The Phonological Study Of Xinning County Dialect In Hunan Province

Xiang dialect occupies very important position in Chinese dialect studies, but compared to Wu, Yue, and Min dialects etc., it is still relatively poor in its research area, and there are a lot of dialect fields waiting to be investigated. The dialect of Xinning County which lies in the southwest border of Hunan has never been seriously looked into by academicians. There is no detailed and single writing about the dialect, not to mention about the systematic and detailed research at all. In view of this, we have done the writing on the essential phonetic system of Jinshi Town dialect, the representative of Xinning dialect, based on our own field investigation into the locality. In addition, a comparison study among Xinning represented by Jinshi, Shaoyang, Changsha, and Guilin dialects has been made, from which a reasonable explanation on the belonging of Xinning dialect is made. From the aspect of the direct usage of the dialect we make an attempt to further discuss the reason why Xinning dialect has become the present unique phonetic form, with the hope that the discussion will be helpful to enrich the relatively poor research on the Xinning dialect.The full thesis falls into seven parts altogether.The Introduction Part briefly describes the geography, history, population, and the situation of the language usage of Xinning dialect. It also introduces the present research situation on Xinning dialect, the focus, and the main purpose of this research.The first chapter describes fully the phonetic system, features of the initial consonant, compound vowel, and tone of the dialect of Xinning County.The second chapter describes and analyses literary reading and colloquial reading of the Xinning dialect. The third chapter is the syllabary of Xinning-dialect.The fourth chapter makes a comparison study among Xinning, Shaoyang, Changsha , and Guilin dialects by using comparative and analytical methods, from which it gives a reasonable explanation of the belonging of Xinning dialect.The fifth chapter explores the formation of phonetic characteristics of Xinning dialect from the respect of the direct usage of the dialect.The Conclusion Part makes synthesis from the above materials and advanced that Xinning dialect is still belonging to Xiang dialect while influenced by South-western Official dialect.