Download pdf
An Acoustic Analysis on Mono-Syllabic Tones in the Ruian Wu Dialect
- 1 Zhejiang Normal University
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The Ruian dialect, part of the Oujiang branch of Wu Chinese, is situated at the intersection of the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta regions. It is generally accepted that this dialect has eight distinct tones. Previous studies primarily employed traditional methods of auditory transcription, leading to discrepancies in tone values and contours, and lacking the necessary precision for an objective tonal system description.This study focuses on the Ruian dialect and conducts an acoustic study on speech samples from three generations of participants—elderly, middle-aged, and young—describing their tonal patterns. The study concludes that the tonal systems of the elderly and middle-aged participants are generally stable, with the following tonal patterns: Yinping 阴平(44), Yangping 阳平(331), Yinshang 阴上(35), Yangshang 阳上(14), Yinqu 阴去(51), Yangqu 阳去(22), Yinru 阴入(323), and Yangru 阳入(212). In contrast, the younger generation has seen a change in the Rusheng (入声), shifting from contour tones to falling tones, where the tone value of Yinru is 32 and Yangru's is 21.
Keywords
Wu Chinese, Ruian dialect, Mono-Syllabic, Acoustic Study.
[1]. Ruian City People’s Government Website [EB/OL]. (2020-08-21) [2024-08-05]. https://www.ruian.gov.cn/art/2020/08/21/art-1229230397-54752451.html
[2]. Yan Yiming. Southern Zhejiang Ou Dialect [M]. Shanghai: East China Normal University Press, 2000.
[3]. Compiled by Zhang Yongkai and the Office of Cultural Heritage Protection and Management of Ruian City. Dictionary of Ruian Dialect Pronunciations [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press, 2004.
[4]. Chen Haifang. A Study on the Phonetics of Ruian Dialect [D]. Zhejiang University, 2008.
[5]. Xu Lili. Zhejiang Dialect Resource Collection: Ruian [M]. Hangzhou: Zhejiang University Press, 2019.
[6]. Zhang Jingwei. Empirical Analysis of Synchrony Sound Change Paths: A Sociophonetic Study of Tone Variation in Wu Dialect [J]. Language Science, 2019, 18(06):581-595.
[7]. Xu Yun, Huang Caiyu, Wang Yan. Research and Analysis of Mono-Syllablic Tones in Changzhou Dialect [J]. Journal of Changzhou Institute of Technology (Social Sciences Edition), 2019.
[8]. Institute of Linguistics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Dialect Investigation Word List (Revised Edition) [M]. Beijing: Commercial Press, 1981.
[9]. Shi Feng. Tone Analysis of Two-Syllable Words in Tianjin Dialect [J]. Language Research, 1986.
[10]. Zhu Xiaonong, Jiao Lei, Yan Zhicheng. Three ways of Rusheng sound change [J]. Studies of the Chinese Language, 2008.
Cite this article
Lin,X. (2024).An Acoustic Analysis on Mono-Syllabic Tones in the Ruian Wu Dialect.Communications in Humanities Research,63,56-65.
Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
Disclaimer/Publisher's Note
The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s). EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content
About volume
Volume title: Proceedings of 3rd International Conference on Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication Studies
© 2024 by the author(s). Licensee EWA Publishing, Oxford, UK. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Authors who
publish this series agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this
series.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published
version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial
publication in this series.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and
during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See
Open access policy for details).