A Comparative Study Of Four Textbooks On Mandarin Phonetics And Pinyin Systems Of The Republic Of China In The Late Qing Dynasty

The Pinyin Movement of the Republic of China in the Late Qing Dynasty indicated the requirement of the times that pronunciation and writing should be consistent with each other and that Mandarin should be in uniform. With its exploration and innovation, the movement laid foundation on the establishment of modern standard Mandarin.Thomas Wade’s Collection of Languages From Then on, Lu Gangzhang’s A Textbook on Beijing Phonetic Alphabet, Wang Zhao’s Initial Consonant and Alphabet of Mandarin, Zhao Yuanren’s A Phonograph Textbook on New Mandarin are four Mandarin textbooks of the Republic of China in the Late Qing Dynasty which used Beijing dialect as standard Mandarin. The dissertation is a comparative study of the above four textbooks and related Pinyin systems. The author elaborates the phonetic features and change shown in the four textbooks, probes into the development and evolutionary rules of modern Mandarin based on Beijing dialect, and compares the features, sources, advantages and disadvantages of the representative textbooks and Pinyin systems of the Republic of China in the Late Qing Dynasty.Diachronically, though the four textbooks were of nearly the same period, they reflected the evolution and features of Beijing phonetics during the period. Synchronically, the Beijing phonetics and Pinyin systems recorded by the different authors reflected their individuality.The initial consonants in the four textbooks were more or less the same as those in today’s Mandarin. The only difference lied in the usage of specific alphabets and the phonetic value of a few alphabets. According to the record of vowels from Collection of Languages From Then on to A Phonograph Textbook on New Mandarin, the vowels of Beijing phonetics had only partly evolved since the recording in Equal Vowels. The evolution included the development of io-uo-u, eo-uo, o-e, iai, luan and lun. In terms of tone, all of the textbooks adopted the four tones of Beijing dialect. The only difference lied in the way to mark the four tones and the pronunciation of specific characters. The records of sandhis, unstressed words and "r"-retroflexed words in the four textbooks indicated their inheritance and change. The record of unstressed words manifested the change from inconsistence to consistence.In terms of systematic design, the usage of many alphabets was innovative. Though the systems had their own advantages and disadvantages, they enlightened the establishment of later Pinyin systems.To sum up, the records in the four textbooks manifested the change process during which the Beijing dialect became uniform. The usage of alphabets in the four textbooks and five Pinyin systems showed that modern Mandarin Pinyin system is a heritance and revolution of the Pinyin systems in the Republic of China in the Late Qing Dynasty. The four textbooks also manifested the evolution towards uniform, standard and scientific Mandarin.