A Research On Consonants [s] And [ts] In Jishishan Dialect Of Bao’an Language

In language contact, dominant languages influence vulnerable languages and language contact is a driving force in language change. With the usage and spread of mandarin, Bao’an language also undergoes various evolutions during language contact. This paper mainly analyzes the change of pronunciation of consonants [ts] and [s] in Bao’an language. As a native Bao’an speaker, It is found that many Bao’an language speakers pronouncing [ts] as [s], both [ts] and [s] exist for one word. The present paper aims at analyzing the change of pronunciation of consonants [ts] and [s] in Bao’an language, investigating the reasons for the change and the influence of gender, age and educational background on the pronunciation of [ts].By systematic sampling, the investigation of the consonants [s] and [ts] is carried out through recordings. The samples are selected from Gaoli and Ganhetan village with the size of 150 people who are in different gender, age and educational background. The respondents are from Gaoli and Ganhetan villages, speaking Bao’an language for communication in daily life. They do not live in other places for more than three years before eight years old. The investigation consists of two stages, which are inducing talk and word-list reading. What’s more, all words used in the investigation include consonants [s] and [ts]. The recordings are transcribed into written- form after receiving and the samples are classified into different groups according to the gender, age and educational background. After analyzing the research data, it is found that speakers with different gender, age and educational background on Bao’an language can pronounce the consonant [s] precisely, but 90% of them pronounce [?] as [s], and only 10% people can pronounce [?] correctly. As for the factors that influence the pronunciation, the results suggest that gender has no influence on the pronunciation; however, age and educational background both have certain influence on the pronunciation. In other words, people in age 20-35 have the highest rate of accuracy rate among all ages; the accuracy rate of the educated people is higher than the uneducated and people with the higher level of the education have the better rate of the accuracy.Language change is mainly caused by language contact. The first reason is school education. Chinese is the major language for learning, so children in school will use Chinese instead of Bao’an language. During learning process, speakers realize the difference between Chinese and Bao’an language, and unconsciously transfer some Chinese rules into Bao’an language. Another reason is work. For most Bao’an people, Bao’an language is only an internal language for family. The third reason is mixed marriage or cohabitation with other nationalities. This is the major reason that reduces Bao’an language usage frequency in family. Given above reasons, it is clear that Chinese words have replaced Bao’an vocabulary in varied fields.Therefore, the author deems that it is necessary to conduct a research on the pronunciation of [s] and [ts] in Bao’an language. The study can accumulate experience for deep researches of languages in minority areas and enrich cases for language contact research. The results can be applied to related discipline such as ethnic characters, ethnology and so on, and can also promote the development of related discipline.