A Study On Phonology Of Huizhou Dialect

The historical Huizhou prefecture consisted of six counties------Jixi,Shexian, Xiuning,Yixian,Qimen and Wuyuan,is presently southern part of Anhui province.The dialects spoken in this area are full with phonological differences without an identical historical feature by which a dialect group stands.On top of this,some characteristics of the Wu dialect,Gan dialect as well as Jianghuai Mandarin are shown in different part of this area.Thus,its linguistic genealogy is still an unrsolved issue among the Chinese linguistic society.Besides the published materials on this subject,a passel of new materials collected from six villages carefully selected from each part of this area by the writer of this paper is also provided here.With which and in virtue of the framework of Qieyun,this study analysed the existing phonological differences of the dialects of this area,and tried to trace their evolutions and to explain how they came into being.The part of the consonants discussed the mouth open or closed of labial initials, palatalization of apical and radical initials,opposition of Zhuang(庄) and Zhizhang(知章) group initial consonants,historical phonetic strata of ancient Ri(日) and Xia(匣) initials and aspiration after the devoicing of middle Chinese voiced initials.The part of the finals concentrated on the discrepancy of primary vowels in the first category(mouth open or closed) of the middle ancient rhymes such as Han(寒) and Huan (桓) rhyme in Guangyun in Hui dialect,the opposition pattern of primary vowels in the 1st and 2nd division of Ancient Chinese rhymes,sonorous sounds of the 3rd and 4th division of Ancient Chinese rhymes,separation and combination of the first and third class of contrastive rhyme in Liu group(流摄) in Middle Chinese and the development hints of rising and stop-ending finals in Hui dialect.The part of the Tones was the discussion of the tendency of Shang Sheng(上声) words with secondary voiced initials and Shang Sheng(上声) words with voiced obstruent initials,Qusheng(去声) words,and schools of Qusheng(去声) words, characters of smooth syllables transformed into cheched syllables,diminutive retroflexation, We also discussed literary and colloquial reading shown in consonant,final and tone in Hui dialect.Based on the above discussion,the last chapter was on the classification of Hui dialect.In this paper,the dialect spoken in the central area of Hui dialect has a lot in common with Wu dialect,especially Southern Wu dialect.This is because the origin of Hui dialect is ancient Wu dialect and it was closely connected with Wu dialect in history. The northern area where Hui dialect is spoken is the frontier where Mandarin is spoken, therefore it was earlier affected and some Mandarin was mixed during the development; while it was also mingled with Gan dialect in the marginal areas because the area was surrounded by the latter in the south,west and northwest.As a result,the features of Wu dialect were faded to be classified.Thus Huizhou dialect can be categoried to Wu dialect as its sub-dialect,a feasible approach,according to common characteristics and the same historical background of Hui and Wu dialect.