A Variation Study Of The Central Rounded Vowel [(?)] In Gao'an Dialect

This study aims to analyze the phonetic variation of the central rounded vowel [(?)]in Gao'an dialect under the guidance of language variation theory,based on the relationship between variation and style,social variables,language acquisition,language use and language attitude,and further demonstrates the social significance of the [(?)] variation.It is conducted with the methods of sociolinguistics and experimental phonetics.After sampling the data from 12 native participants who were asked to read aloud a paragraph,sentences,words and characters containing [(?)] and complete the questionnaire on language acquisition,use and attitude,the author sums up the direction,mechanism and stage of [(?)] variation,analyzes the variation regularity at different stylistic levels,and explores the distribution and causes of the variation combining social attributes factors.Through the analysis of recording materials,the author has gained the main conclusions as follows:(1)There are four new variation directions in the central rounded vowel [(?)] of Gao'an dialect,showing the tendency from dialect towards Putonghua and from central to marginal position,and the formation of its variation is mainly due to the influence of Putonghua and the internal restriction mechanism of phonology.(2)The variation of style in Gao'an dialect generally shows a negative correlation between the variation rate and the degree of formality,which is mainly caused by the different attention level of the speaker,that is,the more formal the style is,the more likely the speaker is to take the old pronunciation as the standard form;due to the sandhi and the newness of words,the variation rate of characters and words in this experiment is lower than that of sentences and the paragraph.(3)In terms of social attributes,the variation rate of young people is higher than that of old people,and that of men is higher than that of women.Occupation,education level and long-term residence also plays some role in the results.The questionnaire on languageacquisition,language use and language attitude also confirms the correlation between dialect use,dialect awareness and the degree of variation.With the accelerating urbanization and the language contact with Putonghua in recent decades,Gao'an dialect is undergoing changes in progress.In terms of phonetics,many features are disappearing,especially the central rounded vowel [(?)] is facing many new variants.The investigation and research on the variation of Gao'an dialect [(?)] is helpful to recognize the dynamic development of Gao'an dialect,bringing a deeper understanding of the relationship between language and society.Besides,it's helpful to achieve the purpose of recording and protecting the dialect,and to enrich the research on Chinese dialect and phonetic variation.