The Experimental Study On The Tone Of Longshan Tujia Language

Based on the achievement in the past,This paper mainly used the method of experimental linguistics,to obtain language materials from literatures and field research,from the perspectives of pitch and duration,to research the monosyllabic and disyllabic tones of Longshan Tujia Language.On the one hand,this paper try to valid previous achievements,with the aid of experimental method,to compensate for the weaknesses of traditional research,and to provide material for the research of the Chinese-Tibetan language in the future.On the other hand,we recorded the monosyllabic and disyllabic words of many speakers,which can play a role in protecting Tujia Language and,and it is of great significance to the inheritance of Tujia Language and Tujia civilization.This paper consists of four chapters.The first chapter,the introduction part,briefly introduced the geographical positions,and reviewed the research status of the northern Tujia Language.Secondly,we introduced the methods,theoretical basis and the process of the experiment.Finally,we introduced the significance and aim of the thesis.The second chapter studied the monosyllabic tone of Longshan Tujia Language.First of all,this paper analyzed briefly the different opinions of the predecessor who assumed that there are free variants of the partial tone shape in its tone pattern.In this paper,we find several minimal pairs,and demonstrated the spectrogram of these words.We believe that there are systematic differences in the pitch or duration of these words,and it is necessary to separate those tones.Then,according to the acoustic data of fundamental frequency and duration,we came to the conclusion that there are six kinds of monosyllabic tone in Tujia Language in Longshan,which including 21 the low falling tone,22 the low level tone,24 the high rising tones,33 the middle level tone,53 the high falling tone and 55 the high level tone.From the perspective of the ranges of fundamental frequency,there is a significant gender difference,and the fundamental frequency of females are higher than males.Besides,there are differences between the monosyllabic tone system of young female and that of elderly speaker.In the monosyllabic tone system of elderly articulators,high falling tone and high level tone,low flat tone and meddle flat tone are contrast.While,in the monosyllabic tone system of young female speaker,the high flat tone shows a downward trend and tends to be high level tone,and the fundamental frequency of the meddle level tone is weakened,tending to merge with the low level tone.From the perspective of the duration,we have found that the level tones and the rising tone have relatively long duration,on the contrary,the falling tones have relatively short duration.And the duration of those kinds of tone and be sorted in this order: 22 > 24 > 33 > 55 > 21 > 53.The third chapter studied the bi-syllable tone in Longshan.From the perspective of tone types of first word,Longshan Tujia Language has a rich combination mode of bi-syllable tone,including 36 kinds of sequences mode.The six tones can be combined in pairs at will.Among them,there are few examples of bi-syllable tone with the high-falling tone as the first word.The principles of bi-syllable tone: except the high falling tone,the first word pronounced the originally tone;the high falling tone as the first word tend to change into high level tone.From the latter word,the pitch of the high flat tone is weakened,and it is slightly higher than that of the middle level tone;the low level tone as the latter word end to changed into low falling tone;and the middle rising tone,high falling tone,low falling tone and meddle level tone pronounced the originally tone.Whether the high level tone in the latter position is merging with the middle level tone,it needs further research.From the perspective of the duration,we have found that there is few difference in the relative duration of bi-syllable tone in Longshan Tujia Language.The sequence of duration of first word: low level tone > high level tone > middle level tone > high falling tone > meddle rising tone > low falling tone.The sequence of duration of the latter word: middle level tone > low level tone > middle rising tone > low falling tone> high level tone > high falling tone.The final chapter,chapter four,summarized the research results of this paper,whether it is monosyllabic tone or bi-syllable tone,tone and duration have a close relationship.The Tujia Language in Longshan is impacted by the Chinese dialects,meanwhile,the language inheritance within Tujia people is also faced with the crisis of generation division,which makes the Tujia language itself present the complexity and great generational difference.In this paper,the differences of the monosyllabic tone system between the young and the old is the embodiment of those factors.In addition,the changes of disyllabic tone of Tujia language in Longshan are complex.Inevitably,there are some obvious deficiencies in this paper which needs further studied in the future.