优选论与湘潭方言的声调变化

Optimality Theory and Tone Change in Xiangtan Dialect

优选论是近二十年来出现的极富活力的音系理论,采用这一理论对湘潭方言的声调变化进行分析。新派湘潭方言单字调只有五个音调:阴平33、阳平12、上声42、阴去55、阳去21,入声24在单字调发音时归入阳平12;但在二字组中,入声仍呈现它的底层调24;湘潭方言二字组存在连读变调:T3+T→T4+T;用优选论对湘潭方言的连读变调进行分析,不仅能得到正确的描写,而且具有更强的解释力。

Optimality Theory is a popular phonological theory in recent 20 years.This paper tries to apply Optimality Theory to the analysis of tone and tone sandhi in Xiangtan dialect.There are only five citation tones in Xiangtan dialect： T1（33）,T2（12）,T3（42）,T4（55） and T5（21）.T6（rusheng） and T2（yangping） merge into one tone with the pitch of 12 in citation form,while the pitch value of T6 is 24 in disyllabic sequences.There is tone sandhi in disyllabic sequences represented as：T3＋T→T4＋T.The duration of the neutral tone is half of the stressed tones and its pitch value is of 3.And there is also tone sandhi for T3 preceding neutral tone,presented as： T3＋T0→T4＋T0.At last,the tone sandhi is analyzed within the framework of Optimality Theory with 8 constraints.It turns out that Optimality Theory can provide the tone sandhi study a simple,correct and explicit analytical framework.