A further discussion on the issues of entering tone and basic sound system of Western Mandarin compiled by Adam Grainger.

• Main Author: Wong, Ling Yann
• Format: Article
• Language: English; English
• Published: Jiangsu Normal University 2010
• Online Access: http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/12699/1/A%20further%20discussion%20on%20the%20issues%20of%20entering%20tone%20and%20basic%20sound%20system%20of%20Western%20Mandarin%20compiled%20by%20Adam%20Grainger.pdf; http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/12699/; http://www.linsci.com

Regarding to the basic sound system of Mandarin reflected by Western Mandarin(《西蜀方言》) compiled by Adam Grainger, Zhen Shangling (1988) and Liang Deman (1993) believe that Western Mandarin are recorded the sound system of Chengdu in the last period of the nineteenth century. Mandarin Dialect (1857/1864) by Joseph Edkins, contains entering tone characters showing the pronunciation of the Chengdu Mandarin, which prevailed in the middle of the nineteenth century. So the conclusions by Zhen and Liang are open for discussion. This study investigates the pronunciation noted by Joseph Edkins in his Mandarin works and the material of Sichuan dialect to further discuss the issues of the entering tone and the basic sound system of Western Mandarin. The entering tone of Chengdu Mandarin had been distributed into the second tone since the middle of nineteenth century, differed with Western Mandarin published in the last period of the nineteenth century, and the entering tone still existed. However some of the entering tone characters in this work are pronounced in the fourth tone, the entering tone characters from the rhyme categories of Geng and Tong (梗通两摄) have shown various pronunciations. This shifted entering tones and the different pronunciations of the entering tone characters are the characteristics of the dialects around Chengdu