The Initial, Final and Tone of a Syllable and their Features in the Gansu Chinese Dialect

The Gansu Chinese dialect (hereafter refrred to as Gansu dialect) is classified as the northwestern common speech of the Chinese language (Mandarine). According to the entering tone, the Ganus dialect may within itself be divided into three major stretches of speaking the Central Plains official dialect, the Lanzhou-Yinchuan official dialect, and the southwestern official dialect; according to geographical and internal features, the Gansu dialect may again be divided into eight minor stretches. Normally the Gansu dialect has 24 initials and 32 finals in its pronunciation, and there are 3 or 4 tone categories. Between the initial, final and tone of a syllable in the Gansu dialect on the one hand and the Chinese pronunciation in the middle ancient times, and that of the Beijing dialect on the other, are there corresponding relations.