Northern Taiwanese Dialect Core Word Variation Studies

Compared with phonology, grammar, phonetic history, grammatical history, research into vocabulary and the history of vocabulary is in a weak state. In recent years, situation of the study of Chinese in this area has changed a lot. Many achievements, such as the synchronic and diachronic description and analysis of vocabulary, have been brought forth. There are also a variety of researches on specific books, dating, basic words, and core words. However, the research on the vocabulary and vocabulary history of ethnic languages is still in a weak position.Core words which are the part of the vocabulary system are the heart of the research on Sino-Tibetan language. Quite a lot of researches on core words have been done. However, the results are not so satisfactory. The reasons are mainly in the following:Firstly, the study scope of core words is limited to multi language groups in a certain language family or multi language branches in a certain language group in most cases, while the comparative research on the internal of a language family or on the different dialects of a certain language is relatively little; Secondly, the ultimate goal of these studies is to reconstruct the ancient phonetic system of the original mother tongue or to determine the homology relations of the languages. This research methodology demands that the comparative study of core words should be mainly about examining the corresponding voice or evolution laws with discussions of the meaning variations, or of the developments and changes of vocabulary being relatively small. Thirdly, while some of works refer to development and changes of meaning variation or vocabulary, most of them have mainly focused on the Chinese loanwords in ethnic languages. Thus, discussions on the development and changes of the inherent ethnic words have been relatively small. Fourthly, though some research has discussed certain core words, such as color words, position words etc., it still appears sporadic and unsystematic when considering the wide range of core words. Core words are the most basic and stable vocabulary of a specific language. There are generally a few hundred core words in a language, which can be divided into various semantic classes. Accordingly, we use "Research on Core Words Variations in Northern Tai Dialects" as the topic and adopt the outline of Mr. Zheng Zhang Shangfang's "Pan-Sino-Austric language three hundred core vocabulary". Thus the three hundred words are divided into six categories by the grammatical properties of words, which are nouns, verbs, adjectives, quantifiers, pronouns, and adverbs. We describe and analyze the phonetic and semantic variations of the "300core words" in the dialects of North Tai, such as Zhuang, Bouyei, and Saek by using historical comparison, synchronic description, and widely cited other methods with the purpose to understand the roughly situation of vocabulary and its state of development and changes in Northern Tai dialects.In this thesis, the following aspects are discussed:First chapter is introduction which offers the distribution and profile of the Northern Tai dialects. It explains why Mr. Zheng Zhang Shang Fang's " compare three hundred of Pan-Sino-Austric language core vocabulary" is selected as the reference of this research. In addition, this introduction also covers the general research condition, research methods, research significance and problems that will emerge in the core words study of Tai. Chapter two to seven explores the different manifestations of "300core words" in the northern Zhuang, Bouyei and Saek from six aspects, which are nouns, verbs, adjectives, quantifiers, pronouns, and adverbs, mainly by phonetics and semantics. In this process, we follow the principle like this:in homologous conditions, if the phonology of the words is different while the semantic differences are small or ignorable, then we focus on describing the evolution of phonology. On the contrary, the description and analysis are focused on the variations of meaning. If both phonology and meaning haven't changed, then the word will not be discussed. As the proportion of nouns, verbs, and adjectives in the300core words are large, it is the most important part that will be discussed in this thesis. Chapter eight is the conclusion. The characteristics of changes in phonology and semantics of the core words of the Northern Tai dialects are summarized so as to understand the roughly face of the vocabulary and its state of development and changes of the Northern Tai dialects, while talking about some other related issues.The significances of this study are mainly in the following aspects: Firstly, it will help to enrich the vocabulary and semantic study of Tai. Secondly, it will contribute to the understanding of the vocabulary and its development in Northern Tai dialects. Thirdly, more fresh materials will be provided for phonetic correspondences, changes and rules of Tai. Fourthly, it will be helpful for determining cognate words among languages. Fifthly, it will help to understand the history of cultural exchanges among different nationalities.