The Study On The Phonological Evolution Of Sihong Dialect In The Past Sixty Years

Sihong dialect is a part of Yanghuai Mandarin,which belongs to Jianghuai Mandarin.It is characterized by transition,variation,and ambiguity for the geographical location.Since the establishment of People’s Republic of China,Sihong dialect has been noticed,but most of the researches have remained on the description of the phonological system and the attribution of the division.There is no systematic description of the diachronic evolution of Sihong dialect in the past 60 years which has important implications for the protection and the study of dialects.Taking Sihong dialect as the research object,taking the research of "Overview of Jiangsu and Shanghai dialects" as the phonetic basis of Sihong dialect in the 1950s,taking the record of "Jiangsu Records ·Dialect Records" as the phonetic basis of Sihong dialect in the 1990s.At the same time,a field-investigation is conducted to summarize the Sihong dialect system in 2019.And combining the existing research results with data from the field-investigation to do a comprehensive description of the changes of Sihong dialect in the past 60 years,combing the changes and summary the reasons.In terms of consonants,the consonant system of Sihong dialect has not changed a lot which stabled at 22.Part of the combination mode changes,the unstable[ts/tsh/s]have evolved toward[ts/tsh/s],free reading between[f-]and[x-]almost disappeared,colloquial readings of JianXiao group disappeared gradually,partial Pingsheng of Xie-consonant showing the evolution of[tch]→[c],[tsh]→[s].In terms of vowels,there are 50 vowels in 2019 which 6 more than sixty years ago.The new vowels are[ar/yn/uan],[ae/iae/o/yo]are unstable and[o/yo/iae]disappeared gradually,Yangsheng rhyme of XianShan rhyme photography consolidate further,[aη/iη]have a strong intractability,it is still difficult to distinguish the front and rear nasal sounds,Rusheng rhyme splits into two and evolved into Shusheng rhyme massively.Jian group of Guo rhyme photography first-deng showing the evolution of[u(?)]→[(?)],Xie rhyme photography closing rhymes first/third/forth-deng and DuanJing group of Zhi rhyme photography closing rhymes third-deng showing the evolution of[e]→[ue],Ri-consonant of Zhi rhyme photography opening rhymes third-deng showing the evolution of[a/a]→[ar].In terms of tones,Shusheng has not changed much,Rusheng has differentiated into RushengA and RushengB.There is only minor changes in the tone value,Rusheng-soothed is the main trend and Shusheng-shortened is typical.The reason of these changes is related to the integrity of the phonological system,economic principle of phonology,homologous evolution and allogeneic competition.Besides,the influence of Mandarin and Zhongyuan Mandarin,the words’ frequency of use in Sihong dialect also have a profound impact on the evolution of Sihong dialect.