A Study Of Chang'an Xixiang Dialect Phonology

Chang'an county lies in the middle of Weihe Plain which belongs to Shaanxi Province,its north is Xi'an,its west is Lantian county,south is Zhashui county and Ningshan county,west is Huxian and Xianyang,The whole area is 1580 sq.km,population in the whole county is 897,956.According to the "Chinese language atlas",Chang'an dialect belongs to Central Plains Mandarin the central Shaanxi plain.There are many studies about Guanzhong dialect,these studies involve Chang'an dialect,but so far there is no study which concerns Chang'an dialect only.This thesis makes a detailed study about Chang'an Xixiang dialect,it shows Xixiang dialect's features, generalizes its some important disciplines,all of which offer some materials to the study of Chinese history and promotion of Putonghua.This thesis includes geographical feature,population,history evolution and the phenomena of the phonological system of Chang'an Xixiang dialect:initials,finals,tones,sound thyme coordinate relation,company reading modified tone,soft voice and retroflex vowels and so on,the concerns are the comparison with Middle Ages and Peking phonological system.According to our study,the phonological system of Chang'an Xixiang dialect includes:24 initials(include zero initial),46 finals(not include the retroflex vowels),4 tones.The Middle Ages entire voiced sound divide into two parts on the basis of leveled tone or not-leveled tone:aspirate sound or not-aspirate sound.The initial[n]and[1]are usually different, there is no difference between pointed sound and regiment sound,parts of the Zhi-group evolve into [f],there is initial[η].The Middle Ages compound vowels become single vowels in dialect of Chang'an Xixiang,the nasal end rhymes have the tendency of nasalization,there are[??]group rhymes and[??]rhyme,all of the plosive end rhymes are read negative rhymes.The leveled tone of The Middle Ages divide into two parts Yin or Yang on the basis of surd or sonant,the falling-rising tone characters of the entire voiced initial in Xixiang dialect become falling tone.All the entering tone are read Yin-level tone or Yang-level tone,except some special one:surd initial and minor-sonant initial of entering tone characters are read Yin-level tone,the entire voiced initial are read Yang-level tone.Compared with Pekingese,Chang'an Xixiang dialect has two more initial[v]and[η],there are more single vowels and nasal rhymes,the tone is also four:Yin-level,Yang-level,falling-rising, falling,but it is different from Pekingese.The thesis is on the basis of investigating in the field,the stress is plane depiction,the minor-stress is history depiction,it depicts the phonological system of Chang'an Xixiang dialect, depicting the language phenomena in it,shooting at the systemic study of a point dialect's phonetic.The significance of this study is lain in:it shows the phonological system of Chang'an Xixiang dialect generally and systemically,discovering the phenomena and the laws of phonetic evolvement according to the comparison of now and then,concluding the evolvement laws of Chang'an Xixiang dialect,offering some materials to the study of Chinese history and promotion of Putonghua in Chang'an county.