Emergency Survey on Endangered Pinghua Dialect in Shaoyang County of Hunan Province, China

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K16829
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Linguistics
• Research Institution: Chuogakuin University
• Principal Investigator: WANG ZHENYU 中央学院大学, 商学部, 准教授 (70532191)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 漢語方言 / 湘語 / 平話

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The object of this research is the Pinghua dialect being spoken in the northern part of Shaoyang County, Hunan Province, China. This dialect has many features that are significantly different from the surrounding dialects, but so far no investigations or descriptions have been made. In addition, the number of speakers in Pinghua dialect is very small, and many are elderly people over the age of 75, so the crisis of extinction is very high. In this research, I went to Shaoyang County and recorded the phonological system, vocabulary and grammar using a questionnaire over three years.I built a database of the dialects.Finally, based on my analysis on the variation between spots, I have published six articles and made four presentations at conferences.

Free Research Field

言語学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

これまで「邵陽県平話」に関する文献資料はほとんどなく、また現在の話者が殆ど75歳以上の高齢者であるため、調査・記述の必要性と緊急性が極めて高い。本研究は「邵陽県平話」に関する唯一の体系的な研究であり、邵陽県方言の音韻・語彙・文法のデータベースを構築するなどの作業を通して、もうじき消滅する邵陽県平話の一部を保存することができたと同時に、中国語方言の記述研究に貢献ができると考えられる。