Gelao Language Chinese Loanwords

This is a study of the Chinese loanwords in the Gelao language. The focus is on the loanwords from modern Southwestern Mandarin dialect of Chinese. Based on plenty of firsthand linguistic materials and the historical background information of the Gelao and Han people, the writer first sorts up a number of Chinese loanwords of the Gelao language in Bigong, a linguistic location classified under the A'ou dialect, then identifies and analyzes the chronological strata of these Chinese loans and the sound laws of correspondence, with the aids of reconstruction phonological system of Middle Chinese (MC) and modern Southwestern Mandarin dialect (SB). All the linguistic materials used for contrastive analysis come from the field investigation of Pro. Li Jinfang and Pro. Zhou Guoyan in the three provinces of Guizhou, Guangxi and Yunnan. This paper contains 6 parts:Chapter Ⅰ introduces the previous studies by other scholars in this field. It then mentions the aim, principle, approach and procedure of this research as well.Chapter Ⅱ gives a general introduction of the Gelao language and its Chinese loans. The materials of Bigong Gelao (BG) are used as examples to describe the main structural features of the Gelao. In addition, this chapter also discusses the semantic categories of the loanwords and the historical relationship between the Gelao and Han people.