A Comparative Study Huaiyuan Dialect Vocabulary

Huaiyuan County is located in northern of Anhui, surrounded by the Central Mandarin dialects and the Eastern Mandarin dialects. Current research of Huaiyuan dialect focuses mainly on voice and grammar, some vocabulary study focuses just mainly on its voice. It still remains nothing about systematic study of vocabulary. This dissertation tries to show the vocabulary features of Huaiyuan dialect through a comprehensive system of research by combing literature survey and field works.This dissertation mainly focuses on the internal comparison of the vocabulary of Huaiyuan dialect, the comparison of the vocabulary of Huaiyuan dialect to the surrounding dialects, and to Mandrain. By comparing the four representative dialects of the internal, it is revealed the commonality and difference in the vocabulary of them, and finds out that the commonality is far greater than the difference, accordingly considered, Huaiyuan dialect should be attributed to the same dialect region and should not be subdivided interior pieces. The comparison with the vocabulary of the surrounding dialects reveals the relationship between the Huaiyuan dialect and the surrounding dialects, namely, Huaiyuan dialect remains closest relationship with the Hefei dialect which is the representative of the Hongcao dialects of the Eastern Mandarin dialects, and the second intimate relationship with the Suzhou dialect which is the representative of the Zhengcao dialects of the Central Mandarin dialects, and the third intimate relationship with the Xinyang dialect which is the representative of the Xinbeng dialects of the Central Mandarin dialects. At the same time, Huaiyuan dialect shows an obviously transitional characteristic from the Eastern Mandarin dialects to the Central Mandarin dialects. The factor in the formation of this affinity relationship with surrounding dialects is not only the language itself but also the non-linguistic such as the history of immigration, administrative divisions, and traffic exchanges and so on. By comparison with Mandarin, this dissertation analyzes briefly on the characteristics of the Huaiyuan dialect at its word origins, coinage, morphological and semantic aspects.