Study On The Evolution Of The Pronumciation Of Ancient Initial "Ri"

Reconstructing the pronunciation of ancient and modern "Ri(æ—¥)" initial is one of the diffucult problems in Chinese phondogy.Ancient initial "Ri" has many different pronunciation such as nasals,laterals,affricat and fricative, and its literary-vs.-colloquial reading stratum is very complex, so it can be named one of the most ambiguous ancient consonant.Bases on the facts of dialectal materials, by delineating and analysing the sound value of ancient and modern "Ri" initial, this thesis explains its evolutionary mechanism.This thesis includes five chapters:(1) Foreword. This chapter introduces the research content, value, investigation sources and measures, and it also explain the relevant style-related symbols.(2) The research of the sound value of ancient and modern "Ri" initial. Bases on plenty historical meterial and result from experimental phonetics, we divides the evolvement into Ancient Ages,Middle Ages,Late Antiquity and Modern four stages on diachronic level, and analyses the sound value of curren Chinese dialects on synchronic level.(3) Investigation of "Ri" initial in Minnan dialect. First, we describe its pronunciation from 18th century to present through historical dialectic dates. And then we reveal its new literary reading stratum.(4) The analysis about the evolution of "Ri" initial. Integrating the dates above, we grope for the reason and machanism of the evolution of its sound value, and then card its literary-vs.-colloquid reading stratum in current Chinese dialects.(5) Ending. This chaper makes an overall conclusion on this thesism, and forecasts the evolutive trend of "Ri" initial in futue. And the limitation of the thesis has been stated as well.