Title

Research on the Rhyme huan-huan in Lower Yangtze Mandarin

Author

Chen Hsiao-chi

Genre

Article

Pages

789-811

DOI

10.6503/THJCS.202112_51(4).0005

Download

PDF

Language

Chinese

Key words

rhyme huan-huan 桓歡韻, rhyme han-shan 寒山韻, Lower Yangtze Mandarin, Zhongyuan yinyun 中原音韻

Abstract

The phonetic basis of Zhongyuan yinyun 中原音韻 is the northern Mandarin of the Yuan Dynasty. Zhou Deqing 周德清 (1277-1365) specially separated rhyme huan-huan 桓歡韻 from rhyme han-shan 寒山韻 in order to correct the Southern accent of the time. The Southern dialects of the Yuan Dynasty still retained many ancient phonetic features; for example, in the Lower Yangtze Mandarin Tai-Ru 泰如 region, words with velar and zero initials of the han rhyme are pronounced with - rhyme which shows that the han rhyme and huan rhyme are phonetically the same in Qieyun 切韻. Wu and Gan dialects also exhibit the same phonetic characteristics. The pronunciations of the words guan 慣, huan 環, cuan 篡, huan 患, and huan 幻 show that this feature existed earlier than Qieyun. Neither of these exists in northern Mandarin in the Yuan Dynasty. Therefore, such a phonological pattern is not visible in Zhongyuan yinyun. To sum up, the evolution of the rhyme huan-huan in southern Mandarin should be *uan > uõ > õ > Ũ .