清末梅县(梅城)方言精知庄章组声母的音系格局

On the Phonological Structure of MC Jing精,Zhi知,Zhuang庄,and Zhang章Initial Goups in Meicheng Dialect in Meixian County in the Late Qing Dynasty

通过对现代方言的比较和对清末至民国中外人士所记梅县方言的考察,可以判定,早期的梅县方言精知庄章组声母是呈两分的音系格局的,但至迟在清代末年,梅县(梅城)方言的这两套声母已经开始合流,且[ts ts‘s]和[tʃ tʃ‘ʃ]仍呈现出音位变体的特色。

Based on a comparative study of the contemporary Meixian dialects and on an investigation of these dialects as documented by Chinese and foreigners from the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China,this paper argues that the pronunciations of initials of MC Jing精,Zhi知,Zhuang庄,and Zhang章initial groups in the early Meicheng dialect can be divided into two types,which had merged no later than the late Qing Dynasty,and the[ts ts‘s]and[tʃtʃ‘ʃ]groups presented features of phonemic variants.