A Study On The Stratum Of Dong'an Dialect's Phonetics

Dong'an, lying in the southwestern part of Hunan Province. There are two dialects: Xinnan Mandarin and local dialect. The discussion of the local dialects is never stopped. The nature of the dialects in South Hunan Province is a vexed question. Dizlects in this place was so complicated because of the history and immigrants. In history, Wu and Chu were connected together, and the Chu dialect is the origin of the Xiang dialect. By the coming of the immigrants, Ke and Gan dialects, Xinan Mandarin were mixed into local dialects in South Hunan Province. In recent years, along with Mandarin become to popularize, Dong'an dialect is changing. This dissertation attempts to differentiate the literary and colloquirl readings and dicide them into different stata by the angle of the historical stratum. Hoping to restore the true features to Dong'an dialect.The dissertation is composed by the following six parts. In the exordium, we presents the general information about the location, history, administration, and population of Dong'an, an overview of previous studies, and abrief discussion of the research methods and databasese employed in the study. The main text is divided into five chapters:ChaPter One malnly diseusses the sound system of Dong'an dialect, including the tonal ststem, the initial system, the final system, the structure of syllables and Literary/Colloquial Readings. ChaPter Two deals with the corresponding relationships between the phonological system of Dong'an dialect and Middle Chinese sound system. Some sound changes and historical developments from Middle Chinese to the modern dialect are diseussed as well. Chapter Three analyses different pronunciations among the young and the old generation. Chapter Four disusses the initial of a syllable's historical stratum in Dong'an dialect, including ancient voiced syllable initials become voiceless, the pronunciations of Feixiao-zu and ri-mu, as well as some special pronunciations. Chapter Five disusses the historical stratum of the final of a syllable in Dong'an dialect, including the pronunciations of "Guo", "Jia", "Yu", "Xian", "Shan", "Xiao"and "Liu". The last part is a conclusion, including achievements and deficiency.