A Study Of Folk Rhymes In Shaanxi - Gansu - Ningxia Folk Songs

Folk songs of Shaanganning is taken as the object of our study in this paper.Th rough analysis verses and misused characters which were in5000different songs selected,we generalized phonology characteristics of Northwestern dialects,and explored the development and evolution of the Northwestern dialects based on our researches.Through analysis the folk songs of Shaanganning,we obtained some conclusions as follows:1.Folk songs of Shaanganning area rhymed more freely than Guangyun《广韵》.The rime categories had reduced greatly,and the familiarly sounded rimes had been converged gradually.2.The Northwestern dialects could be divided intolO categories:7YinSheng Rimes阴声韵(Rime Ge Ge歌戈部、Rime Jia Ma家麻部、Rime Yu Mo鱼模部、Rime Jie Hai皆哈部、Rime Zhi Wei支微部、Rime Xiao Hao萧豪部、Rime You Hou尤侯部),3Yang Sheng Rimes阳声韵(Rime Jiang Yang江阳部、Rime Yuan Tan元覃部、Rime Dong Qin东侵部).Yang Sheng Rimes ending[-m]had disappea red and merged into[-n],Yang Sheng Rimes endings[-n]and[-η]had merged(or disappeared).The three plosive engings[-p]、[-t]、[-k] of enterning Rimes had completely disappeared,enterning Rimes had disappeared,and had basically merged into corresponding YinSheng Rimes.3.The level tone had divided intoYin阴and Yang阳,and were similar to the falling tone, the voiced rising tone had evolved into falling tone.The entering tonehad merge into four tones.In short,the Northwestern dialects which were reflected by folk songs of Shaanganning area appeared some new features based on inheritances from the past dynasties.The phonology characteristics were similar to the phonology characteristics of the modern Northwestern dialects.