A Special Study On The Contact Between Bana Language And Chinese Dialects

The Pana Language is a newly-discovered language,belonging to the branch of Hmong Language in the Hmong-Mien Language family,which is mainly popular in two townships in Chengbu Miao Autonomous County and Suining County bordering Hunan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.As a language of a small population,the Pana Language,which has been making a close contact with the local Chinese dialects and is in the process of decaying,has great research value.In this paper,on the basis of the investigation of the phonology and vocabulary of the Pana Language in the village of Liuma,Desheng,Chiban,and Tanni as well as the local Chinese dialects,the phonological system of the Pana Language was comprehensively and deeply described.Besides,the related language phenomena from the perspective of language contact was given a detailed analysis.This paper contains seven parts:As the prelude,the first chapter starts with the introduction of the distribution of population speaking Pana Language,geographical environment and ethnic history.Then,focusing on the discussion of local dug stone-carved characters and related issues,it holds that the characters in the text "Dong Xi Qian Zhi·Zhi Yu" record mainly local Chinese dialects instead of Miao Language.Also,this chapter illustrates previous studies about Pana Language and the local Chinese dialects,the pronouncer’s related information,research methods and technical route.Chapter Two is the description of the phonological system of the Pana Language in the above-mentioned four villages and the local Chinese dialects.In it,the system of consonants,vowels,tones and the properties of phonological structure of the Pana Language in the four villages are systematically arranged and sorted.Especially,the types and pitches of tones of the Pana Language in Liuma Village are comprehensively analyzed by way of the extraction of the fundamental frequency data.Chapter Three comprehensively analyzes internal pronunciation differences of the Pana Language with the help of experimental phonetics.Laying emphasis on the characteristics of changes of combined consonants in initial consonants,it reveals that the changes of initial consonants are the most complex.Chapter Four and Chapter Five describe the phonology of loan words in the Pana Language.In accordance with the framework of the phonology of Chinese in the middle ancient times,the two chapters examine the systems of consonants,vowels,and tones of loan words,by combining with the characteristics of Chinese dialects in the village of Chiban and Liuma where the Pana Language as the source language is used.Chapter Six examines types of loan words in the Pana Language from the perspective of typology.In it,the related research of the classifications of the loan words conducted by Haugen,E and scholars in China is given a detailed review.Then,the opinion is put forward that the properties of characters is closely related to the types of the loan words,getting rid of observing Chinese loan words in the Pana Language from the monotonous perspective of the types of loan words in Chinese as the model.Based on the fact that the Pana Language contacts with the Chinese language,Chapter VII criticizes western linguistic theories about contact-induced language evolutions and concludes that the evolutions are mainly triggered by bilinguals.Languages in contact can generally be divided into the source language and the recipient language.Types of contact-induced evolutions are divided into “borrowing” and “imposition”.“Borrowing” is closely related with the socially dominant language,and “imposition” is often closely related to the bilingual’s psychologically dominant language.