Study On Phonological Properties Of Maolin From Jingxian County,Anhui Province

Maolin dialect belongs to Tongjing sub cluster of Wu dialect and is located at the border of Wu dialect in southern Anhui Province.In Maolin dialect,the pronunciation of a Lai initial before the finals which begin with[i]or[y]is different than that of those begin with other phonemes.In terms of auditory perception,the pronunciation is between a border[l]and a voiced stop[d],so some scholars have summarized it as a phoneme[l~d].The main object of this study is the phonological property of[l~d].In terms of research methods,this study obtained relevant recordings through field investigation,and conducted acoustic analysis of the duration,formants and RMS of the recordings of 33 speakers which represent[l],[l~d]and[d]in Beijing,Maolin and Shaoyang separately.Aerodynamic experiments are also conducted,so as to observe the similarities and differences within and between the three groups.The results show that the duration parameters in the[l~d]group are significantly greater than those in the other two groups,and the results of phonetic properties of parameters such as relative RMS are between the voiced stop[d]and the literal[l],and some parameters are closer to the voiced stop[d].Although the aerodynamic performance of the[l~d]group is higher than that of the common side tone group,and the situation is very similar to the stop[d],the oral tightness of the[l~d]group is worse than the lateral[l]at the hold phase stage,at the same time,the generation of air flow is occurring,which is like the lateral[l].In addition,based on previous studies and the current variability in the records,it can be reasonably inferred that[l~d]is a situation of sound change of[l]>[d],and some speakers have completed the phonetic evolution.