An Experimental Study Of The Tones And Basic Vowel Patterns In The Ziyang Dialect

The Ziyang dialect belongs to the Chengyu(成渝)sub-piece of the SichuanGuizhou(川黔)part of the Northern dialect of the Southwest Official Dialect,and is one of the representatives of the Southwest Official Dialect.This paper investigates the tones and basic vowels of Ziyang dialect through acoustic experiments in the theoretical background of phonological patterns.There are five chapters in the paper.The first chapter is the introduction,the fifth chapter is the conclusion,and the main content of the study of tones and basic vowels is in the second,third,and fourth chapters.The second Chapter examines the tonal pattern of Ziyang dialect and its acoustic characteristics.The results show that there are four tonal categories in Ziyang dialect,namely,Yinping tone(medium rising tone),Yangping tone(medium falling tone),Shangsheng tone(high falling tone)and Qusheng tone(falling-rising tone).The tone value of four tones is: Yinping 35,Yangping 31,Shangsheng 52,and Qusheng 213,and the four tones are characterized by a rising arch for Yinping,a falling arch for Yangping and Shangsheng,and a concave arch for Qusheng.The order of the span of singlecharacter tunes from wide to narrow is: Shangsheng> Yinping> Yangping> Qusheng.The order of tone length from long to short is: Qusheng> Yinping> Shangsheng>Yangping.The pattern of single-character tune is two falling,one rising,one fallingrising,two high and two low,and the pattern is clear.In the Qusheng tone of Ziyang dialect,the new groups of pronouncers have a crack voice accompanied by low tones.Compared with the results of previous studies,the experimental Yinping tone proved to be a medium rising tone instead of the recorded high flat tone;the starting point of Yangping tone was 1 degree higher than that recorded by previous studies;the tone value of the Shangsheng was both 1 degree higher at the starting point and 1 degree lower at the ending point;the experimental result of the Qusheng tone was a fallingrising tone,with different tone values at the starting point and the ending point.The third chapter examines the Ziyang dialect basic vowel pattern and its acoustic characteristics.The results show that there are seven basic vowels in Ziyang dialect,namely /a/,/e/,/i/,/(?)/,/y/,/o/,and /u/.Among them,the new group pronouncers change the pronunciation of /e/ to /(?)/ and /(?)/ to /(?)/.The basic vowel /y/ is the front high vowel,/i/ is the front high vowel,/a/ is the central low vowel,/u/ is the back high vowel,/e/ is the front high vowel,/o/ is the back mid vowel,/(?)/ is the central high vowel,and the two variant vowels,/(?)/ is the central mid vowel and /(?)/ is the central high vowel.In terms of high-low dimensions,Ziyang dialect has five high vowels,one middle vowel,and one low vowel.In the front-back dimension,Ziyang dialect has three front vowels,two central vowels,and two back vowels.In addition,from the trend of single vowel differentiation,the order of easy differentiation into complex vowels is:/(?)/>/u/>/y/>/i/>/a/>/e/>/o/.The fourth chapter discusses the results of the post-experimental gender and generational differences and the issues raised based on the chapters 2 and 3.The tone of the Ziyang dialect,the most pronounced intergenerational difference in tone value is in the Yangping tone,followed by the Qusheng tone.The Yangping tone of the new group pronouncers have a higher starting point and a greater drop,with a tone value depicted as 41,which tends to be close to the high drop of Mandarin,and this tendency to be Mandarin is caused by the fact that the new group pronouncers are more susceptible to the influence of Mandarin;the Qusheng tone is falling-rising tone in both the old group and the new group,but the Qusheng tone of the new group starts and ends at the same position,and the turning point is significantly higher than that of the old group.The tonic shape of Shangsheng tone and Yangping tone is the same,and the span of the new group pronouncers is the same.So,the article predicts that there is a trend of near-merger of Yangping and Shangsheng tones in the Ziyang dialect.Intergenerational differences in Yinping tone are not significant,but gender differences emerged,and the Yinping tone of new group females had falling-rising tonal characteristics.In terms of tonal range,there is a statistically significant difference between the female pronouncers of the middle group and male pronouncers of the old group,middle group,and new group,as well as female pronouncers of the new group,which is due to the female tendency to pronounce authoritatively.In the Ziyang dialect,the tonic length of single-word tones is significantly longer than that of the new group;the tonic length of concave arch is significantly longer than that of rising arch and falling arch,and the tonic length of Yinping rising arch is significantly longer than that of Yangping falling arch.There are two tendencies for the appearance of the special crack voice of the Ziyang dialect: in terms of pronouncers,they tend to be female and younger,and in terms of vowel carriers,they tend to appear after the Qusheng tone and the high vowel syllables.The crack voice in the Ziyang dialect is a concomitant feature of low tones and is not phonemic.The basic vowels of the Ziyang dialect.In terms of gender differences,/y/ and /i/have the least differences and are both front high vowels.Male pronouncers have /a/ as a back low vowel,while female pronouncers have /a/ as a central low vowel./(?)/ is a front high vowel;/a/,/(?)/ and /e/ have the same relative position for male and female,female pronouncers have a more forward tongue position than male pronouncers./o/are all back mid vowels.Male pronouncers have /u/ as a central high vowel and female pronouncers have /u/ as a back high vowel.Generational differences are smallest for the three basic vowels /i/,/y/ and /o/.The /a/ central low vowel of the old group and middle group pronouncers,while the /a/ of the new group pronouncers is positioned further back,as a post-low vowel.The /u/ of the old group pronouncers is a back mid vowel,the /u/ of the middle group pronouncers is a central high vowel,and the /u/ of the new group pronouncers evolves into a back high vowel.The /e/ of the old group pronouncers is a front high vowel,the middle group pronouncers are front high vowels,and the new group pronouncers are front middle vowels.Old group pronouncers have/(?)/ as a central mid vowel,middle group pronouncers as a central high vowel,and new group pronouncers as a central high vowel.There is a tendency of post and high in basic vowels of Ziyang dialect.In terms of vowel dispersion,the basic vowels of female pronouncers are less stable than those of males;the new group is less stable than the middle group,while the middle group is less stable than the old group.High vowels are more easily differentiated than low vowels.Several basic vowels in Ziyang dialect that are easy to differentiate show signs of "voice-augmentation",and the quality of the added vowel is similar to that of the central vowel /(?)/,which is caused by the wandering nature of the central vowel and the effort-saving principle of pronunciation.The basic vowel /e/ and the base vowel /o/ are changed to /(?)/,and the base vowel /(?)/ is changed to /(?)/,which is caused by the influence of Mandarin.