A Phonological Study On Hefeng Dialect

Hefeng county lies in the southwest of Hubei Province, and the southeast of Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture. Located in the hinterland of Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau Mountains and the northern section of Wuling Mountain. It has rather special Dialects context, because of in Hunan, Hubei junction with complex history and geography. The phonological systems of the county mainly comes from three parts, they are Chengdu Dialect of Sichuan, Shimen Dialect of Hunan and Hubei Wufeng Dialect. There is no doubt about the value of study on this complex Mandarin system. After investigating it personally, this paper entirely describes the dialect based on Hefeng Rongmei Town and Zouma Town. Through these two points for a more comprehensive, detailed description and analysis, summarized the phonological systems of Hefeng dialect and distinguish its feature. I would do my best to reveal the real visage of Hefeng dialect. It maybe fill the gap in the systemic studies of Hefeng dialect. And enrich the production of the mandarin of Hubei.This paper includes the following five parts.The preface shows us geography, population, history evolution, nationality overview of Hefeng county; it also describes the general situation of dialect used in Hefeng, and tells us the present studies on Hefeng dialect, the emphasis and the main purpose of our research.The first chapter describes the phonological system, including initials, finals, tones and the relationship between rhymes.The second chapter entirely analyzes the characteristics of Hefeng dialect, it has explored the development of Hefeng dialect and its phonetic features by comparison with the tone of the Middle-ancient times diachronically. And then reveal not only the commonality but also the defferences of in voice characteristics.Chapter three focus on distinguish the difference between Hefeng dialect and others dialects on the horizontal level (including Chengdu dialect, Shimen dialect, Enshi dialect, Wuhan dialect and Xiaogan dialect etc.) It displays a better understanding of the overall features of Hefeng dialect. Meanwhile, further to clarify the relationship between South Western mandarin typically represented by Chengdu dialect and Wuhan dialect and Jianghuai mandarin Huangxiaopian typically represented by Xiaogan dialect.All of that can provide some materials support on the study of its attribution.The conclusion part discussed the attribution of Hefeng dialect which based on the full text description,analysis,comparison and the previous research. Finally, we tried to put Hefeng dialect defined as belongs to the Mandarin dialect, but its future development may gradually moving to the South Western mandarin.