Analysis Of The Lexical Change Of Niansi-du Minanese Based On Language Contact Theory

Based on the theoretical framework of "Contact-Induced Language Change", the present study analyses the lexical change in the Niansi-du Minanese from the lexical perspective. Among the three elements of language-sound, vocabulary and grammar, vocabulary is the most active part. This dissertation mainly concentrates on the lexical borrowing of Niansi-du Minanese, which are from three major languages: Putonghua, Wu dialect and English. Language contact plays an irreplaceable role in the process of the lexical borrowing. And the most basic and typical language borrowing is the lexical borrowing. Language contact appears after the social and cultural contacts and communication, and always reflects in the involved languages.Chinese dialects in the northeast of Jiangxi province are extremely complex and abundant in types and distributions, which have obvious language characteristics. There exist six dialects in the northeast of Jiangxi province out of Chinese eight dialects, including Putonghua, Wu dialect, Gan dialect, Hakka, Minanese, and Hui dialect. Some of these dialects distribute in different language groups; some of them form the dialect islands; and in some places two dialects coexist in the same language system, all of which constitutes the multi-contact features of dialect contact in the northeast of Jiangxi province. Dialect island, as a special language form, is the most proper window to observe the language contact and language change.The research methodology used in the present study mainly involves field investigation, observation, description, comparison, as well as questionnaire. Based on the reference of Survey Glossary of Chinese Dialects, the author conducts a whole vocabulary investigation into Niansi-du in a town and five countries, and finally makes a glossary of Niansi-du Minanese. Through the analysis and comparison of these vocabularies, the statistics of the corresponding data are ready for further study. Finally, the reasons of lexical changes of Niansi-du Minanese and influential factors, including national language policies economic developments, school educations as well as mass media, are made in a detailed analysis and discussion. Findings of the present study indicate that the decline of Minanese can be found in the following four aspects:the narrowing of the scope of Minanese, a decrease of the number of local people using the language, and the average age of Minanese speakers in an increasingly smaller range and lower frequency in Niansi-du Minanese Island. The number of native speakers, therefore, tends to decrease. And Minanese may gradually approach Putonghua and Wu dialect, and have the indirect influence on English. But its sound system in loanwords still retains the linguistic characteristics of the local dialect. In terms of lexicon, the original form of loanwords basically remains the same. With the development of society and the expansion of the borrowing of loanwords, however, some inherent dialect words may cause the language to be forgotten or lost.