The aim of this paper is to use data from 86 localities in Hunan to reconstruct the old layer of the personal and demonstrative pronoun system of the Hunan dialects. According to the data provided in the Modern Hunan dialects, the following system is hypothesised to have existed in Hunan at an early stage, although no single locality in modern times has maintained the entire system.
The above system is derived from the Archaic Chinese system. The changes and developments of the Hunan dialects that originated from Archaic Chinese are as follows:
i) The initial of the rd person pronoun shifted from dental to velar, possibly due to analogy; and
ii) The demonstrative pronouns "this" and "that" have phonological connection with the lperson ft wo in the Hunan dialects, while in Archaic Chinese the demonstrative pronouns had different sources.
In this paper, the relationship between personal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, and personal and demonstrative pronouns, will be addressed to support the above hypothesis. Scholars have noticed that there are phonological relationships amongst pronouns. Zhou Fagan once pointed out that phonological-semantic relationships are often found among the 1st, 2nd and 3rd person pronouns and among the pronouns indicating inquiries, negation, etc (Zhou 1953:3). Lu Shuxiang claimed that the 3rd person pronoun and demonstrative pronoun have a very close relationship. In Chinese, it is only the lst person pronoun that has no relationship with demonstrative pronouns (Lu 1985:187). All of the above research uses written data from Archaic Chinese and discusses its relevance to modern Chinese dialects. The aim of this paper is to discuss the phonological relationships between personal and demonstrative pronouns, to reconstruct the earlier layer of the pronoun system in Hunan, and to describe its development by using modern data from 86 localities. 2 The data from Hunan demonstrates that there are phonological links between personal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, and personal and demonstrative pronouns. In the older layer of the pronoun system in Hunan, the three personal pronouns and two demonstrative pronouns once all had velar initials. It is argued that in the Hunan dialects, the 1' person pronoun has been related to demonstrative pronouns.
The following four issues will be discussed respectively:
i) The phonological links in personal pronouns in the Hunan dialects;
ii) The phonological links between demonstrative pronouns in the Hunan dialects;
iii) The phonological links between personal and demonstrative pronouns in the Hunan dialects; and
iv) The development of personal and demonstrative pronouns in the Hunan dialects.
