The Speech Characteristics Showed By Disyllabic Tone Sandhi In Harbin Dialect

The Harbin dialect is a dialect very similar to Mandarin. When looking at monosyllabic tones, tone classes and pitch contours are almost identical, only a slight five degrees lower than Mandarin. However, through tonal sandhi the Harbin dialect displays distinct characteristics. Focussing on disyllabic tonal sandhi, this paper outlines and analyzes the differences between the Harbin dialect and Mandarin, as well as the causes of these differences. The text is divided into six chapters, which are described below.The first chapter is an introduction, which introduces the geographic overview and dialect phonological conditioning system of Harbin. In addition, brief explanations are provided for the significance of the subject, the research methods and any symbols or terminology used in the paper.The second chapter describes the regular disyllabic tonal sandhi of the Harbin dialects, it also compares it with the tones of surrounding dialects.Based on auto-segmental phonology, the third chapter mainly utilizes floating tone theory to analyze the reasons for the occurrence of regular disyllabic tonal sandhi in the Harbin dialect, whilst at the same time discussing the influences of pitch and length.Both the Fourth and the fifth chapter describe the irregular disyllabic tonal sandhi of the Harbin dialect (including some extraordinary word variants).In addition, using stress and analogical analysis the ancient basis for the irregular tonal sandhi is ruled out.Based on disyllabic tonal sandhi, the sixth chapter discusses the historical relationship between the Harbin dialect and similar dialects in combination with the immigration history of Northern China. It also predicts future trends and developments for the Harbin Dialect and other North Eastern Mandarin dialects.