In the 1980s, Chinese dialects were relatively fully investigated and described, laying the foundation for the development of geolinguistics.Starting from Zhao Yuanren, Chinese scholars have mainly used static descriptions to study the ontology of dialects, ignoring the impact of social, historical and geographical factors on the evolution of dialects. In fact, language, as a product of human society, is closely related to non-linguistic factors such as social, cultural and historical factors. Inseparable. In order to have a more comprehensive understanding of Chinese dialects, scholars need to use new research methods, and geolinguistics came into being. The so-called geolinguistics is to intuitively show the relationship between language variation and regional space through maps. This is conducive to studying the true status of language change in different regions. With the improvement of social productivity, the development of various map software has also provided a lot of technical support for the development of dialect geography.In 2003, Shi Rujie translated and introduced the "Geography of Chinese Dialects" by Belgian scholar He Densong to China, which started the study of geolinguistics in China. Chinese scholars conducted in-depth discussions on geolinguistics, and the study of dialect geolinguistics became a trend.[3]
As theoretical research gained momentum in China, scholars delved into the study of Chinese dialects, guided by the principles of geographical linguistics theory. This scholarly endeavor bore fruit with the successive publication of significant works such as the Atlas of Chinese Dialects and the New Atlas of Chinese Languages. Simultaneously, regional studies on Chinese dialects have flourished, yielding contributions from scholars including Peng Zerun, Wang Wensheng, Richard VanNess Simmons (known as Shi Haoyuan), Shi Rujie, Gu Qian, Xu Yue, and Li Yongxin.[4]
Classification of Chinese varieties
[edit]Top-level groups and supergroups of Chinese varieties identified in the Atlas
clusters (小片 xiǎopiàn) are only identified for some subgroups
local dialects (点 diǎn): localities that were surveyed
The first edition of the Chinese Language Atlas divides Chinese dialects into ten regions: Jin, Wu, Hui, Gan, Xiang, Min, Cantonese, Pinghua, Hakka, and Mandarin. This objectively and comprehensively reflects the actual situation of Chinese dialect zoning.
This book divides different dialect areas by two important criteria: the evolution of ancient “ru” tone characters and the evolution of ancient voiced initial characters. According to the first criterion of language evolution, we can distinguish between Mandarin and non-Mandarin. Most of the ancient Mandarin in ancient China has the ancient "ru" tone, which is now pronounced as "shu", and the ancient “ru” tone characters of non-Mandarin dialects are still pronounced as entering tone; according to the evolution of ancient voiceless initial “ru” tone characters, Mandarin can be divided into eight areas. According to the evolution of ancient voiced initial characters, nine non-Mandarin dialects can be divided.[6]
The atlas contains 36 coloured maps, printed on loose white sheets measuring 15 in × 20.75 in (38.1 cm × 52.7 cm). Each map is accompanied by a blue sheet of the same size containing explanatory notes.[1] The atlas is divided into three sections:[5]
Work began on a revised edition in 2002.[2]
The work was published in 2012 as a joint venture between the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the City University of Hong Kong.
It consists of two volumes, dealing respectively with varieties of Chinese and minority languages.[7][8]
The revision follows the same structure as the first edition, but the number of maps has increased to 79, and the explanatory text is greatly expanded.
The number of minority languages covered has also increased from 81 to 130.[9]
As a successful example of Chinese dialect research, it has enriched the treasure house of Chinese linguistics and enhanced the status of the Chinese dialect discipline in China's linguistic disciplines.[10]
This book comprehensively reflects the complex distribution of Chinese dialects and minority languages[11]
This book has promoted the study of Chinese language and minority languages in China, and has provided help to experts and interested people in the fields of human life and history, such as Sinology, linguistics, ethnology, anthropology, archaeology, historical geography, economics, sociology, anthropology, archaeology, human geography, demography, historical geography, etc.[12]
^ abBaker, Hugh D.R (1993). "Language Atlas of China". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 56 (2): 398–399. doi:10.1017/S0041977X0000598X.
^ abKurpaska, Maria (2010). Chinese Language(s): A Look Through the Prism of "The Great Dictionary of Modern Chinese Dialects". Walter de Gruyter. pp. 63–64. ISBN978-3-11-021914-2.
^SiR, Yang (2022-04-24). "国学 || 词汇与文化". 简书 (in Chinese). Retrieved 2024-04-29.
"Digital Language Atlas of China", compiled by Lawrence W. Crissman, version 6, 5 October 2012, Australian Centre for the Asian Spatial Information and Analysis Network (ACASIAN) GIS Data Archive. doi:10.7910/DVN/OHYYXH (Harvard Dataverse). The full dataset consists of eight layers in ESRI shapefile format derived from the Language Atlas of China. The initial release (under Creative Commons v3.0 – Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike) contains only a draft of the first layer, representing maps A1–4 and marking language families and major Chinese dialect groups, but not individual non-Chinese languages or subgroups of Chinese dialects.
