英文摘要 |
The most prominent trend of tonal changes between the systems of 1932 and 1963-85 was the increase of First Tone characters. This paper examines the tonal changes from Middle Chinese, Old Mandarin (Zhang-yuan Yinyun, which was the mainstream of speech in the 14th century, be it the language of Dadu, Luoyang or Shangqiu), down to the 1932 and 1963-85 systems. A comparison of the statistics of characters changing into and those out of the First Tone reveals that there has been a steady inflow since the time of Old Mandarin. From Old Mandarin to the 1963-85 system, a total of 345 characters have (1) changed from other categories to Yin Ping, or (2) developed an additional Yin Ping reading, or (3) merged from two readings into Yin Ping only. On the other hand, there have been only 38 characters that have changed from Yin Ping to other categories or developed an additional reading in other categories. (The corresponding figures for the period between Middle Chinese and Old Mandarin are 9 and 1, respectively, in this study.) There are also statistics of characters in terms of their source categories for different periods. The examples together with the statistics should afford an indication of the speed as well as the magnitude of this steady flow into the Yin Ping category. Furthermore, they also manifest the forms and processes of the tonal changes in individual characters. |