AStudyofEnteringToneinYiyangDialectSunFan【Abstract】ThispaperfocusonenteringtoneexistinYiyangDialect.EnteringtoneplaysacrucialroleinthedailycommunicationofancientChina，nowadaysthismannercanalsobefoundinmanysoutherndialects.Thispaperclassifiesitsdefinition，lawsandcurrentsituationinthestudyofYiyangdialect.Andthenwanttofindsomesuggestionsforfurtherresearch.【Keywords】enteringtone；Yiyangdialect；existence【作者簡介】SunFan，FacultyofForeignStudies，BeijingLanguageandCultureUniversity。1.Definition1.1EnteringtoneEnteringtoneisaspecialcategoryinChinesesyllables.Comparedtofourmaintoneshigh-leveltone，risingtone，falling-risingtoneandfallingtone，itisarelativesyllableratherthanparallelone，whetherinancient，modern，norpresenttime.Around500A.D.，ZhouYonginQidynastyarguedthatenteringtoneshouldbeasimportantasfourmaintones.Manylinguistshavediscussedthisphenomenonoverthousandyears，butstillcannotmakeauniformconclusion.So，whatcanbecalledenteringtone？Wecanfindtwodefinitions：1itisoneoffourancientChinesetones，itpronouncesshortandsharp，andsometimesmakesconsonantsterminalsoundsModernChineseDictionaryP965，thecommercialpress，1979；2oneoffourmaintonesinChina.Thelengthofenteringtoneisshortandswift.Ittakeplosivesasitstail，pronounces-p?，-t?，-k?，like六、八、十inCantonese；orpronouncesasglottalstop-?，likeShanghaidialect；orishardlypronounced，anddevelopsonitsown，likeXiangdialect.Cihaireducededition，P308，ShanghaiLexicographicalPublishingHouse.Theabovedefinitionsshowthecharacteristicsofenteringtone，i.e.，wecandistinguishenteringtonefromothertonesbyitsshortandsharpsyllables，andwecanfindplosivetailatitsend.However，oneimportantfeaturedoesnotshowintheprecedingsentence，thatis，thechangeofpitch.Asweallknow，toneconsistsofpitchchangewiththesyllables.So，ifenteringtonedoesnotshowthatfeature，wecannotmakereasonableconclusionthatitbelongstoanothertypeoftone.InthehistoryofChinesespeech，ifpeoplecomeagainstdifficultiesinsoundsofwords，theyoftenlookuparhymedictionarycalledGuangyun，whichcollatesanoverwhelmingmajorityofpronunciationsinChinathatcanbetracedtotheirsorigins.Guangyuntakestoneasthekeylink，thusarrangeswordsaccordingtotone，rhyme，andsound.Foridentifyingdifferenttypesofsyllables，peopleinmedievalChinahavecreatedsegmentalfeature“openandlengthfeature“long，sowecanseeintheschemathatthefeatureofvocalicrhymeis“+openand“+long；nasalrhyme“-openand“+long；enteringrhyme“-openand“-long.Thatistosay，pitchofspeechhasnotbeenregardedasacrucialfeatureforpeopletoseparatevocalicrhyme，nasalrhymeandenteringrhymefromeachother.1.2YiyangDialectAsonebranchofXiangdialect，YiyangdialecthasthesamecharacteristicsasXiangdialectChenlizhong，2020：1initial：theancientvoicedinitialsbecomeunaspiratedonceappearedwithplosives，oraffricates；2rhymetail：theplosivetail-p?，-t?，-k?graduallydisappear，sodoesglottalstop-?；3tone：thetoneofYiyangdialecthasfiveormoretypes；4register：LocatedinthedistrictofXiangRiver，ZijiangRiver，andYuanjiangRivermiddlepart，orinNanlingregion，ordialectalislandthatcausedbyimmigrantfromthiscity.2.TheEvolutionofToneSysteminYiyangDialectYiyangdialectbelongstoYi-Yuansub-dialectofChang-Yidialect.Currently，thekindofresearchisrelativelycontroversialandthereisstillexiststhevagueknowledgeofit.Therearetwodifferentviewpointsholdbylinguists，onestatesthatenteringtonesreallyexistinYiyangdialect，linguistslikeBaohouxing，Chenpuqing，Cuizhenhua，XuhuiclassifythetonesystemofYiyangdialectintofivetonecategoriesXuhui，2020，i.e.Yinping，Yangping，falling-risingtone，fallingtone，andenteringtone；anotheronearguesthatwecannotfindenteringtoneinYiyangdialect，linguistslikeYangshifeng，Wuzongji，ZengyumeireducethetonesystemofYiyangdialectintofivedifferenttypes，i.e.Yinping，Yangping，falling-risingtone，vocalicrhymeofenteringtone，andnasalrhymeofenteringtoneZengyumei，1995.So，wewilldiscussthisquestionthroughthefollowingtables：theToneTableofYiyangDialect1ThetwotablesshowtheevolutionofmedievaltoneinYiyangdialect，i.e.YinpingandYangpingbothbelongtohigh-leveltone，all-voicedfalling-risingtonepronouncedasfallingtone，voicelessmembersinfallingtonearepronouncedasYangping，andvoicedmembersinfallingtonearepronouncedasitsoriginaltone.ItisapparentthatenteringtoneinYiyangdialectisretainedfully.Yiyangdialecthavebeenusedbyresidentsinarelativelyfixedareaandclosedenvironment.ItonlycanbeinfluencedbyChang-Yidialect，soithasstrongconsistencyanddoesnotchangetoomuch.Theabovetwoshowtherelationbetweenfallingtoneandenteringtoneclearly.ThisphenomenonthatfallingtonesinmedievaltimegraduallyturnintoenteringtonescanoftenbeenfoundinYiyangdialect，sowecannotclassifyitintoexceptionorstyleofliteraryandcolloquial.WecanseethatcurrentdialectinYiyangstillcontainsenteringtone.So，thispapertotallysupportthefirstviewproposedbylinguistsBaohouxing，Chenpuqing，Cuizhenhua，Xuhui，i.e.enteringtonesexistinYiyangdialectbeyondallquestion.3.EnteringToneinYiyangDialectIn?ReportofHunanDialectInvestigation?，Yangshifengdefines“tonesystemofYiyangdialectas：Yinping，Yangping，falling-risingtone，vocalicinitialsm，n，l，roffalli