Phonetic Strata And Sound Change Of Danyang Dialect

The convenient modern transportation and interregional communications lead to frequent contacts among different Chinese dialects. Also, the spread of common spoken Chinese and advanced modern media technology make the dialect change rapidly. The abundance and complexity of the evolution of Chinese dialects manifest the long history of Chinese phonetics. Thus, it’s quite necessary and urgent to record the current situation of dialect phonetics as well as to retrace its evolution history and deduce the future trends.Inside the Chinese language, there’re complicated differences among dialects. So we usually wish to reveal the nature of Chinese by studying one particular dialect. The final goal of phonetics research is to write a history of phonetics and to describe the changing track of it. Take the complex phonetics variation of one dialect under synchronic state as a starting point, we can discuss the evolution principle of dialect phonetics by analyzing the source and reasons of the variation and the dialect phonetics strata. Danyang locates between Mandarin and Wu-dialects, which, as a borderland, is characterize by complex strata overlay and remarkable phonetics variation. So we pick Dangyang as a representative and thoroughly analyzing the phonetic strata and sound change of Danyang dialect. Then we propose opinions on the sound change of Chinese language and discuss research methods of sound change.The thesis will be divided into seven parts.The first chapter, the introduction, presents the origin, the background and the significance of this research as well as a general view of Danyang dialect. Research methods and brief information of the cooperated native speakers will also be listed.The second chapter, the general view of pronunciations of Danyang dialect, statically illustrates the initials, finals and tones system of pronunciations of Danyang dialect in details, arranges the phonetic matching table as a reference for analyzing the phonetics strata, and generally introduces the synchronic differences of pronunciations of Danyang dialect.The third chapter, the literary and colloquial pronunciation system of Danyang dialect history, introduces the details of literary and colloquial pronunciation system which is clearly presented in Danyang dialect history, and launch investigation and analysis on the status of the system in current Danyang dialect. Then the chapter thoroughly analyzes the evolution history of literary and colloquial pronunciation system by comparing the historical situation and today’s actual pronunciation, and puts the correspondence of the literary and colloquial levels of literary and colloquial pronunciation system in the order of middle ancient phonologic system. In the end the chapter discusses in depth the literary and colloquial pronunciation in Chinese dialects. On one hand, the chapter thoroughly analyzes the strata overlay which is most noticeable in Chinese dialects. On the other hand, the chapter prepares to discuss the other strata overlay situations more deeply for the following chapters and provides theoretical reference for the strata analysis.The fourth chapter, the types of pronunciation variation in Dangyang dialect, separately studys and detailed analyzes pronunciation variation under synchronic state of Danyang dialect based on the dialect investigation. First the chapter introduces the investigation method and investigation entries making about the variations. Then the chapter classifies the pronunciation variation under synchronic state into five types, the literary and colloquial pronunciation, free variation, age difference, regional difference and other pronunciation variations. Finally the chapter compares and discusses the relationships among different types of pronunciation variation. The whole chapter separates the pronunciation variations from difference types under synchronic state based on source analysis of all kinds of variations. The meaning of separation of types of pronunciation variations is to find out the possible influence factors of these variations and seize its changing trend based on the factors.The fifth chapter, the phonetic strata of Danyang dialect, introduces the situations of phonetic strata of Chinese dialect and analyzes the strata status and overall nature of Danyang Dialect. The chapter is separated into3parts by the initials, finals and tones of phonetic strata of Danyang dialect. Starting with its nature of borderland of Mandarin and Wu-dialects and combining the pronunciation variation investigation in fourth chapter, analyzes the strata overlay displayed by the inconsistent correspondence in ancient and modern phonetic system, the chapter arranges the the strata structure of pronunciation of Danyang dialect building the history of which from the perspective of strata analysis. Through the perspective of strata analysis, we can prove the overall judgment of phonetic system of Danyang dialect on one hand, and describe more deeply about the formation and changing track of phonetic system on the other.The sixth chapter, the sound change of Danyang dialect, discusses the relationship of synchronic variation of fourth chapter and phonetic strata of fifth chapter. The chapter arranges and analyzes the changing situation of pronunciation of Danyang dialect in the strata analysis in fifth chapter, then brings up viewpoints on the changing law of Chinese dialect phonetics and discusses the research method of sound change of dialects.The final chapter, the conclusion, summarizes the research procedures、contents and relationships of the preceding chapters, expounds the features and results of the thesis, while pointing out the difficulties and insufficiencies of the research, and further working and researching plans in the future.