"Special words" in Chinese dialects -- Coincident exceptions (in Chinese)
汉语方言的「特字」: 一致的例外
Ting Pang-Hsin　丁邦新

Abstract 摘要
"Special words" is a term used by Professor Chao Yuen Ren to denote words that are pronounced in a special way, either deviating from the main phonological development or being different from the recordings of the Qieyun, Guangyun or Jiyun. To some extent, we may consider these words having irregular pronunciations.
If any "special words" in any dialects were pronounced irregularly at the time when dialects branched out from the mainstream of Old Chinese or Middle Chinese, these words would be shared by all the sub-dialects of a particular dialect group. In other words, the "special words" in a dialects group would become a common property of that group, and would not be pronounced the same way in other dialect groups. These "special words" of different dialects, however, could be treated as one of the criteria for dialect classification, similar to any phonological characteristic feature. "Special words" in all Chinese dialect groups will be discussed in this paper.

「特字」是赵元任先生创造的一个名词，他说「有一些特别的字在各方言中不但读的音值不同，它的音类也不一致。」特字在某一个意义上是例外字，就是方言的读法跟《切韵》《广韵》《集韵》收录的音不同；或者从演变上说，在方言里某个字的读法发生了例外的变化。设想现代各方言从汉语主流分出来之后，如果产生特字，那么这个特字就是某些方言所特有的，跟其他的方言不一様。换句话说，特字也跟语音特征一様，可以用来作为方言分类的依据。这篇短文就是从这个角度找出方言的特字。

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