Professor Tao Huan talks about the synchronic investigation of the evolution of upper tones in Penang dialect - and also discusses the "punctuated equilibrium" model of natural sound change
May 12, 9:00 am，Executive Director of the Chinese Language Society、Director of the National Chinese Dialect Society、Tao Huan, Professor of the Chinese Department of Fudan University, is a guest in the 333rd issue of "New Apricot Forum"，Academic lecture in Room A620, Zhixin Building，Title: "Synchronic investigation of the evolution of upper tones in Penang dialect - also on the 'punctuated balance' model of natural sound change"。Lecture hosted by Associate Professor Liu Juan，Professor Yue Lijing、Associate Professor Zhang Yanfen attended，Attracted more than thirty teachers and students to listen。
The beginning of the lecture，Teacher Liu Juan welcomes the arrival of Professor Tao Huan，And Bet365 loginbriefly introduced Professor Tao Huan’s research results and diverse research methods and perspectives in the field of dialectology, especially Wu language，The topic that leads to this lecture is to explore issues related to sound change based on the evolution of the upper tone of the Hokkien dialect in Penang, Malaysia。
First，Tao Huan started the lecture from the question of "how to study the evolution of tone"。The issue of tone evolution has always been a topic of concern to dialectologists。Systematic inference used in reviewing previous studies、Geographical Observation、After continuous recording and other methods，He pointed out，Principles found after sound changes have occurred are often explanatory rather than predictive，His research on Penang dialect is from another angle，Starting from the ongoing evolution。Research has shown，Penang dialect has two variations: 53 and 35，The two tone values can be read freely。But Tao Huan discovered after investigation，Variation of rising tone and age、Gender factors are significantly related，So it can be judged that this variation is a microscopic sound change from old age to young bet365 online sports betting appage，Instead of a free variant。
Afterwards, Tao Huan’s tone in Penang dialect is changing from falling tonesrising toneThe reasons were analyzed。Due to the complexity of code usage in Penang，Predecessors mostly focused on language contact to explain the variation of intonation and made assumptions。Tao Huan commented on the three main assumptions of predecessors about sound change driving，and pointed out，Survey results show，After controlling for age，Language frequency、There is no longer a significant correlation between language proficiency and intonation variability，There is no definite evidence of exposure to sound changes。After ruling out this possibility，Tao Huan used voice experiments，Acoustic analysis of the tones in Penang Hokkien dialect in different environments，It is found that there is a trend of peak load shifting to the right，Point out that the evolution process of the rising tone of Penang Hokkien is reflected in the frequency of use of rising tone in age、Gender、Gradually improve the three dimensions of sentence environment，And further proposed that the fundamental driving force for shape adjustment bet365 online betting appevolution comes from U-turn expansion，The evolution pattern of "falling - rising - rising - falling and rising" has been formed。Afterwards，Tao Huan also listed some existing onesResearchTurn around and expandSupport for this change.
Finally，Is Tao Huan's answer to whether the sound change is uniformitarian or mutation、Discuss the issue of discrete or continuous，Point out that evidence over long periods of time is important，But examining the expression of tone evolution at the synchronic level can reveal richer details。He further proposed，The natural evolution of speechMaybe notlikeAs Jespersen hypothesized, it is a“Wood sawing style”an imperceptible gradient，It is a drastic change - a "punctuated equilibrium" of stable alternation, the occurrence of specific sound changes has a certain degree of chance。
On behalf of the teachers and students, Teacher Liu Juan expressed her gratitude to Professor Tao Huan for his wonderful sharing，and pointed out，Professor Tao Huan’s research on the tones of Penang dialect can use various theories eclectically，But not limited to this，But to be able to reflect on and make up for existing theories or propose new bet365 online gamestheories based on the discovered linguistic facts，This kind of thinking and approach is a very admirable and emulated example for dialect researchers。
In question session，The teachers and students present spoke enthusiastically，On the influence of the slope before the inflection point of the tone on the right shift of the peak adjustment、The direction of tone evolution、Ask Professor Tao Huan about how to deal with vocabulary diffusion and other issues。Professor Tao Huan patiently responded and answered，brought great inspiration to the teachers and students attending the meeting。The lecture ended successfully with warm applause。
