Junling Zhu

Abstract

The migrant villages Hongqi, Dongfeng and Xiangyang in Linyi City, Shandong Province, China were formed in the 1960s as part of community relocation from Mengyin County due to the building of the Andi Reservoir. Drawing on the theory of lexical diffusion, this paper provides a comprehensive description of the sound changes in the Hongqi, Dongfeng, and Xiangyang dialects, and explores the spreading patterns of the sound changes from the perspectives of competing changes and residues. This paper argues that the sound changes in Hongqi, Dongfeng, and Xiangyang over a span of about 50 years are the result of the competition of the dual influence from their current surrounding dialects and the standard Chinese Putonghua. The different language prestige and economic power represented by Putonghua and the current surrounding dialects in the region have influenced the directions and rates of sound changes in these three migrant villages. The migrants’ language knowledge and attitude toward Putonghua and the current surrounding dialects have also played a role in the directions and rates of sound changes.