A Research Into The Dialect Of Dali By Bai Jing-hua

Dali County, once the capital of Dong-fu Region in Guan-zhong Plain (located in the central area of Shannxi Province), has long been the political, economic and cultural center in the eastern part of Shannxi Province. Hence, a research into the Dali Dialect is materially significant not only in preserving and arranging the dialect, but also in understanding its history and culture. According to The Chinese Language Atlas, the Dali dialect belongs to Guan-zhong Dialectal Region, which is subordinated to the Mandarin Region in the Zhong-yuan Area. The thesis is divided into 5 chapters. First, a brief survey of the geography and history of Dali is given in Chapter I. Succeeding to it, Chapter II presents a comprehensive account of the phonetic system of the Dali dialect, including the consonant and vowel signs, the one-character tone, the intonation and the sound er in the dialect, which are contrasted with the ancient phonetic system, with the intention of illustrating the historical change of sound that the Dali dialect has undergone. The Table of Homonymous Characters in Chapter III shows how a common Chinese character pronounces in the Dali dialect (Both the elegant and informal way of pronunciation are offered.). The words, phrases and sentences collected in The Table of Common Words in Chapter IV, which carry a strong vernacular touch of Dali, are mostly used by the Dali native of today frequently. With specific examples, Chapter V is devoted to an illustration of some special words and grammatical phenomena of the Dali Dialect.