A Study On Zeng Yunqian’s Research Into Phonology

Zeng Yunqian is a famous linguist in the period of the Republic of China. He especially devoted to the study of phonology. And he had achieved great success in initials,rhyme group of ancient times and initials of medieval times. He also had his own unique perspective in the transfer of ancient sound, rhyme of changed or unchanged and menfa of rhyme tables.Historical Phonology Lecture is Zeng Yunqian’s crystalline writings on phonology study. In this thesis, we take this monograph as the main research object.Through our systematic analysis of the research on middle Chinese phonology,old Chinese phonology and study of rhyme tables which made by Zeng Yunqian,we are to explore his phonology ideology and methodology to conduct a comprehensive summary of Zeng’s phonology achievement and theory and to rediscover his historical contribution to the development of Chinese phonology. Studies have shown that Zeng Yunqian had used two methods such as sound archaeological and trial to study ancient sound. But fundamentally, his research was based on phonology of the Qie Yun 《切韵》. The completely independence of the rhyme with a stop ending,the interworking relationship among the rhyme with an open ending,rhyme with a nasal ending and rhyme with a stop ending,a focus on reasonable phonetic explanation all indicate that Zeng Yunqian is a phonologist of trial faction.