Overview of Cantonese Dialect

Author: edited by Zhan Bohui
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2002-01-01
Features: The linguistic materials used in A General Overview of Cantonese Dialects in Guangdong are based on the several major investigation reports mentioned earlier regarding the Pearl River Delta, Northern Guangdong, and Western Guangdong. During the compilation process, we also supplemented surveys of several other Guangdong Cantonese dialects, such as Xinyi and Lianjiang. This approximately one million-word A General Overview of Cantonese Dialects in Guangdong, as a key project of Guangdong's Philosophy and Social Sciences "Nineth Five-Year Plan," was completed under the meticulous planning of Professor Zhan Bohui, a doctoral supervisor with extensive experience in dialect research. Building on the successful completion of five monographs totaling about five million words from earlier key projects—the "Pearl River Delta Dialect Survey" ("Nineth Five-Year Plan project") and the "Guangdong Beijiang and Xijiang Cantonese Dialect Survey" ("Tenth Five-Year Plan project")—which won the First and Second Prizes of the Guangdong Social Science Outstanding Achievement Award and the Second Prize of the Ministry of Education's Humanities and Social Sciences Achievement Award, this team of dedicated Cantonese dialect researchers, after nearly four years of arduous effort, further conducted surveys, verified existing data, and supplemented new linguistic materials to finally complete the writing of this monograph. This achievement summarizes and generalizes the overall picture and internal variations of Cantonese dialects across Guangdong Province. It includes discussions on the distribution and regionalization (segmentation) of Guangdong Cantonese dialects, their formation and development, detailed descriptions of Guangdong Cantonese dialects, an analysis of their similarities and differences, as well as dozens of dialect maps reflecting the phonetic, lexical, and grammatical features of Guangdong Cantonese dialects. It also provides an overview of Cantonese dialect research in Guangdong, as well as phonetic and lexical comparisons of representative points of Guangdong Cantonese dialects. Finally, it includes a selected bibliography of over a thousand entries on Cantonese dialect research in Guangdong. Such a comprehensive monograph that fully showcases all aspects of Cantonese dialects in Guangdong Province can be considered a major breakthrough in Guangdong dialect research. It will undoubtedly have a positive impact on the development of Chinese dialectology and the advancement of Chinese linguistics.