A Study On The Rhymes Of The Traditional Repertoire In The Shaanxi - Shaanxi - Shaanxi Opera

Qinqiang tradional drama of Shangan is taken as the object of our study in this paper.Through analysis verses and misused characters which were in 180 different Qinqiang tradional drama of Shangan selected, we generalized phonology characteristics of Northwestern dialects in Ming and Qing Dynasties,and explored the development and evolution of the Northwestern dialects based on our researches.Through analysis the of Qinqiang tradional drama of Shangan,we obtained some conclusions as follows:1.There were a lot of verses in Qinqiang tradional drama of Shangan, these data was colloquial and had local color,it reflected the features of the Northwestern dialects in Ming and Qing Dynasties well.2.Qinqiang tradional drama of Shangan rhymed more freely than Guangyun《广韵》.3.The Northwestern dialects could be divided intolO categories:7 YinSheng 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皆咍部、Rime Zhi Wei支微部、Rime Xiao Hao萧豪部、Rime You Hou尤侯部),3 Yang Sheng Rimes阳声韵(Rime Jiang Yang江阳部、Rime Yuan Tan元覃部、Rime Dong Qin东侵部)4.The main vowel of Yang Sheng Rimes of Middle Chiese had nasalized, Yang Sheng Rimes ending [-m] had disappeared and merged into [-n], Yang Sheng Rimes endings [-n] and [-η] had merged (or disappeared)5.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.6. The level tone had divided into Yin 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 in Ming and Qing Dynasties which were reflected by Qinqiang tradional drama of Shangan on one hand inherited some features from the Northwestern dialects in Tang and Five Dynasties,on the other hand appeared some new features.The phonology characteristics were similar to the phonology characteristics of the modern Northwestern dialects.