Ezhou Local Dialect's Phonetics Research

A thorough description is made of Ezhou dialect's phonetics by means of on-the spot investigation and the methodology of descriptive linguistics. According to the methodololy of comparative linguistics, a comparison is made diachronically between Ezhou dialect and phonetic pattern of Middle Ancient Period and a comparison is also made synchronically between Ezhou dialect and standard Chinese. These comparisions lead to the conclusion that in the system of consonants, vowels and tones, these are correspondent laws between Ezhou dialect and standard Chinese. Therefore the phonetic features of Ezhou dialect are exposed to us.The article is divided into the following parts.In the introduction, which is the first part of this article, it mainly tells us something about the cultural and geographical background and the survey of Dialect in Ezhou area.The second part is about the description of the system of consonants, vowels and tones and the combinatory rules of consonants, vowels and tones in Ezhou dialect.The third part is about the tables of Chinese characters with homophone. There is a comparatively fuller collection of the commonly-used characters in Ezhou dialect. There is also a collection of non-standard forms of Chinese characters and some sounds without the forms of Chinese characters in such a dialect.The fourth part is focused on the detailed comparison between Ezhou dialect and the phonetic patterm of Middle Ancient Period in such three aspects as consonants, vowels and tones to show the correspondent laws in the forms of detailedly-made tables.The fifth part is focused on the detiailed comparison between Ezhou dialect and the phonetic patterm of standard Chinese in such three aspects as consonants, vowels and tones to show the correspondent laws in the forms of detailedly-made tables.The sixth part is devoted to the summarization of Ezhou dialect's phonetic features in such three aspects as consonants, vowels and tones on the basis of comparison between Middle Ancient Period phonetic patterns and standard Chinese.The seventh part is about the discussion on three problems with the expectation of further study.