Why is Hunan dialect "five miles with different sounds and ten miles with different tones?" ?

The reasons for the formation of many dialects in China are not single, but varied. It can be roughly said that: First, the ancient countries in China were not very unified due to long-term feudal rule, so with the continuous increase of territory and population, feudal regimes often appeared in the country, and the contacts and exchanges between regions were restricted to a certain extent. In this way, languages in a state of constant development and change all evolve independently, and it is not easy to obtain the consistency of change. As a result, over time, the languages in different regions are gradually different, which gradually reduces the factors of homosexuality and forms dialects with different characteristics in different regions. This is how dialects in northern China, including North China, Northeast China, Northwest China, Southwest China, Central China and East China, are formed.

Secondly, in ancient China, due to social unrest and war, there were many large-scale population movements, which was also a reason for the formation of dialects. For example, from the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, from the Tang and Song Dynasties to the Song Dynasty, and from the end of the Song Dynasty to the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the residents of the Central Plains of China moved south three times, resulting in Hakka dialect now distributed in Guangdong and Jiangxi. "Because the ancestors of the Hakkas moved south and settled in isolated mountainous areas, on the one hand, they preserved their inherent traditions; on the other hand, due to the limitations of natural conditions, they were not easily infiltrated by external influences. The strong clan concept and conservative thoughts of the Hakkas also enhanced their ability to resist external influences; Hakka settlements have not only formed their own special social life areas, but also preserved their inherent cultural customs and formed an independent system in language. "

Thirdly, in the case of population migration, if people move into foreign residential areas, ethnic integration, language interaction and even assimilation will inevitably occur, which is also an important historical reason for the characteristics of dialects. For example, Guangdong and Guangxi are places where many ethnic minorities live. However, since the Zhou and Qin Dynasties, a large number of Han Chinese migrated from north to south, which gradually led to the situation of "usurping the Lord", surpassing the indigenous population in number. In addition, the Han nationality is more developed than the indigenous people in economy and culture, and the rulers of past dynasties implemented the policy of national assimilation, which led to the increasing sinicization of the indigenous people. Of course, in the process of national assimilation and integration of language, the Han language will inevitably be influenced by foreign languages. Therefore, "Guangdong dialect, because of its special historical background, geographical conditions and mixed ethnic groups, on the one hand inherits and develops many essence factors in ancient Chinese, on the other hand absorbs some non-Chinese factors, thus forming its dialect characteristics."

The formation and development of Chinese dialects are closely related to the development and changes of society. Only by carefully studying the social development history of Han nationality and China can we understand the specific process of the formation and development of Chinese dialects. ? ......

According to legend, there were various nationalities in the Yellow Emperor, 3,000 in the Xia Dynasty and 800 governors in the early Western Zhou Dynasty. At that time, due to the lack of historical materials, it was difficult to discuss Chinese and its dialects in detail. However, with the development of China society in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the dialect differences of Chinese can be confirmed from the ancient books in the pre-Qin period. Thirteen years of Zuo Wen Zhuan (6 14 BC): "Qin Boxue is in Hexi and Ren Wei is in the east. Shouyu said,' Please say something to my husband from the east, and I will be the pioneer' to make the proceedings. " This record shows that there were differences in Chinese dialects between the east and west sides of the Yellow River at that time. Mencius Teng Wengong: "Mencius said that Dai is invincible:" ... With Dr. Chu here, if you want his son to speak the same language, you will make Qi people Zhu Fu and Chu people Zhu Fu? Say,' Make the Qi people pay for it. Yue:' People with one heart attach importance to it, and Chu people whew it. Although they criticize each other every day, they can't understand. It's been several years, and it's impossible to get it, even if it's nine Niu Yi hairs. Talking about Qi dialect and Chu dialect here shows that during the Warring States Period in the 3rd and 4th century BC, Mencius lived in a very different Chinese dialect in the north from that in the south. ?

Qin Shihuang destroyed the vassal states, established a unified feudal empire, practiced "the same language and the same species" and "stopped cooperating with Qin Wen". This work of specifying standard fonts and stereotyped Chinese characters restricts the development of dialects to some extent, but the differences between dialects still exist obviously, which is clearly reflected in Yang Xiong's book Dialects in the Western Han Dynasty. Dialect is a collection of comparative words in different local dialects. According to the prevailing situation, the collected words can be roughly divided into four categories: ① common language, widely used in various places; (2) There is a common language between one place and another, and the traffic area is wide; (3) A certain language has a narrow passage area; (4) Ancient and modern languages (or quaint languages) are the remnants of obscure ancient languages, and the passage area is very narrow. According to the names quoted in dialects, modern scholars divide and combine them into three dialect areas: Qin Jin, Zheng Hanzhou, Liang and Xi Chu, Qilu, Wei in the northwest of Zhao, Wei in the eastern suburbs of Chen and Chu in the middle, Dong Qi and Xu, Wu Yangyue, Chu (Jingchu), Nan Chu, Xi Qin and Yan Guo. From this, we can see the general distribution of Chinese dialects in the Western Han Dynasty. The distribution of Chinese dialects reflected in dialects is caused by the long historical process of Chinese with social development. ?

According to ancient records, in ancient times before Qin and Han Dynasties, in addition to the northern dialect, Wu dialect, Guangzhou dialect and Hunan dialect may have gradually formed in the southeast. Notes in Geography of Hanshu: "From Jiaozhi (now northern Vietnam and most of Guangdong and Guangxi) to Huiji (now south of the Yangtze River in Jiangsu, east of Maoshan and most of Zhejiang), there are hundreds of different castes in Guangdong Province." "Baiyue" means "Baiyue". From the records of Historical Records, Hanshu, Lv Chunqiu and Wu Yue Chunqiu, we can know that there were Han people living in Baiyue in ancient times, but their origins were different. In the process of long-term contact between Han people and Han people, Han people and foreigners, languages have influenced and merged with each other, and gradually formed dialects such as Wu dialect, Yue dialect and Xiang dialect. "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals" quoted Wu Zixu as saying: "Husband is different from customs, so it can't be said ... Husband and Wu are adjacent to Ye Yue, with the same traffic, customs and language." This shows that the Qi dialect in the northern dialect was very different from the Wu dialect in the southern dialect at that time, but the difference between Wu dialect and Cantonese (Cantonese) was still very small. The fisherman's song in Wu Yue Chun Qiu tells the story that Wu Zixu met a fisherman from Chu to Zai Wu to Jiang. Wu Ge sung by the fisherman has a poetic structure close to Chu Ci, such as "The sun shines on the moon, the bed is urgent, and the child is urgent"; "It's getting late, I'm worried and sad, the moon is already late. Why spend it? I am anxious to sleep! " This example seems to show that there is not much difference between Wu dialect and Chu dialect in the Spring and Autumn Period. Yang Xiong dialect mentions "Southern Chu and Jiangxiang Township" many times, and sometimes it also mentions "Jingruhe Jiangxiang Township" and "Jiuxiang Township". Today's Hunan Xiang dialect may have been formed in ancient times and belongs to the southern dialect of Chu dialect. After the Zhou and Qin Dynasties, the Han people gradually went south to South Guangdong (now Guangdong, Guangxi and other places). As a communication tool, due to the barrier of mountains and rivers and traffic congestion, Chinese is increasingly alienated from northern Chinese. On the other hand, due to the mutual influence and integration of languages caused by mixed ethnic groups, Cantonese dialects have gradually formed. ?

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties after the Han Dynasty, dramatic changes took place in China society. Ethnic minorities such as Xiongnu, Xianbei, Jie, Di and Qiang living in the north entered the Central Plains and successively established political power in the north. Sima's regime, which originally ruled the northern region, moved south to Jiangnan, and a large number of Han people also moved south because of social unrest. In the northern region, the integration of Chinese and foreign languages has greatly changed the face of Chinese; In the southern region, northerners in Du Nan brought northern Chinese to the south of the Yangtze River, and influenced and infiltrated the local Chinese dialects, which led to a mixed situation of "wuyue in the south and Yin Ci in the north" in Chinese in this period (Yan Family Instructions). Social changes, people's migration, the development of ethnic relations and other factors will promote the formation and development of dialects, which is more obvious in the period of rapid social changes in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. The formation and development of Hakka dialect, Min dialect and even Gan dialect are closely related to the large-scale collective migration of population after the Middle Ages. According to historical records, the large-scale migration of Hakka ancestors 1 occurred after the Yongjia Rebellion in the Western Jin Dynasty. They went south from Bingzhou, Sizhou, Yuzhou and other places in Henan, and settled in what is now the Gan dialect area in central Jiangxi. The second large-scale migration took place in the late Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties and the Ten Kingdoms period. The Battle of Huang Chao forced the Han people in southwest Henan and southern Anhui and the immigrants who had moved to Jiangxi to continue to move south, reaching western Fujian and southern Jiangxi. The third time, when the Mongols went south and the Song Dynasty was dying, the Han people in the Central Plains continued to go south with the anti-Yuan rebels and arrived in eastern Guangdong and northern Guangdong. Linguists believe that the three large-scale southward migration of Han people in the Central Plains is the main social reason for the formation of Chinese Hakka dialects. In today's Min-speaking areas, Han people migrated from the Central Plains during the Qin and Han Dynasties, but the number was still small. The first large-scale migration of Han people from the Central Plains to Fujian was in the era of "Five Hus and Sixteen Countries". At that time, there was chaos in China, and the Han people in the north left their homes. Han people who migrated to the east and west banks of the Yangtze River, the north and south of Wuling Mountains and entered Fujian settled in Jianxi and Futunxi basins with Jian 'ou as the center in the east, the lower reaches of Minjiang River with Fuzhou as the center and Jinjiang basin with Quanzhou as the center in the south. After this large-scale southward migration, the Han nationality has further become the main body of Fujian residents. The Central Plains Chinese they brought in Zhongzhou, Henan Province at that time came into contact with the original Chinese spoken by the local Han people and even the language spoken by foreigners, and gradually formed the Min dialect. The so-called "fifteen-tone" system of Fujian dialect today may have originated from a Chinese dialect gradually formed after the Han people in the Eastern Jin Dynasty entered Fujian. The historical formation of Gan dialect is limited by historical data, so it is difficult to make an accurate judgment at present. Jiangxi was located at the junction of Wu, Yue and Chu in the Spring and Autumn Period, and between Jingzhou and Yangzhou in the Han Dynasty. Based on this, it is speculated that the Chinese used by the residents of this land at that time was probably included in the scope of Wu dialect and Chu dialect, or closely related to Wu dialect and Chu dialect. After Wei and Jin Dynasties, with the large-scale southward migration of Han people in the Central Plains several times, Jiangxi was the only place to pass. Sheikh wine cellar wish? What's the matter with you? Negative buttocks? Blink? Wei Jia Wei Shan Ying Huang? What's the matter? What's the matter with you? What's the matter with you? Are there any scratches on the edge of the cellar? Are you jealous of this charm? As far as the main phonetic features of modern Gan dialect are concerned, Gan dialect is close to Hakka dialect, so some linguists call it Hakka dialect or Hakka dialect. Although there are dialect differences in Chinese, there have always been * * * homophones, and the writing forms of * * * homophones have been unified since Qin Dynasty. This Chinese homonym was called "Ya Yan" in the Spring and Autumn Period. The Analects of Confucius said: "The words of the son, poetry, books and rituals are all elegant." Confucius, a native of  (now Qufu, Shandong Province), usually speaks Shandong dialect, but when reading poems, books and salutes, he uses the homophonic "Ya Yan" at that time. Chinese developed after * * *, which was called "lingua franca" by Yang Xiong in Han Dynasty, "lingua franca" by Zhou Deqing in Yuan Dynasty, "Mandarin" by Zhang Wei in Wen Qiji in Ming Dynasty, "Mandarin" after the Revolution of 1911, and now it is called "Putonghua". From Ya Yan, Tong Yu, Tian Xia Tong Yu to later Mandarin, Mandarin and now Mandarin, its development process is in the same strain, reflecting the general process of Chinese development in two thousand years. Chinese homophones are formed and developed on the basis of northern dialects, while the basic dialects and their central areas are constantly developing and changing. The ancient Qin Jin dialect had the greatest influence among local dialects, which can be said to be the basic dialect of Chinese at that time. After the Han Dynasty, China experienced long-term social changes in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and great changes have taken place in the Chinese language. With the political, economic and cultural center of gravity moving eastward, the center of the basic dialect of * * * has gradually moved eastward from Shaanxi and Shanxi to Zhongzhou in the border of Henan and even Jinling in Jiangsu. In Yan Jiaxun, Yan Zhitui talked about the punctuality of the phonetic notation test at that time, and thought that during the Liao, Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, the political, economic and cultural focus of China gradually moved eastward, and the basic dialect of the same Chinese was extended to the northeast and southwest provinces, and the center of the basic dialect further moved eastward to Beijing. Chinese homophones change with the expansion and change of basic dialects. As a unified Chinese, written language has also developed from ancient classical Chinese to modern vernacular Chinese. ?

Since Qin and Han Dynasties, China has been a feudal society, and the weak economic foundation has left the society in a state of disunity, which makes the northern dialect, the basic dialect of the Han nationality, unable to completely replace the dialect and achieve a high degree of unification of Chinese. It is under the special conditions of feudal society in China that Chinese dialects can keep their own characteristics and develop continuously, and even differentiate into new dialects due to the different evolution of dialects in different places. On the other hand, due to the unification of the Han nationality and the whole China society, Chinese dialects have to obey the development trend of their subordinate Chinese homophones and continue to be used as Chinese dialects. Therefore, despite the great differences, the major dialects of Chinese are still different dialects of a language, not different languages parallel to the same language. ?

As a unified written expression of Chinese, Chinese characters have different pronunciations in different dialect areas. When people in dialect areas encounter unfamiliar words, as long as they know that they sound like a word, they can read it with the pronunciation of the word in their own dialect. At the same time, although the pronunciation of ancient and modern characters is different, the writing of Chinese characters is the same, which objectively facilitates the communication between ancient and modern times. In addition, since the emergence of Chinese characters, government decrees, contract documents, classic documents, sages' sacred words, outstanding literary works and historical and philosophical masterpieces have all been recorded in Chinese characters, and people dare not easily change their words. Even the usage of some ancient sentences and words is passed down from generation to generation through teachers and students. In the process of development, both Chinese homophones and local dialects are influenced and restricted by this unified written Chinese language. For example, in many dialects, oral pronunciation and pronunciation are different (close to the pronunciation of written language and homophones), while in some dialects (such as Minnan dialect), the difference between them has almost become a dual system; Only in a language like Chinese can there be such a special relationship between written language and spoken language. ?

Chinese dialects have experienced a long and complicated development process, which is uninterrupted and gradual. However, the characteristics of modern Chinese dialects are quite different from those of ancient Chinese dialects, just as the characteristics of modern Chinese dialects are different from those of ancient Chinese dialects. In fact, every Chinese dialect (whether it is a large dialect area or a small dialect piece) has experienced a complicated development process. Since the founding of New China, the fact that a large number of languages have developed shows that under the socialist conditions, the inevitable trend of the development of Chinese dialects is to move closer to Mandarin, the lingua franca of modern Han people, and the standardized forms of spoken and written Mandarin will gradually replace local dialects.

How are regional dialects and social dialects formed? What are their main differences?

Dialect is a local variety of national language. All dialects have not been cut off, and the basic vocabulary and grammatical structure are basically the same.

The development of society often leads to further division of labor within society, which makes people with the same division of labor have certain community characteristics in language communication, resulting in language branches or language variants, which is social dialect. Social development is often accompanied by the expansion or migration of people's living areas. In this way, the original language community is the same language. As a result of regional changes, the language variants in a certain region gradually lag behind the original language, and the language variants between regions have their own stability, thus producing regional dialects. Dialect difference is an important manifestation of unbalanced language evolution, which means that different language groups have different progress rates.

Regional dialects and social dialects are divided with social differentiation, which is a concomitant phenomenon of social differentiation.

The main difference between the two is that:

(1) range is different.

Social dialect is a branch of national language that meets the needs of social division of labor and a social variant of national language. Regional dialect is a branch of national language produced in different regions, which reflects the imbalance of language development in this region. Although they are all called dialects, they are divided from different angles.

(2) Internal differences are different.

The differences between domain dialects are mainly manifested in pronunciation, vocabulary system and grammar system, while the differences between social dialects are mainly manifested in common vocabulary, without phonetic and grammatical differences.

(3) The development trend is different.

Regional dialects can develop into independent languages under certain conditions, or they may disappear under the condition of high social unity and integration; Social dialects do not have their own basic vocabulary, phonetic system and grammatical structure, so it is impossible to develop into an independent language under any conditions.

What's the difference between regional dialects and kinship languages?

Both regional dialects and kinship languages are related to the geographical differentiation of a single society, and they are descendants of the single language differentiation. But there are obvious differences between them:

(1) From the perspective of social differentiation, regional dialects are the result of incomplete regional differentiation in a single society; Kinship language is the result of further regional differentiation and complete differentiation of a single society.

(2) From the perspective of language differentiation, regional dialects have gradually formed their own characteristics with the development of homophones, but the new words and grammatical forms of regional dialects are quite similar to homophones; However, the vocabulary and grammatical forms in the kinship language constantly expand their own characteristics, and accelerate their differentiation and development in different directions, eventually forming an independent language system.

The result of a language differentiation is the formation of different dialects or different kinship languages, which mainly depends on the degree of social differentiation and whether the same language continues to exist.

Xiangfangyan

Also known as Xiang dialect or Hunan dialect, it is one of the seven major dialects of Chinese, with a small geographical area. There are many different dialects in Hunan province, and Xiang dialect is the most influential one.

Hunan dialect is popular in Yueyang, Nanxian, Miluo, Xiangyin, Yuanjiang, Yiyang, Taojiang, Anhua, Ningxiang, Changsha, Wangcheng, Zhuzhou, Xiangtan, Xiangxiang, Shuangfeng, Lianyuan, Loudi, Xinhua, Lengshuijiang, Xupu, Chenxi, Shaoyang, Shaodong and Xinshao. In addition, counties such as Quanzhou, Guanyang, Ziyuan and Xing 'an in northern Guangxi also speak Hunan dialect. The estimated population is over 25 million.

Due to social, historical, geographical, political system reform and other factors, the south, north and west of ancient Xiang dialect have long been surrounded by Mandarin dialects, and the east is influenced by Hakka and Jiangxi dialects, which leads to the continuous change of phonetic system, and gradually forms a special situation in which the new Xiang dialect and the old Xiang dialect are obviously different but coexist. Geographically, the new and old Xiang dialects are only distributed in the north and south. Therefore, some people call it North Xiang dialect and South Xiang dialect, which are two dialects of Xiang dialect. The difference between the new Xiang dialect and the old Xiang dialect is mainly manifested in the phonetic system. The old Hunan dialect in the south is relatively conservative, and the ancient voiced initials are still mainly read; Influenced by the dialect of Mandarin, the northern Xinxiang dialect has a tendency to gradually approach Mandarin, and the prominent phonetic performance is from complex to simple, and the ancient voiced initials have been generally pronounced as voiced initials. China Northern New Xiang Dialect is mainly used in northern and central Hunan, such as Changsha, Zhuzhou and Yiyang. The old Xiang dialect in the south of China is widely used in central Hunan, southeastern Shui Yuan, Xiangshui and western Zishui Valley, such as Xiangxiang, Shuangfeng, Shaoyang and Wugang.