『Huiyinmiaowu(彙音妙悟)』『Huiyinmiaowu(彙音妙悟)』, which is regarded as the oldest rhyme dictionary in Minan area, represents the 18th century's phonology in Quanzhou. 『Huiyinmiaowu』was compiled not for the educated class, but for the uneducated classes such as farmers, merchants, and technicians, therefore, it contains the rich colloquial readings of Quanzhou area. The initial inventories of『Huiyinmiaowu』 are as follows: 邊[p], 普[ph], 文[b(m)], 地[t], 他[th], 柳[l(n)], 爭[ts], 出[tsh], 時[s], 入[z], 求[k], 氣[kh], 語[g()], 喜[h], 英[Ø]. The colloquial readings are mostly founded at the 13 rhymes such as 歡[-u], 關[-u], [-ia], 刀[-o], 科[-], 梅[], 京[-i], 鷄[-e], 毛[], 靑[-], 燒[-io], 風[-ua], 箱[-i], 三[-]. It is a very interesting phenomenon that the colloquial readings of 『Huiyinmiaowu』reflect the traces of Old Chinese. For example, the readings of 長 [t], 程 [thi] and 重 [ta] still preserve the [t-] series in Old Chinese. The main vowel of 騎 [khia], 寄 [kia] and 蟻 [hia] has kept the low vowel of Ge(歌) final group in Old Chinese. The nasalized finals are very abundant in Quanzhou dialect compared to other dialects. These are already formed at 『Huiyinmiaowu』after Middle Chinese. 8 tones are arranged at all rhymes. Yinqu(陰去) tone and Yangqu(陽去) tone are merged into one tone i. e. Qu(去) tone, therefore, it can be said that there are actually only 7 tones in 『Huiyinmiaowu』. Sometimes the characters with Zheng(正) notation represent the pronunciation of the 18th century's Early Mandarin. For example, the final [-ia] of the character shang(商), shang(賞) and xiang(香) reflects Early Mandarin while the final [-io] of the characters does the pronunciation of Early Quanzhou dialects in the 18th century.
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