A Study On The Variation Of Blade-alveolars In Cangzhou Dialect

Cangzhou dialect,a part of Ji-Lu Mandarin,is a language variant of Chinese.The confusion between blade-alveolars and retroflexes has become a characteristic of Cangzhou dialect.However,under the influence of Mandarin,variation happens.The variation of blade-alveolars in Cangzhou dialect happens all the time but rarely attracts Cangzhou citizens’ attention.Under the guidance of variation theory and with the methodology of sociolinguistics,this investigation was conducted with the help of 52 Cangzhou citizens and the data were collected by recording these 52 informants’ reading of 100 characters with blade-alveolars.Then the data collected would be analyzed in terms of social variables as age,gender,education background and occupations with the help of SPSS and Microsoft Office Excel 2003.A questionnaire was designed to study Cangzhou citizens’ real attitudes towards Cangzhou dialect and the variation of blade-alveolars in Cangzhou dialect.The result shows that the variation of blade-alveolars in Cangzhou dialect is evident.Although variation of blade-alveolars happens to varying degrees,they all share a certain directional feature.Under the influence of Mandarin,pronunciation of blade-alveolars in Cangzhou dialect is gradually approaching to those in Mandarin.At the same time,the use of blade-alveolars after variation is featured by social variables,namely age,gender,education background and occupation.New forms of blade-alveolars decrease with subjects’ growth of age and females apply more new forms than males.However,under the influence of living habits,gender difference for the use of new forms varies in different age groups.From the perspective of education background,higher education indicates more use of new forms.Among all the occupations,students apply the most new forms of blade-alveolars.According to the result of questionnaires,Cangzhou citizens hold an overall positive attitude towards both Cangzhou dialect and the variation of blade-alveolars.Researches on blade-alveolars in Cangzhou dialect contribute to the realization on characteristics of Cangzhou dialect and studies on variation help to attract people’s attention towards features of Cangzhou dialect so as to protect and record local dialect and at the same time enrich the researches on dialects and variations in China.