A Study On Neutral Tone Of The Gaoan (Huibu) Dialect In Jiangxi Province

The phonetic system of the Gaoan(Huibu) dialect is closer to that of the Zhangshu dialect ,which belongs to the Yiliu group in the Gan dialects , than to that of the Yunyangzheng dialect ,which belongs to the Changjing group .The neutral tone in the Huibu dialect manifests itself in three kinds of tone pitch (high , middle , low) .One depends upon the original tone of the neutral syllable itself ,one depends upon the original tone of the syllable ahead of it ,and one has nothing to do with them , but relates to grammar. When read lightly, varied changes often take place in the initial or the final of a certain syllable . Moreover , the influence of neutral tone will also spread to the syllables before or after it sometimes . According to whether could be stressed again . The neutral tone in the Huibu dialect may be devided into intonation one and grammar (?)(?)(?): the former can resume its streess , while the latter generally not .There are 10 large stress patterns and 14 small ones about the word groups (≤4 words Including one or more netural tone syllables in the Huibu dialect ;the stress patterns of those more than 2 words are firmly relevant to their direct compositions . The intonation neutral tone in the Huibu dialect serves for expressing abundant thoughts and feelings together with other intonation elements and the grammar neutral tone reflects the grammatical structure and meaning .Besides this ,distinguishing the meaning of words or phrases and integrating the meaning of words or phrases are two important functions of the neutral tone in the Huibu dialect.