Qing Sun Kan 《Eryazhi Yin》 Phonetic System Study

Erya zhiyin was written in 1795 by Sun kan. It contains 2532 items of sound glosses.In glossing the sound,the book basically adopts the form of Zhiyin(直音),combining Niusisheng(纽四声法).It is a book for phonetic notation and new material to us,as anybody hasnot studied its phonetic system. After careful collation we selected 1,719 available items of sound glosses in all. We studied them and came to the conclusion about the nature of the phonetic system in Eryazhiyin:it shows a language spoken by some intellectuals,which was influenced by northern Mandarin of Qing Dynasty, i.e. a Mandarin of Gaoyou(高邮)This paper employs the method of comparative Fanqie(反切)and statistical method, with phonemic analysis, identification of documentation and identification of dialect pronunciation. The conclusion of this paper is as following:1. In Eryazhiyin,there are 34 initials which have following features:Most of the voiced (浊音)initials are kept but a few of them are glossed together with voiceless initials;it is about 13.19 percent. initial Fei(非)) and initial Fu (敷)are merged, part of characters of initial Feng(奉)are also mixed with initial Fei(非)and initial Fu(敷),but initial Wei(微)does not mixed with others; Zero initial is enlarged, initial Yi(疑)are mixed with initial Ying(影),and so does initial Xia(匣)；initial Ni (泥)and Niang(娘)are merged; the initial groups of Zhier Zhuang(知二庄)are merged and so do the initial groups of the Zhisan zhang(知三章),but the groups of Zhier Zhuang and Zhisan zhang do not merge; so do the initial groups of the Jing(精).Xia(匣) and Yu(喻)are mixed partially; Chuan (船) and Shan(禅) are not distinguished; Cong(从)and Xie(邪),Cong(从) and Chuan(船),Cong (从)and Cheng(澄)are also mixed partially;various initials are glossed interchangeably.2.There are 49 finals and have following features:-m finals (-m韵尾)are merged with-n finals (-n韵尾);the rime e groups of Zhen(臻)and Shen (深), Shan (山) and Xian (咸)are combined respectively;-n finals (-n韵尾) and-(?) finals (-(?)韵尾)are partially mixed; the differences of enter tone(入声)-p,-t,and -k disappear and transtorm into-(?) the differences between double rhym (重韵) is disappeared, so does the differences between double Qi (重纽);finals of divisionⅢandⅣare merged, so do the finals of divisionⅠandⅡ; some of the inals of divisionⅢandⅠare also merged; medium-i (-i介音)has appeared in most of the divisionⅡ-KaiKou(开口)-gutturals, finals of different rime groups are merged considerably, so do the rhyme sections. 3. There are four tones: plain tones (平声),rising tones (上声),departing tones(去声) and enter tones(入声).Each tone has yin(阴)and yang(阳),so it develops into eight tones.a few of Quanzhuo rising tones (全浊上声)have become into departing tones...