On the modeling of homophony syllabary in Chinese dialects

ABSTRACT: Phonetic comparison of Chinese dialects has been an important issue of academic interest. There are still some prominent problems with various existing metric comparison methods, such as randomness of phonemic processing and insufficient sampling of cognates or core words. Therefore, this paper proposes a new method using homophonic syllabary as the modeling object. Compared to existing methods, the present method has more advantages in terms of materials and methods. On the one hand, compared with phonological systems, syllabic lists or limited number of selected words, homophonic syllabaries are more representative linguistic materials and have been highly valued in Chinese dialectology. On the other hand, the present method focuses mainly on the homophonic relationship based on the unit of syllable, thus avoiding the difficulties of phonemic processing. Most importantly, this method is not simply a comparison of dialects by a certain parameter through a certain measurement method but rather a systematic modeling of the traditional historical phonological-dialectological method. While the method still needs to be further developed, it is promising as a combined quantitative and qualitative research paradigm. 摘要: 汉语方言的语音计量比较一直是学术界关注的重要问题。现有的各类 计量比较方法仍然存在一些突出的问题，如音位处理的随机性和关系 词或核心词的采样不足。因此，本文提出了一种以同音字汇为建模对 象的新方法。与现有方法相比，本方法在材料和方法上都有一定优势。 一方面，相比于音系、音节表或有限的关系词，同音字汇是更具代表 性的语言材料，在汉语方言学中一直受到高度重视。另一方面，本方 法主要聚焦在音节单位的同音关系，从而避免了音位处理的困难。最 重要的是，本方法不是简单地通过某种测量方法对方言进行某种参数 的比较，而是对传统的音韵-方言学方法进行系统的建模。虽然该方法 仍需进一步发展，但作为一种定量和定性相结合的研究范式，它是很 有前途的。