type with the oral-vowel.The eight types are described in different sections.In the first six sections,each type is described in a single section,and the seventh and the eighth types are described in the seventh section.In every section,it focuses on different types of endings which are characterized with different situations of separates or incorporate of she in the MC,and then puts forward the map of the distribution of the groups.In section four and five the dissertation talks about the sub-types which can be divided into two types of xianshen she ending with[m]and xianshen she not ending with[m].The eighth section discusses the distribution of the present pronunciations of the eight types of the endings of MC Yangsheng rhyme in each Chinese dialect area on the basis of the division of the first seven sections and concludes the main type of each area,and in the end gives the comparing list of the eight types of the present pronunciation of the Yangsheng Rhyme in MC.The relationship of correlation between[m],[n],[η]in MC and the endings of modern Chinese dialects is complex by the analysis of categorizing and comparing.There is the mainstream of ending type in eight dialects areas and the same ending type can be found in some different areas.Also there are different ending types in one dialect area. The third chapter discusses the endings according to different she and discusses the concrete development of the endings from middle ancient to present time taking she as unit.This chapter is divided into three sections and shanzhen she and xianshen she are discussed together.The first section discusses the development of xianshen she.The[-m]of the middle ancient xianshen she is reserved in the dialects of Min,Ke and Yue,and that in other dialects mostly has changed.Some have merged with[-n]of shanzhen she,some have merged with[-η]of dangjiangzenggengtong she,some have changed into nasal-vowel or oral-vowel.The situation of disappearing and changing is reflected in the rhyming of Yunshu and poetry.From the point of view of Yunshu,the important phase of the disappearing and changing was from Zhongyuanyinyun to Xiruermuzi,and the disappearing of[-m]in the northern dialects perhaps appeared in this period.The rhyming situation in poetry can better reflect the disappearing and changing of[-m]in dialects because the number of the writers and the works was large and the distribution area was more broader.[-m]was mixed with[-n]and[-η]only accidentally in the Tang Dynasty but in the Song Dynasty the mixture of them were much more used.Information conveys by poetry were more richer.And the disappearing and changing in dialects must be earlier than reflected in Yunshu.The second section discusses the development of dangjiang she.The pronunciation of dang she and jiang she is usually the same in modern Chinese dialects.The merger of dang she and jiang she began in the Northern and Southern Dynasties,but was not popular in the Song Dynasty and didn't become the mainstream until the Yuan Dynasty.The ending of xianshan she is the same as that of dangjiang she in many dialects,but xianshan and dangjiang are the same while they are different from other she in pronunciation,in which the nasal-vowel and the oral-vowel are the main aspects which shows that the endings developing to[-(?)]or[-a]is common of xianshandangjiang she in these dialects.The third section discusses the development of zenggengtong she.The two most important sound values of zenggeng she are[-n]or[-η].Ending with[-n]is common in every dialect area and it usually causes the merge of the endings of zhen she and shen she.The sound value of geng she is complex and changeable while that of tong she is stable.The fourth chapter analyzes the way,condition and motivation of the development of the endings of the ancient Yangsheng Rhyme.The first section is on the way of the development.The endings of Yangsheng Rhyme were nasal sounds,while at present the number of the nasal sounds reduced.Besides the inner merger,some changed into nasal-vowel,some into oral-vowel.It just shows the process in which the status of the nasal sound weakened gradually and it disappeared at last.There are two ways of the development of the nasal endings,one is mergering,the other is weakening and disappearing.The second section is about the condition.There are mainly two conditions of the development of the nasal endings.One is the front or the back position of the place of articulation of the nasal endings.The order of the disappearing of the nasal endings is related to the place of articulation and the order is from the front to the back,that is,-m→-n→-η.The other is the high or low position of the tongue.The order of the disappearing of the nasal endings is decided by the high or low position of the main vowel.Low vowels changed before the high vowels did.The two conditions can work respectively in different dialects.They can also work at the same time when the two are crossed.The third section is about the motivation.Different elements of the pronunciation require collaborative action to get harmony and smooth.If there are disharmonies then assimiliation and disamiliation work.It is under the work of assimiliation and disamiliation that the elements of pronunciation adjust each other and develope.The mutual action between each element of a syllable and that between each syllable is the inner factor and they are the most motivation of the development of the nasal endings.On the other hand,language contact is a promoting factor which plays a role in some areas.The invisible driving force of the development of the nasal endings is principle of laborsaving,which is to say, to pursue easiness and convenience in pronunciation.This driving force causes the gradual changing of the nasal ending of a syllable and between syllables. Then the nasal ending changes into the subsidiary of the vowel and at last it disappears.The other issues discuss the condition under which the MC Yinsheng Rhyme pronounced nasal ending in modern dialects.In the development from middle ancient to present Chinese pronunciation the basic rule is the weakening even disappearing of the endings of the MC Yangsheng Rhyme,which is the central issue of this dissertation.But a phenomenon of inverse development is worth considering,that is,part of the characters of Yinsheng Rhyme end with nasal endings in some modern Chinese dialects.There will always be conditions in the inverse development.The features and significant position of the nasal endings in Chinese can be known more clearly with the weakening and disappearing of the nasal endings.