| dc.description.abstract | Minxi hakka dialect area, located in Fujian province of China, includes 8 counties named Wuping, Shanghang, Changting, Liancheng, Ninghua, Qingliu, and Mingxi. Geographically, this area lies on the boarder of Fujian, Guangdong, and Jiangxi provinces, where people migrated in and out, causing drastic population change and ethical interactions. Geographical and historical factors contribute to dialect complexity that arouses the researcher’s interest.
This research aims to discover language facts of northern Minxi Hakka dialect spoken by people living in Qingliu and Ninghua. We have done language investigation on five locations in the two counties, including Chengguan of both counties, Linshe, Changxiao and Shibi. With first-hand materials, we take a close look at phonological, lexical, and grammatical parts of the language. Chapter 2 deals with synchronic phonological phenomenon, while Chapter 3-5 discuss about diachronic or historical ones. Chapter 6 compares word-using differences of the five locations, as well as sentence and grammatical markers.
Phonologically, dialects in Qingliu and Ninghua preserves common features of Hakka, while they also bear some regional characteristics of their own. For example, initials Ni and Lai blend before rhyme grade I and II but differ before rhyme grade III and IV; part of consonants Chuan, Shu, and Chan are pronounced “f-” in front of closed grade III rhymes. Finals show there distinguishing features, too. For instance, both consonant and vowel endings are losing; vowels in some rhymes are changing to be back and high or undergoing the process of vowel breaking; some sounds today reflect ancient phonological features in rhymes Yu and Xian.
Comparing word application among the five locations, we find that dialects of Qingliu are lexically more complex and inconsistent than those in Ninghua. Besides, due to geographical relation, lexicon of each spot tend to assimilate with its neighboring dialects. “AA” reduplicative and “l-onset rhymed infix” are distinctive grammatical characters of both counties. Sentence structure is basically common with other Hakka dialects, but there is a need for further research on detailed usage of grammatical words. | en_US |