The Belongings of Zhushan Dialect in Hubei Province

Zhushan is located in the deep mountains in Northwest Hubei. The traditional view is that Zhushan dialect belongs to Huangxiao cluster or Zhuzha cluster of Jianghuai Mandarin. After an in-depth study, it is found that it's uncertain whether the entering tone with a voiceless consonant or a voiced sonorant is read as yinping or yangping in Zhushan dialect. Therefore, based on the pronunciation of the entering tone, it is hard to ascertain the affiliation of Zhushan dialect. However, we can conclude that Zhushan dialect belongs to Shanxi cluster of Jianghuai Mandarin based on some phonological features, e.g., the pronunciation of Zhi system with hekou at the 2nd and the 3rd divisions, the pronunciation of the rhyme groups Xie with kaikou at the 2nd division after MC Jian and Xia initials, the pronunciation of Shen and Chuang initials at the 2nd division and Chuan and Zhao initials at the 3rd division, the pronunciation of MC rhyme groups Xie, Zhi, Shan and Zhen with hekou in Duan system, the pronunciation of rhyme groups Yu with hekou at the 1st division after Duan system, the rhyme groups Yu with hekou at the 3rd division after Zhuang system, and whether the rhyme groups, Shen, Zhen, Zeng and Geng, are merged.