宜兴东部港口区方言“河”字的语音变异研究

Phonological Variation of the Lexical Item He (“River”) in the Dialect of Eastern Yixing’s Gangkou Area

摘要: 宜兴方言属吴语太湖片毗陵小片，东部港口区因空间和文化差异，形成了语音微观变异。基于田野调查数据，研究聚焦宜兴东部“河”字的语音变体，明确了东部南区“河”字本音为/ɦo/，东部北区为变体/ɦu/，系统分析了两类变体的声韵调特征、语音差异及演变轨迹，并探索语音变体形成的核心成因。两类变体均源于中古浊声母。北区变体/ɦu/是宜兴东乡方言的保守承古形式，其韵母性质更接近早期底层读音；老年群体在此基础上发生央化，出现[ɦʉ]变体。

Abstract: The Yixing dialect belongs to the Piling cluster, Taihu subgroup of Wu Chinese. Due to spatial and cultural differences, micro-phonetic variations have emerged in the eastern Gangkou area. Based on fieldwork data, this study focuses on the phonetic variants of the character He (“river”) in eastern Yixing, identifying /ɦo/ as the base pronunciation in the southeastern area and /ɦu/ as the variant in the northeastern area. It systematically analyzes the characteristics of initials, finals, and tones, the phonetic differences, and the evolutionary trajectories of the two variants, while exploring the core causes behind their formation. Both variants derive from Middle Chinese voiced initials. The northern variant /ɦu/ represents a conservative and archaic form of the eastern Yixing rural dialect, with the nature of its final being closer to the early underlying pronunciation. On this basis, centralization occurs among the elderly demographic, resulting in the emergence of the [ɦʉ] variant.