A Study On The Historical Evolution Of Tibetan Dialect Phonetics

The Tibetan language has a vast distribution range.In recent years,the study of the Tibetan language has been extensively developed by domestic and international scholars,but at the same time,there are still many distinctive dialects that have not been investigated and described.The Tibetan language of Zhuoni,which is the subject of the thesis,is a relatively unique language,surrounded by the Amdo dialect,located in a mixed Sino-Tibetan area,as well as being far from other Khams dialects,which has resulted in its distinctive linguistic features.Zhuoni Tibetan possesses 34 simplex initial consonants,excluding[y],which occurs only in the second syllable;7 complex initial consonants;except for the complex initials and prenasalised consonants,[hw]is also classified as a complex intial;14 single vowels,of which 8 are oral vowels and 6 are nasalised vowels;15 diphthongs,all of which are true diphthongs;and only-? is present as a final consonant.There are four tones for monosyllabic forms:55,51,12 and 14,of which 55,51 and 12 are short and 14 is long,and there are tonal alternation rules attested in disyllabic,trisyllabic,and tetrasyllabic words.There are seven main syllable structures:V,VV,CV,CVV,cCV,cCVV,and CVC,among which V,VV,and CVC do not frequently appear.This thesis presents a comprehensive historical comparison of Zhuoni Tibetan with Literary Tibetan reflecting the ancient Tibetan language,as well as with the Labrang and Lhasa dialects of the Amdo and Lhasa dialects,by providing a detailed description and analysis of the historical evolution of simplex initial consonants,complex initial consonants,single vowels,final consonants,and tones.In Zhuoni Tibetan,some simplex initials have retained their ancient Tibetan pronunciation,some have been devoiced,and some have changed into consonants with other features.In the sound change process,the simplex initials*ph and*(?)of the ancient Tibetan have disappeared;the retroflex fricatives and affricates t(?),t(?)h,(?),and(?)h,as well as a labiodental fricative v appeared in addition to the phonological system of ancient Tibetan.The complex initials have all tended to fall out,and only a few complex initials with prenasalisation evolved from*m-and*(?)-remain,and the complex consonants have been merged so that the different original forms have simplified.As a result,the number of consonants has been dramatically reduced.The simple vowels and rhymes with a consonant final in Zhuoni Tibetan have to some extent been inherited and preserved from the ancient Tibetan vowels,and there is a tendency of centralisation into(?),in which*i and*u merged into(?),so is for a,e and o under the influence of the initial in the second syllable.Final consonants have all been lost,except for the word*dba?((?)power)[wa?14],which retains its ancient Tibetan consonant final.In addition to this,Zhuoni Tibetan has 15 diphthongs,and all of them are true diphthongs.This means that the two vowels form a whole rhyme and share a single tone,and long vowels appear in long tones,mainly derived from the loss of the final consonant,syllable coalescence,vowel changes and the influence of initial consonants.Tones of Zhuoni Tibetan originate from the voicing of initial consonants,the loss of final consonants,and the coalescence of syllables.The distinction of high and low tones is caused by the voicing of initial consonants,while the distinction of length is caused by the final consonants and the coalescence of syllables.