Study Of Phonetic Features Of Shijiang Dialect In Dongkou County, Hunan Province

It is known that all dialects in Dongkou belong to Gan dialect except Huangqiao dialect, Jintian dialect, Yanglin dialect and Gaosha dialect, which belong to Xiang dialect. As a new county established in 1950's, Dongkou is located in the Southwest Mandarin-Xiang dialect interlaced zone. Therefore, the dialects in Dongkou are very complex and worth studying. Situated in the east of Dongkou County, Shijiang District is 26 kilometers away from the county seat, and is bordered by Longhui County to the east; Huangqiao District and Gaosha District to the south; Zhushi District to the west; and Shanmen District to the north. Shijiang dialect is the author's mother tongue, which is similar to the standard dialect of Dongkou, while having some differences. Regarding Shjiang dialect as the research object, this paper focuses on its phonological nature. By comparing Shijiang dialect with the standard dialect of Dongkou, Huangqiao dialect and Gaosha dialect, this paper tries to make a breakthrough in the study of the interior diversity of dialects in Dongkou as well.Mainly based on fieldwork, analysis, description and comparison, this paper describes and summarizes the basic phonological system and features thoroughly and in detail. In that way, this paper tries to provide amply phonological material to the academia, and to lay the foundation of the study of the interior diversity, vocabulary, and grammar of dialects in Dongkou.This paper falls into seven parts:Chapter 1 is the preface, which briefly describes the geography, history, population and situation of dialect use of Dongkou County (including Shijiang District), as well as introduces the research status of Chinese dialects in Dongkou (including Shijiang dialect), and the research significance of this paper.Chapter 2 mainly describes the phonological system of Shijiang dialect.Chapter 3 mainly describes the collocation relationship and the phonological features of Shijiang dialect.Chapter 4 introduces the case of variant pronunciation in literary reading and colloquial reading in Shijiang dialect.Chapter 5 arranges the homonym form of Shijiang dialectChapter 6 is mainly based on the methods of description, comparison and analysis. By comparing Shijiang dialect with the standard dialect of Dongkou (belonging to Gan dialect), Huangqiao dialect and Gaosha dialect (belonging to Xiang dialect), this chapter reveals that the initials and tone of Shijiang dialect is more similar to the standard dialect of Dongkou, while its finals is more similar to Huangqiao dialect. Moreover, Chapter 6 discusses the cause of this phonological phenomenon by reviewing such factors as location, immigrant and dialect contact, etc.The last part is the conclusion. By summing up the phonological features of Shijiang dialect through its initials, finals and tone, this paper concludes that with Xiang dialect's features, Shijiang dialect belongs to Gan dialect.