A Comparative Study On The Phonologies Of Changpu Dialect And Meiping Dialect In Suining County, Hunan Province

Xiang dialects and Gan dialects are two independent dialects of modern Chinese dialects. When we go back to ancient documents and focus on the facts of current language, we can notice that Xiang dialects and Gan dialects of Chinese are closely related. Suining is located in south-west of Hunan Province. The languages of Suining is very complicated. Except minority languages, there are Xiang dialects and Gan dialects of Chinese in Suining county. Based on the existed research, this paper gives a comparative study on the phonology of Changpu dialect and Meiping dialect using description method and interpretative method, diachronic comparative method and synchronic comparative method, traditional phonology and contemporary phonetics. It views the main phonetic features of Changpu dialect and Meiping dialect, and makes certain which dialect group they belonging to.We hope that this thesis can promote the study on Xiang dialects and Gan dialects of Chinese, the comparative study on dialects of Chinese.The thesis contains five chapters.The first chapter shows briefly us the geography, the history, the population, the nations of Suining county, and the languages and dialects used there. It also introduces the present studies on the dialects in Suining county.The second chapter describes the phonology of Changpu dialect, including initials, finals, tones and literary readings and colloquial speakings.The third chapter describes the phonology of Meiping dialect, including initials, finals, tones and literary readings and colloquial speakings.The forth chapter compares the phonology of Changpu dialect and Meiping dialect with the phonology of Chinese in the Middle Age in initials, finals, tones.The fifth chapter views the main phonetic features of Changpu dialect and Meiping dialect, and makes certain which dialect group they belonging to.The appendix of B gives a syllabary of homophones of Changpu dialect.The appendix of C gives a syllabary of homophones of Meiping dialect.