A Study On Initials J, Q, X In Han Yin Ji Zi

Han Yin Ji Zi is a syllabary which aims at giving the sound and tones as heard in Hankow in the end of 19 century. It inherited the former sinologists' research approaches on Chinese and developed it to fulfill the needs of recording Wuhan dialect. It is an important and trustworthy modern dialectical phonetics material.The Wuhan dialect is an important representative of southeastern Mandarin. There are some differences between the Wuhan dialect and the Mandarin. Han Yin Ji Zi has a great historical value, it preserved the sound and tones in Hankow of one hundred years before and can fill the blank of material shortage in Wuhan dialect research work. It will do great help to Wuhan dialect historical research and the research on sound changes from mediaeval times till nowadays. It also helps the research on promoting Mandarin.The initials j, q, x in Han Yin Ji Zi have two different sources. One is the mediaeval finals of the second, the third and the fourth class adding to the mediaeval initials "jing" and "jian" series. The other is the rounded mediaeval finals of the third class adding to the mediaeval initials "zhi" and "zhang" series. In the concrete, the initial j mainly comes from the mediaeval initials "jian", "jing", "zhi", and "zhang". The initial q mainly comes from the mediaeval initials "qi", "qing", "che", and "chang". The initial x mainly comes from the mediaeval initials "xin", "xiao", "xia", "xie", "shu", and "shan". Beside this, depending on aspirate or not, the mediaeval initials "qun", "cheng", and "cong" differentiate into q and x.The variable [± rounded] also influences the initial. The unrounded finals may influence the "jian" and "jing" series, as well as the velum initials, and shape them into j, q, and x. The initials "zhi" and "zhang" series only get changed into j, q, and x under the influence of rounded finals.The mediaeval finals of the third and the fourth class will easily shape the mediaeval initials into j, q, and x. The mediaeval finals of the second class do not have head vowel, but once they create the head vowel [i] or [y], they will also shape the "jian" series into j, q, and x during a certain critical period.As a representative of southeastern Mandarin, the rules of sound changes in Wuhandialect are much the same as in Mandarin. But "xie" [unrounded] [second class] + "jian" series and "jiang" [unrounded] [second class] + "xia" initial are two special cases. They can also prove the importance of head vowel [i] in the whole process of sound changing. .The contemporary Wuhan dialect sound system is almost the same as 100 years before. But in some cases, it indicates there are some changes between j, q, and x. This phenomenon can be explained as a coexistence of local sounds and external sounds.There are also some sound changes due to characters. This phenomenon is very common in Chinese. Beside this, there are some symbiosis of local sounds and external sounds in this book. It is the result of language contact. In Han Tin Ji Zi, the change of tones is another important question. Till the day of Han Yin Ji Zi, the Ping tone had divided into Yin Ping and Yang ping, the fricatives Shang tone had changed into Qu tone. And the Ru tone were about to change.