A Study On The Phonology Of Dan Dialect In Raoping

The Dan dialect spoke by Dan people,who live in Zhelin Town Raoping County,Guanagdong Province,is Guangzhou Cantonese.Dan dialect,the mother tongue of Dan people in Raoping,is on the brink of dying because its communicative functions become withered by the influence of Minnan dialect in Eastern Guangdong Province.Proceeded with the first-hand materials and foothold in the language reality and based on the careful analysis on the pronunciation materials,the study sorts out the phonetic system and shows the whole situation and furthermore,compares the Dan dialect with mid-ancient Chinese phonetic system to find the evolution rule and development track.Finally,through comparative study on Cantonese and Minnan dialect,the paper identifies changes in the process of language contact of Dan dialect,and explores laws of contact and evolution of Dan dialect.The paper consists of 6 chapters.Chapter One introduces the human geography and language life of Raoping,reviews the studies by the experts,and states the purposes and methods of this study.Chapter Two describes and analyzes the phonology system.Chapter Three compares Dan Dialect with mid-ancient Chinese phonetic system and find the evolution of the dialect from diachronic perspective.Chapter Four and Chapter Five compare Dan dialect in Raoping with Dan dialect in Jiusha and Minnan dialect in Eastern Guangdong Province and try to find the evolution laws of language contact from synchronic perspective.Chapter Six is the conclusion chapter which sums up the whole paper.Dan dialect in Raoping,a Cantonese dialect island surrounded by the Minnan dialect in Eastern Guangdong Province,maintains the basic features of Cantonese dialect.Dan dialect absorbed the phonetic features of Minnan dialect in long-term contact with Minnan dialect in Eastern Guangdong Province.We can also conclude some rules of language contact features between Cantonese dialect and Minnan dialect.