| dc.description.abstract | Abstract
This thesis focuses on the Hu family Yongding Hakka dialect spoken in Wangjian
Village, Xinwu District, Taiwan. The study came about through a casual conversation with
a professor, and it was unexpectedly discovered that the researcher’s native language was,
in fact, the rarely spoken Yongding dialect of Hakka, not the Sihai dialect. This sparked
the researcher’s desire to investigate the dialect and ensure its continuation. More than two
hundred years have passed since the researcher’s ancestors crossed from Xiayang Town,
Yongding County, Fujian Province, to settle in Taiwan. Over the years, they faced
intensive attacks against speaking this native language. The original accent spoken and
passed on by those settlers has changed significantly, resulting from frequent contact with
other languages. Despite this, some of the characteristics of the Yongding dialect from
Fujian Province remain.
This study collates and classifies data obtained first -hand through fieldwork, then
conducts a progressive investigation with phonology as the primary focus and vocabulary
used as a supplement. There are six chapters in total.
Chapter 1 is the introduction to the research. This chapter describes the study′s
motivations, goals, methodology, and process, supplemented by a summary of Yongding in
Fujian and Yongding in Xinwu, along with a review and investigation of the relevant literature.
Chapter 2 is about the flat pronunciation system of the Hu family Yongding dialect
spoken in Xinwu District, introducing its initials, finals, tones, literary and colloquial readings.
Chapter 3 compares the initial consonants and vowels of the Xinwu Yongding dialect
with ancient Chinese phonology a, attempting to infer how the dialect has changed over time.
Chapter 4 summarizes the previous chapter and details the phonetic features of the Hu
family Yongding dialect. At the end of the chapter, the dialect′s unique vocabulary usages
are discussed. Such features of the Hu family Xinwu Yongding Hakka dialect incl ude：（1）
iv
“你” , the word from Ni pronounced with an initial sound as “h-”.（2）Part of consonants
Chuan, Shu, and Chan in front of closed grade Ⅲ rhymes are pronounced as “f-”. （3）
There are a lot of words pronounced as “-e” rhyme from the grade Ⅱ and Ⅳ of Xie-classifier
opening mouth，the grade Ⅰ and Ⅲ of Xie-classifier closing mouth，the grade Ⅲ of Zhiclassifier
closing mouth，and the grade Ⅲ of Shan-classifier both opening and closing
mouth. （4）There are many words pronounced as “-io” rhyme in the grade Ⅲ and Ⅳ of
Xiao-classifier opening mouth. （5）In terms of vocabulary usage, the diminutive suffix “仔”
is not typically used.
Chapter 5 is based on the characteristics identified in Chapter 4, a concurrent
comparison of Taiwan Yongding Hakka dialect and Fujian Yongding Hakka dialect is
conducted with an investigation into vocabulary. It is found that Taiwan Yongding dialect is
influenced by the language contact with Sixian and Hailu Hakka dialects, and there are several
obvious differences compared to the Fujian Yongding dialect: （1）In Taiwan Yongding dialect,
“Jing Zhuang Zhi Zhang” is generally combined into two sets of sibilant sounds (ts-, tsʰ-, s- and
t-, tʰ-, ʃ-), while the Fujian Yongding dialect has only one set of sibilant sounds (ts-, tsʰ-, s-).
（2）There are many words with h- initial consonant in Ni, Ri, and Yi in Fujian Yongding
dialect , such as “女、耳、語” ,while there are very few in Taiwan Yongding dialect. （3）
There are part of words with k- initial consonant in Xi in Fujian Yongding dialect ，while
with h- or f- initial consonant in Taiwan Yongding dialect , such as “客、溪”（k-：h-），“褲、
窟、”（k-：f-）.（4）There are some words with v- initial consonant in Xia, Ri, Yun in
Fujian Yongding dialect ，while with - initial consonant in Taiwan Yongding dialect, such as
“縣、閏、雲”（v-： -）.（5）The words with s- initial consonant in Xiao, Xia in Fujian
Yongding dialect are pronounced as h- initial consonant in Taiwan Yongding dialect, such as
“兄、嫌”（s-：h -）. （6）There are a lot of words with initial consonant in Ri, Ying, Yun,
Yi in Fujian Yongding dialect，while with - initial consonant in Taiwan Yongding dialect,
such as “然、印、雨、夜”（： -）.（7）The final consonants in Taiwan Yongding dialect
v
are mostly complete, while those in Fujian Yongding dialect are weakened or disappeared. （8）
Vocabulary usage habits of Taiwan Yongding dialect are mostly the same as that of Sixian and
Hailu, and only a few features of Fujian Yongding dialect are preserved.
Chapter 6 is the conclusion, which summarizes the research results and discusses the
study′s shortcomings, providing further directions and recommendations for the research of
those who are interested in studying the Yongding Hakka dialect in the future. | en_US |