AStudyofEnteringToneinYiyangDialect

SunFan

【Abstract】This paper focus on entering tone exist in Yiyang Dialect. Entering tone plays a crucial role in the daily communication of ancient China ， nowadays this manner can also be found in many southern dialects. This paper classifies its definition， laws and current situation in the study of Yiyang dialect. And then want to find some suggestions for further research.

【Key words】entering tone； Yiyang dialect； existence

【作者簡介】Sun Fan，Faculty of Foreign Studies， Beijing Language and Culture University。

1. Definition

1.1 Entering tone

Entering tone is a special category in Chinese syllables. Compared to four main tones（high-level tone， rising tone， falling-rising tone and falling tone）， it is a relative syllable rather than parallel one， whether in ancient， modern， nor present time. Around 500A.D.， Zhou Yong in Qi dynasty argued that entering tone should be as important as four main tones. Many linguists have discussed this phenomenon over thousand years， but still can not make a uniform conclusion.

So， what can be called entering tone？We can find two definitions：（1） it is one of four ancient Chinese tones， ……it pronounces short and sharp， and sometimes makes consonants terminal sounds（Modern Chinese DictionaryP965， the commercial press， 1979）； （2） one of four main tones in China. The length of entering tone is short and swift. It take plosives as its tail， pronounces [-p ?]， [-t ?]， [-k ?]， like 六、八、十in Cantonese； or pronounces as glottal stop[-?]， like Shanghai dialect； or is hardly pronounced， and develops on its own， like Xiang dialect. （Cihai reduced edition， P308， Shanghai Lexicographical Publishing House）. The above definitions show the characteristics of entering tone， i.e.， we can distinguish entering tone from other tones by its short and sharp syllables， and we can find plosive tail at its end. However， one important feature does not show in the preceding sentence， that is， the change of pitch. As we all know， tone consists of pitch change with the syllables. So， if entering tone does not show that feature， we can not make reasonable conclusion that it belongs to another type of tone.

In the history of Chinese speech， if people come against difficulties in sounds of words， they often look up a rhyme dictionary called Guangyun， which collates an overwhelming majority of pronunciations in China that can be traced to theirs origins. Guangyun takes tone as the key link， thus arranges words according to tone， rhyme， and sound.

For identifying different types of syllables， people in medieval China have created segmental feature “±open” and length feature “±long”， so we can see in the schema that the feature of vocalic rhyme is “+open”and “+long”； nasal rhyme “-open”and “+long”； entering rhyme “-open”and “-long”. That is to say， pitch of speech has not been regarded as a crucial feature for people to separate vocalic rhyme， nasal rhyme and entering rhyme from each other.

1.2 Yiyang Dialect

As one branch of Xiang dialect， Yiyang dialect has the same characteristics as Xiang dialect（Chen lizhong， 2008）：（1） initial：the ancient voiced initials become unaspirated once appeared with plosives， or affricates； （2） rhyme tail：the plosive tail [-p ?]， [-t ?]， [-k ?] gradually disappear， so does glottal stop[-?]； （3） tone：the tone of Yiyang dialect has five or more types； （4） register：Located in the district of Xiang River， Zijiang River， and Yuanjiang River middle part， or in Nanling region， or dialectal island that caused by immigrant from this city.

2. The Evolution of Tone System in Yiyang Dialect

Yiyang dialect belongs to Yi-Yuan sub-dialect of Chang-Yi dialect. Currently， the kind of research is relatively controversial and there is still exists the vague knowledge of it. There are two different viewpoints hold by linguists， one states that entering tones really exist in Yiyang dialect， linguists like Bao houxing， Chen puqing， Cui zhenhua， Xu hui classify the tone system of Yiyang dialect into five tone categories（Xu hui， 2001）， i.e. Yinping， Yangping， falling-rising tone， falling tone， and entering tone； another one argues that we can not find entering tone in Yiyang dialect， linguists like Yang shifeng， Wu zongji， Zeng yumei reduce the tone system of Yiyang dialect into five different types， i.e. Yinping， Yangping， falling-rising tone， vocalic rhyme of entering tone， and nasal rhyme of entering tone（Zeng yumei， 1995）. So， we will discuss this question through the following tables：

the Tone Table of Yiyang Dialect（1）

The two tables show the evolution of medieval tone in Yiyang dialect， i.e. Yinping and Yangping both belong to high-level tone， all-voiced falling-rising tone pronounced as falling tone， voiceless members in falling tone are pronounced as Yangping， and voiced members in falling tone are pronounced as its original tone. It is apparent that entering tone in Yiyang dialect is retained fully. Yiyang dialect have been used by residents in a relatively fixed area and closed environment.It only can be influenced by Chang-Yi dialect， so it has strong consistency and does not change too much.

The above two show the relation between falling tone and entering tone clearly. This phenomenon that falling tones in medieval time gradually turn into entering tones can often been found in Yiyang dialect， so we can not classify it into exception or style of literary and colloquial. We can see that current dialect in Yiyang still contains entering tone. So， this paper totally support the first view proposed by linguists Bao houxing， Chen puqing， Cui zhenhua， Xu hui， i.e. entering tones exist in Yiyang dialect beyond all question.

3. Entering Tone in Yiyang Dialect

In 《Report of Hunan Dialect Investigation》， Yang shifeng defines “tone system of Yiyang dialect” as：Yinping， Yangping， falling-rising tone， vocalic initials（m， n， l， r） of falling tone， and other initials（except m， n， l， r） of falling tone. He removes the entering tone and argues that it should be a sub-type of vocalic initials. This opinion can not be general accepted， because it mixes up the falling tone and the entering tone in Yiyang dialect. Many voiceless tones of falling tone have the same pitch with enteirng tone in Yiyang dialect， like “正（zheng）， 變（bian）， 送（song）”， but the voiceless tones of falling tone that we use frequently still articulate as “yangping”. Vocalic initials of falling tone are not exist in real use， and it is only valid theoretically. Meanwhile， not only voiceless falling tone， but also does vioced falling tone have the same pitch with entering tone in Yiyang dialect， like “大（da）， 用（yong）， 劍（jian）”. So， the entering tone in Yiyang dialect have developed on its own.

We can find many entering tones in our daily life. For example， “課（ke）” in Yiyang dialect should be pronounced as “ko （yangping）”， but residents in Yiyang sya this word as “ko（entering tone）” in actual use， this is an case of how voiceless tone belongs to entering tone. We take“急（ji）”as an example， “急（ji）” is pronounced as “ji（falling tone）”， but people in Yiyang do not read it in falling tone， they are likely to read it like “ji（entering tone）”， this case shows that the falling tones gradually turn into entering tones. From the point of style of literary and colloquial， we also can find strong evidence of the existence of entering tone. In Yiyang dialect， “射（she）” should be read as “sa（falling tone）” in a sentence “這（guo）把（ba）箭（jian）射（sa）好（hao）遠（yuan）”in literary. But in real communication， we can also hear another pronunciation - “se（entering tone）”， as in “射（se）擊（ji）”， “發（fa）射（se）”， “射（se）程（cheng）”. From “sa（falling tone）” to “se（entering tone）”， we can understand that it does not have the typical plosive tail - [-p ?]， [-t ?]， [-k ?]， the property of entering tone has changed in Yiyang dialect， many entering tone in YiYang contains vocalic rhymeor nasal rhyme.

4. Conclusion

In this paper， we discussed what degree of entering tone evolves in Yiyang dialect. We can draw the conclusion that “entering tone” in Yiyang only means a special category， the features of what can be called entering tone have lost a lot in Yiyang dialect. The reason why we still regard it as entering tone is that it save the basic pattern of entering tone.

this ancient type of tone has experienced a long and slow process of evolution， and then divided into Hakka， Cantonese， Hokkienese， Xiang， Xiangnan local dialect and so on. These dialects contain the tone system of entering tone， but have their own different feature. This paper only makes a small step of investigation of entering tone exist in Yiyang dialect， and want to contribute to the advancement of dialect study.

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