Research on Liancheng Hakka Dialect

Liancheng Hakka dialect is spoken in the middle of Tingzhou area. Influenced by a string of historical and geographical factors, their pronunciation is so complex that dialects vary from one village to another. Professor Li Rulong rates Liancheng Hakka dialect as a "dialect treasure house", given its diversified phonological levels, co-existence of preservation and innovation, and blend of dialects spoken by the bottom of the society and those of surrounding regions.Thus, Liancheng Hakka dialect is one of the Hakka dialects with the greatest internal differences that deserve in-depth research. Liancheng Hakka dialect has many characteristics absent in other Hakka dialects. For example, the changes of vowel -e to -a and from -a to -o are totally different from the development trend of Chinese and Chinese dialects. This is the key phonetic change that causes the great difference between Liancheng Hakka dialect and Guangdong Hakka dialect. The vowel of - o preserved in Xianshe and Shanshe is rare in most Hakka dialects. Liancheng Hakka dialect has diversified linguistic features, providing abundant materials on a bunch of topics, such as special phonetic forms and rules, linguistic changes in Fujian-Hakka language contacts, preservation and evolution of vulgar languages, influence of historical and regional factors on language development, and regional characteristics of typology. The author has collected materials including the phonetics, vocabulary, grammar and phrases in eleven dialect spot of sixth regions in which Liancheng Hakka dialect is spoken.Based on the above-mentioned research topics and through the horizontal dialect comparison of Liancheng Hakka dialects, this project will uncover the mysterious veil of Hakka dialect in Liancheng and provide the academia with acomprehensive understanding of the development of such dialect.