Wujiang Dialect Tone Study

Wujiang, which located in the southeast of Jiangsu Province, adjoins Suzhou, Shanghai and Zhejiang. Wujiang dialect, as a representative one in Dialect Wu, Pian Taihu, has been studied by many researchers about it's tones, but the publications are mostly based on the traditional listening-noting method. This thesis studies the tones of Wujiang dialect by means of acoustic experiments, gets a more objective conclusion and analyses the cause of tonal split. Besides, it also introduces the tone sandhi of Wujiang.This thesis is mainly composed of three chapters.The first chapter briefly introduces the syllabary of Wujiang dialect, states the research methods and procedures of the experiments. Then the five degrees on tones of Wujiang dialect are figured out on the basis of LZ-score.The second chapter analyses the tones of Lili, Songling, Tongli and Luqu, four main towns in Wujiang, and compares it with the records made before.The third chapter studies the tone sandhi of Wujiang and the cause of the tonal split.