A Study On The Phonology Of Huaqiao Dialect In Wuxue County Hubei Province

Wuxue belongs to Hubei Province, which is located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River north shore, south foothill of Dabie Mountains, eastern Hubei Province.To the east of Wuxue is Huangmei, its north and west bound Qichun, Yangxin County is located to its southwest by the boundary of Yangtze River, Ruichang City and Jiujiang County of Jiangxi Province are located to its south by the boundary of Yangtze River. The dialect of Wuxue City is divided into the east sound area and the west sound area. This paper selects the town of Huaqiao that belongs to the east sound area as a dialect survey site, and researches the voice system of Huaqiao dialect.In Academia, there are three different points of view for the attribution of Wuxue dialect:first, be independent as "Chu dialect"; second, be classified as Xinan mandarin; third, be classified as Jianghuai mandarin. This show the particularity of Wuxue dialect with Wuxue located in the transition region. The previous single-point study about Wuxue dialect is relatively small, and the selected survey point, the recorded voice system belong to the west sound area. Therefore, this article select Huaqiao dialect that belongs to the east sound area as research object. Its significance is that on one hand to fill the blank of the Wuxue dialect study, on the other hand to provide speech materials for the contrast between the east sound area and the west sound area within Wuxue and for other related dialect study. Moreover, the study of Huaqiao dialect is the need of protecting the home culture.As to sufficiently attain accurate voice materials, intensive fieldwork was employed within the collection phases. On this basis, this paper sorts out the initials, finals and tones system of Huaqiao dialect; gives a syllabary of homophones of Huaqiao dialect. Then, it compares the phonology of Huaqiao dialect with the phonology of Mandarin and Chinese in the Middle Age. Through the synchronic and diachronic comparison, the paper deeply explores the phonetic characteristics, historical evolution and variation trend of Huaqiao dialect. Furthermore, this paper systematically summarizes the different pronunciation variants in literary reading and colloquial speaking of Huaqiao dialect. In addition, the attribution of Huaqiao dialect is briefly discussed, mainly from the perspective of tone. Through analysis and comparison, the conclusion is that Huaqiao dialect classified as Jianghuai mandarin is more appropriate.