Richard VanNess Simmons

ABSTRACT: The present study compares and contrasts the phonologies of the Y. R. Chao’s Fāngyīn diàochá biǎogé 方音調查表格 and Jerry Norman’s Common Dialectal Chinese Hànyǔ fāngyán tōngyīn 漢語方言通音, also with reference to the Fāngyán diàochá zìbiǎo 方言調查字表, for what they reveal about their compilers’ approaches to Chinese dialect phonology and it’s applicability in dialect fieldwork and related research. We find that both were designed as tools to help shed light on the diachronic relationships between dialects. A significant feature that separates the two is how they treat the issue of dentilabialized initials (聲母的齒唇化) and the zhīxì 知系, or zhī, zhuāng, zhāng 知莊章, set of initials. The Biǎogé can be seen to represent a Qièyùn stage of development prior to the dentilabialization that spread widely through the mainstream dialects but that did not affect the Mǐn dialects, while keeping the zhī, zhuāng, zhāng initial sets separate. In contrast, Tōngyīn (CDC) is a reconstruction that includes dentilabialization as an established feature of the stage of Chinese it represents while also merging the zhī, zhuāng, zhāng initials into a single set. This particular mix of features and their developments is illustrative of the watershed series of changes that took place in the evolution of Chinese dialects from the Hàn 漢 to the Sòng 宋 periods. These changes were key to the shape and variety of Chinese dialects as they are found across the map today and are also reflected in the differences between Jerry Norman’s Early Chinese and CDC.