A Grammar of Central Plains Mandarin

This grammar presents a linguistic study of the Shangshui dialect, which belongs to Central Plains Mandarin. The latter is a sub-branch of Mandarin and is spoken over a vast region of the middle of China in a long, narrow belt, extending across 11 provinces and covering an area of about 200,000 square kilometers. In total, more than 100 million people speak Central Plains Mandarin. Central Plains Mandarin has the most extensive distribution of the eight Mandarin branches, and it is regarded as the base of Standard Mandarin. However, compared with other dialect groups, very little research has been conducted on it. Scholars have considered that there are no grammatical distinctions between Central Plains Mandarin and Standard Mandarin, although there are slight differences in the phonological systems and vocabulary. This may be the reason why scholars have, up until now, neglected the grammar of Central Plains Mandarin. However, we are of the opinion that this lack of research is incongruous with the status of Central Plains Mandarin, and our present work proves that its grammar contains many unique features worthy of investigation.

Auteur

Yujie Chen, Zhejiang University, China