An investigation of Fan Zidong’s Qin Opera works has found some phonetic characteristics of Guanzhong dialects in times of the Republic of China. For consonants, the consonants in some roundmouth characters of the midold 精(jing) group were pronounced as j, q, x. Besides, the consonants of the midold 庄(zhuang) and 章(zhang) group were pronounced as z, c, s. For vowels, the vowels in such characters as 则(ze), 德(de), 得(de), 测(ce), 色(se), 白(bai), 拍(pai), 窄(zhai), 惑(huo) and 国(guo) were classified into the rhyme of Hui and Dui. In addition, those in such characters as 学(xue), 药(yao) and 约(yue) were grouped into the rhyme of Suo and Po, and those in such characters as 斜(xie) and嗟(jie) were classified into the rhyme of Fa and Hua. And finally, those of such characters as 路(lu), 楚(chu), 芦(lu) and 堵(du) were grouped into the rhyme of You and Qiu. A comparison with Dialectal Vocabulary, The Investigation Report of Guanzhong Dialects and current phonetics of Guanzhong dialects shows some fine changes on phonetics of Guanzhong dialects since the times of the Republic of China.

Fan Zidong; Qin Opera playscript; dramas in times of the Republic of China; Guanzhong dialects; language characteristic