Lexical diffusion of sound change in suburban areas of Shanghai
上海市郊音变的词扩散
Nairong Qian 钱乃荣

Abstract 摘要
In the past 20 to 30 years the speech sounds of the suburban areas of Shanghai have changed a great deal. I chose the typical county of Fengxian (奉贤) as the object of my investigation. The old Fengxian vernacular was like that of Songjiang (松江), the historical seat of government; while the new Fengxian vernacular is similar to that of urban Shanghai, the new economic and cultural center. Nearly 20 phonemes are involved in the sound changes, including initials, rimes and tones. Subjects in the 10-25 years age group tend to use the changed sounds to a much higher degree than subjects in the 60-80 or 30-50 age groups. Pre-school children who live with their parents tend to use the more conservative forms. People with more social intercourse show more rapid change than those with more traditional ways of life. None of the sound changes are phonetically gradual; subjects pronounce either the unchanged or the changed form, or have both in free or conditioned variation. Some changes (i.e. h > f) could not possibly be gradual. The sound changes have occurred in some words but not in others in most of the towns and villages. However, the sound changes tend to spread more rapidly in the towns than in the villages. Taking both synchronic and diachronic changes into account, it is found to be simple and accurate to identify subdialect areas on the basis of common features of lexical diffusion of sound change. The Fengxian vernacular subdivides into easily discernible Eastern and Western accents on the basis of patterns of tone sandhi. In the buffer zone between these two regions the following forms of sound mixing can be identified: 1) In some places all character groups are read either in the Western or the Eastern accent. 2) In other places some character groups are read in the Western accent, others in the Eastern accent and still others in either. In conclusion, it is found that the sound changes of the Shanghai region across age-groups and over geographical regions are phonetically abrupt but lexically gradual.

上海市郊县的语音在近二，三十年来发生了较大的变化。变化的原因有生理的因素也有社会的因素，而且往往是交织着起作用的。总的趋势是音位趋于合并简化。这与社会发展，社会联系加强，交际节奏加快，共同语－普通话的推广都有关。特别是上海南郊的松江县，金山县，奉贤县，南汇县，上海县在元，明，清三代都归松江府管辖，语音属松江话系统，1958年都划归上海市管辖后，经济文化中心由松江向上海转移，语音也向上海市区方言靠拢。这使这些县中的老年人和青年人，镇上人和乡下人之间的语音发生较大的差异。

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