Initials of the Tongtay Dialect and their Historical Development: The jing Series and jy Group
通泰方言的声母与其历史发展：jing 组系列及 jy 组系列
Qian Gu 顾黔

Abstract 摘要

INTRODUCTION
The Tongtay 通泰 dialect is spoken in the middle region of Jiangsu province. It belongs to the larger Jiang-Hwai 江淮 dialect group. Its system of initial consonants is quite unusual; all stops and affricates descended from voiced Middle Chinese initials are realized as voiceless aspirates regardless of tone. This feature is found throughout the entire Tongtay area. Although the Gann and Kehjia (Hakka) dialects share this feature, the situation is quite different from that of the Horngchaur 洪巢 dialect area (which also belongs to the Juang-Hwai dialect group) to the north and the Wu dialects to the south. The Horngchaur dialect is the same as Mandarin in that voiced initials have become aspirated in ping tone and unaspirated in the other tones. In the Wu dialect, on the other hand, voiced initials are preserved.