Tone Merger in the dialects of Northern Chinese
北方方言的声调融合
Chin-fa Lien 连金发

Abstract 摘要
The object of this study is to deepen our understanding of the mechanism of tone change in the dialects of northern Chinese by looking into the geographical distribution of tone features manifested in 480 dialects. It is based on a thesis of tone merger initiated by William Wang, a theoretical departure from the traditional split theory. A look into the geographical distribution of tone patterns fortified by philological evidence on historical tone behavior has revealed a clear picture of relative chronology of tonal development. To account for the diachronic aspects of tone behavior we identify two parameters: vertical tone merger and horizontal tone merger. With respect to the vertical tone merger an implicational hierarchy has been obtained: III > I, and another implicational hierarchy is also arrived at for the horizontal merger: I/IV > III/II. Of particular interest is the behavior of Tone III: as a merging tone category it never undergoes horizontal merger to other tone categories. The horizontal migration into Tone III started as early as Archaic Chinese, and most likely it has since become a most salient merging tone category. A set of prototypical tone patterns are also proposed to form a basis for dialectal subgrouping as well as the reconstruction of tone development.

本文的主旨是研究北方方言声调演化的规律。其理论设想是以王士元的声调融合论为基石，不同于传统声调分裂论。我们从四百八十个方言点的声调特征的地理分布来重建声调演变的轨迹。把声调类型的地理分布和声调的历史文献配合起来我们推衍出了声调演化的相对时间层次。声调的历史发展可以两个幅度来理解：调内的融合和调际的融合，两种融合都能导出含蕴的趋向。就前者而言，有平声融合必有去声融合，反之则否。就后者而言，只有平入向上声融合的现象。去声的发展格外有意思；去声从来不融入他调。其它的调类融入去声的现象上古就有了。去声很可能从此就成了突出的调类。我们也拟定了一些声调的原型来做为方言分类，古声调重建的依据。

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