Chinese Language Atlas

The Atlas is a major advance in the study of Chinese dialects. The publication of "Atlas" is valued by academic circles at home and abroad, and is regarded as a basic construction in the field of science and culture in my country. The division of Chinese dialects in Atlas is the product of the combination of Chinese dialect research theory and practice. It is mainly manifested in the following three aspects:
1. A brand-new concept is put forward in the aspect of Chinese dialect division.
"Atlas" puts forward a five-level division method for Chinese dialects, "point-small-patch-district-large area". "Point" refers to the dialect point. In the Atlas, one dialect representative point is generally selected for a county and city, and two or more representative points are selected in areas with complex dialects. Several points make up a small piece; several small pieces make up a piece; several pieces make up an area; several areas make up a large area. Except for dialect points, other levels vary in scope according to the actual situation. The dialects in the same small area, area, area and large area all have obvious commonalities. This is a multi-level division of Chinese dialects based on common characteristics. Compared with the traditional three-level division method of "dialect-sub-dialect-tuyu", this five-level division method is a kind of progress in theory and practice.
2. The Atlas divides Chinese dialects into ten areas: Jin, Wu, Hui, Gan, Xiang, Min, Cantonese, Ping, Hakka, and Mandarin. Among them, the Fujian-speaking area includes seven districts including Minnan District, Puxian District, Mindong District, Minbei District, Minzhong District, Shaojiang District and Qiongwen District; the Mandarin-speaking area includes the Northeast Mandarin District, Beijing Mandarin District, and Jilu Mandarin District , Jiaoliao Mandarin District, Central Plains Mandarin District, Lanyin Mandarin District, Southwest Mandarin District, Jianghuai Mandarin District and other eight districts.
This result is significantly different from previous scholars' division of Chinese dialects.
※The first is to separate the Jin dialect from the Mandarin dialect. "Atlas" defines Jin language as "the dialect of Shanxi Province and its adjacent areas", so Jin language and Shanxi dialect are two concepts. Shanxi dialect is a dialect that refers to the territory of Shanxi Province from the geographical category. Jin dialect refers to the dialects of Shanxi and its adjacent areas, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Henan, and Hebei from the dialect characteristics. other dialects of Mandarin.
※Second, it is to divide Hui language from Wu language area. The dialects in southern Anhui are intricate and complex, with features of both Wu dialects and certain Jianghuai mandarin dialects, which attracted the attention of scholars early on. Zhao Yuanren's 1962 "Jixi Lingbei Phonology" said that Huizhou dialect is difficult to classify in the national dialect. Later, many scholars generally classified the dialects in this area into the Wu language area. According to the actual situation, "Atlas" has divided Xuanzhou in southern Anhui and classified it into the Wu language area. What is more important is to make Hui language a separate area, including southern Anhui, and the adjacent old Yanzhoufu area in Zhejiang, Dexing in Jiangxi, and the former Fuliang County. A total of sixteen counties and cities.
※The third is to separate Gan dialect from Hakka dialect. Whether Gan dialect and Hakka dialect should be integrated into one, or separate from each other, there have been different opinions in academic circles for a long time. The opinion of Zhang He thinks that the consistency between the two dialects is too obvious. When the ancient full-voiced initials are read with stop and fricative, they are generally read as aspirated voiceless; Can someone come up with strong evidence. "Atlas" separates the two dialects based on the following: some of the ancient voiced consonants of the Hakka dialect are now read Yinping, but most of the Gan dialects (especially the dialects in the central area) do not have this feature; some commonly used ancient full voiced The initials of Hakka are read without aspirated and unvoiced sounds, while Gan dialects are still read with aspirated and unvoiced sounds.
※The fourth is to separate Pinghua into a dialect area. In the past Chinese dialect divisions, Pinghua was rarely mentioned. In fact, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region usually has a saying of "official, flat, Zhuang, white, and guest", which means that in addition to Zhuang language in Guangxi, there are four parallels in Chinese: Pinghua, vernacular (Cantonese), Hakka, and Mandarin (Southwest Mandarin). dialect. Pinghua is divided into Guinanping and Guibeiping. Their common feature is that when ancient full-voiced initials are read with stop and fricative, they are generally unaspirated and unvoiced. This is enough to distinguish Pinghua from other Chinese dialects in Guangxi.
※The fifth is to subdivide the Mandarin area into eight Mandarin dialect areas. The northern mandarin of previous scholars is further divided into the northeast mandarin area, the Beijing mandarin area, the Jilu mandarin area, the Jiaoliao mandarin area, the central plain mandarin area, and the Lanyin mandarin area. The original Xiajiang Mandarin (Jianghuai Mandarin) has been expanded to include 16 counties and cities in Huanggang, Xiaogan, northeastern Hubei and three cities and counties in Jiangxi, including Jiujiang, Jiujiang, and Ruichang, collectively known as Huangxiao Pian. . Sixteen counties and cities in northeastern Hubei have the sound of entering, but there is no provocative rhyme ending. The two pairs of words "shuxu and Zhuanjuan" have the same pronunciation, which is significantly different from other Mandarin dialects in Hubei. Zhao Yuanren manages these dialects as "Chu language". . From the perspective of comprehensive characteristics, it may be more reasonable to classify Jianghuai Mandarin as a separate film.
The above five items are the most important new insights into the division of Chinese dialects in Atlas. The division of Chinese dialects in the Atlas generally reflects the actual distribution of Chinese dialects. The five-level division of Chinese dialects in the Atlas is also an ideal and common level division that we can find at present.
3. Put forward two basic standards for the division of Chinese dialects.
In the early Chinese dialect division, it was impossible to propose a clear division standard, because there was no such condition at that time. Therefore, the early Chinese dialect divisions inevitably have the color of subjective impression. The necessary zoning criteria must not be proposed until enough dialect facts are known. In the Atlas, there are two important criteria for the division of dialect areas: one is the evolution of ancient Chinese characters; the other is the evolution of ancient voiced initials. According to the evolution standard of ancient Chinese characters, it is possible to separate Mandarin from non-Mandarin. In most places in Mandarin dialects, ancient characters are called Shusheng (Jianghuai Mandarin and other Mandarin characters are excluded), while non-Mandarin dialects are ancient characters. It is still read today, with few exceptions; according to the evolution of the ancient unvoiced initials, the Mandarin can be divided into eight regions. According to the evolution standard of ancient voiced consonants, nine non-mandarin dialects can be divided, and of course they can also be used to distinguish Mandarin. For example:
Jin dialect area: the ancient entering sound character is read today.
Wu dialect: The ancient full voiced initials are now read voiced initials.
Hui language area: Guquan voiced initials are now read stop sounds, Gu stop fricatives are mostly read aspirated unvoiced sounds, but there are also unaspirated unvoiced sounds.
Gan dialect area: ancient full voiced initials read stop sound today, ancient stop fricative today read aspirated unvoiced; ancient second voiced initials generally do not read Yinping.
Xiang dialect area: Guquan voiced initials are now read as stop sounds, and ancient stop fricatives are still read as voiced sounds in some places, and in some places, they are read as unaspirated voiceless sounds regardless of whether they are flat or flat.
Fujian language area: Guquan voiced initials are now read with stop sounds, and ancient stop fricatives are mostly read without aspirated and unvoiced sounds, and a few read with aspirated and unvoiced sounds.
Cantonese area: Guquan voiced initials are now read with stop sounds, Gu stop fricatives in most places are now read with aspirated unvoiced sounds in Fengyang and Pingyang, and unaspirated and unvoiced in Fengyang.
Pinghua area: Guquan voiced consonants are now read with stop sounds, and Gusai fricatives are generally unaspirated and unvoiced.
Hakka dialect: Guquan voiced initials are now read with stop sounds, ancient stop fricatives are now read with aspirated unvoiced sounds, but some commonly used spoken words (such as "Quben") are often read without aspirated and unvoiced sounds; some Guquan voiced initials are read today as Yinping .
Mandarin area: Except for the Jianghuai Mandarin and other Mandarin dialects, the Mandarin dialects do not have a sound.
Northeastern Mandarin: There are more phonetic characters in ancient times than in Beijing.
Beijing mandarin: the ancient entering tone and the clear voice consonants are divided into four tones, yin, yang, and yang.
Jilu Mandarin: In ancient times, the voiceless initials are mostly read Yinping.
Jiaoliao mandarin: the voiceless consonants of ancient times are read today.
Central Plains Mandarin: The voiceless initials and sub-voiced initials are now read Yinping.
Lanyin Mandarin: The voiceless consonants in ancient times are read today.
Southwest Mandarin: In most places, the ancient syllable characters are read in Yangping regardless of the voicing.
Jianghuai mandarin: the ancient words are read into the sound today.
The evolution of an ancient entering sound character and the evolution of an ancient voiced consonant character can be completely used as the basic standard for the division of Chinese dialects at two levels. These two standards are summed up from a large number of dialect facts, so they are more general and systematic. Most importantly, practice has proved that these two standards objectively reflect the structural characteristics of Chinese dialects on the one hand, and reflect the historical evolution of Chinese dialects on the other hand. Using the characteristics of structure and the law of historical evolution to divide Chinese dialects is the most ideal division standard that has been found so far. We can't find any other standard that is more ideal and more practical than this.