Study On Sound-Linking Of Fu’An Dialect In The Eastern Fujian

The phonetic change of Eastern Fujian’s dialects includes the change of initial,final and tone,which has been concerned for a long time.The phonetic change is a significant phenomenon in Chinese dialects and has attracted much attention for a long time.However,the current research shows a tendency that the research achievements of the southern area are better than those of the northern area in the Eastern Fujian.Fu’an dialect,the representative of the northern part of East Fujian’s dialect,has a high research value in its complicated phonetic changes.Therefore,on the basis of in-depth field investigation,this dissertation will systematically explore the tone sandhi,initial assimilation and rime change of Fu’an dialect.Meantime,the dissertation plans to analyze the characteristics of the phonetic change and account for its reason,as well as discuss the mechanism of the phonetic change so as to make people to know about this complex phenomenon of phonetic change and to promote the research of the northern part of East Fujian’s dialect.This dissertation discusses the initial assimilations of Fu’an dialect in terms of the end of open syllable,nasal,stop and consonantal finals.The study reveals that the initial assimilations are restricted by some conditions,such as phonetic,grammar,semantic,pragmatic and so forth,which compete and restrain mutually.Its essence is weakening.The phonetic aspects involve five mechanisms,namely,bilabial stop fricative,apical stop lateralization,nasal progressive assimilation,affricate semivowel and velar loss.In the grammar,the restriction of the initial assimilations depends on the compact degree between morphemes or morphemes.The coordinate,modifier-head and verb-object forms are more liable to the initial assimilation,but the rest is generally not.Also,it can occur to the phrases through affixing elements to change the combination of language components.In terms of semantic,it involves the comparison between the real meaning and virtual meaning,the derogatory and the neutral meaning.The pragmatic aspect focuses on the differences between the spoken and written language.The spoken language is more liable to the initial assimilation,but the written language is generally not.This dissertation analyzes the transformational relation between the original and variable rhymes in 12 groups as a point of final sandhi on the synchronic level,and points out that there are two types of final sandhi in Fu’an dialect.The former’s main vowels become higher.The latter changes from diphthong to monophthong.The comparison of the final(?)i between Fu’an and Fuzhou dialects demonstrates that[(?)i]of Fu’an dialect exists in the stratums of*y and*ui.If it is Shangsheng(上声)tone,the rhyme is[(?)i].If it is not Shangsheng tone,the rhymes should change from[(?)i]to[ui]and[i].Finally,the dissertation attempts to explain the relationship of the phonological variation by the combination of three kinds of phonetic variation,and surveys its nature of sound-linking.It concludes that the sound-linking in Fu’an dialect is not only the cooperative phonetic change of phonology but also the comprehensive phonetic development that contains the lexical and grammatical change.