A General Survey on the Phonology of the Siyi Dialect

• Main Authors: Tong, Choi-Lan, 湯翠蘭
• Other Authors: Yang Hsiu-Fang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 1997
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/16462710449805328090

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 中國文學系 === 85 === Siyi sub-dialect belongs to the Yue dialect, one of the seven Chinese dialects. It includes the regions Doumen, Jiangmen, Xinhui, Taishan, Kaiping,Enping and Heshan, which are at the south-west of the Guangdong Province. We try to figure out the characteristics of the Siyi dialect by using the synchronic view, the historical view and the comparison with other Chinese dialects. From the synchronic point of view, the most common characteristic in the Siyi Dialect is the tone value. The contours are very similar, with two very special yin-ru tones: upper yin-ru tone and lower yin-ru tone having tone value 55 and 33 respectively. Another characteristic is that there is a labio-dental semi-consonant v-. Besides, most regions, except Jiangmen and Heshan, consist of a plosive nasal pronounciation. For their rhymes, there are nasal finals -m, -n, -ng and consonant finals -p, -t, -k. A special but only partially common characteristic is that there are quasi-rounded velar unaspirated stopped consonants kv- and kv''- for districts like Doumen, Jiangmen, Xinhui and Heshan. Moreover, there is an unvoiced dental lateral fricative initial ■- for the districts like Taishan, Kaiping and Heshan. Then, we tried to compare the Siyi Dialect with the system of Qie Yun rhyme book and with Cantonese in a historical aspect, hoping to find a common characteristic for the phonology of the Siyi Dialect. We could assure that Siyi Dialect belongs to one of the Yue Dialect because it follows the devoicing rule of Middle Age voiced consonants or Chuan-Zhuo-Mu for the Siyi Dialect in which those of the ping tone and shang tone are aspirated initials while those of the qu tone and the ru tone are unaspirated initials. The most common and unique characteristic of the Siyi Dialect is that after the devoicing of Middle Age voiced consonants, loss of stopped feature occurs in the Tou initials and the Bing initials with aspirated feature, and are pronounced as a glottal fricative h- instead. The other unique characteristicof Siyi Dialect is that the yin-ping tone and the yin-qu tone are merged as one, named the yin-ping tone. These are the most important stance for the definition of the Siyi Dialect. The loss of stopped feature also occurs in Xi initial and the bilabial initials at Kaiping and Heshan. Nevertheless, theJing initial group are different from the Zhuang, Zhi and Zhang initial groups. The former is pronouced as t-, t''-, ■- while the latter is pronounced as ts-,ts''- and s-. On the other hand the literary and the colloquial pronounciation of the Geng rime group at the Siyi Dialect are very similar to that of the Hakka Dialect. The pronounciations of the First and the Second Class of the Xie, Xiao, Xian and Shan rime groups at Taishan, Kaiping, Enping and Heshan, and the pronounciations of the Liu, Xian and Shen rime group at Taishan are also very similar with those of the Hakka Dialect. Asides from these, the variation of the Siyi dialect closely resembles that of Cantonese except for the differnces in pronounciation.