Common Southwestern Wu: A study of transition in Chinese historical phonology

Abstract

This dissertation presents a reconstruction of Common Southwestern Wu, the ancestor of the Jinqu, Lishui, and Shangshan group Wu dialects spoken in southwestern Zhejiang province and across the border in Jiangxi and Fujian provinces. Common Southwestern Wu is a second-order proto-language. It is arrived at by comparing Akitani Hiroyuki's Proto-Northwestern Chuqu to two other common systems established for the Jinqu and Lishui group dialects. This study uses the comparative method to reconstruct the common systems and discusses the difficulties that arise when the method is applied to daughters with rich histories of language contact. In addition to the reconstruction, the study presents a historical model of migration into and through Zhejiang and relates it to distinct layers of vocabulary in Common Southwestern Wu while exploring its relationship with other Wu dialect groups and Min Chinese.