Juxian Dialect Dictionary

Author: Shi Mingyuan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1995-01-01
Features: I joined the Institute of Linguistics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (now the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences since May 1977) as an administrative staff member in the spring of 1957. Shortly after my arrival, the renowned linguist Mr. Ding Shengshu noticed that my hometown dialect (Juxian dialect in Shandong) was quite interesting. He told me, "Your dialect has distinctive features, it would be worth recording." Later, he occasionally asked me various questions, such as how to say a castrated boar, to which I replied, "It's called shizongzhu." He then asked about the pronunciation of "shi" in poetry, "she" in bows and arrows, and "shi" for teacher. Do you not pronounce the initial consonants for these words? "Knowledge" consists of two characters whose initial consonants are...? From these pronunciations, it's evident that the of the three groups of initials (zhi, zhuang, zhang) into two sets follows a certain pattern. For over two decades since I started working at the Institute of Linguistics, it was the era of "class struggle as the guiding principle," marked by continuous political movements. Those dedicated to research could hardly work normally, let alone administrative staff. Academician Zhang Jinfu, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, once said, "We are in the service sector." This meant that our work was to serve the research staff. Therefore, I willingly served at the Institute of Linguistics for a quarter of a century until my retirement in July 1982. Mr. Ding hoped that I would record aspects of my hometown dialect, but I never did. After retirement, I stayed mostly at home, resisting interference, and tried to record the Juxian dialect to fulfill my long-held wish. The professionals in the Dialect Research Office, with whom I worked for a long time, were both my colleagues and friends. I fully utilized this opportunity, asking them for advice when I didn’t know and learning as I went along.