一般认为中古全浊阻塞音声母清化后在今客、赣方言里一律读送气音。 但通过利用DOC1数据库进行再检查却发现有相当数量的中古全浊阻塞音声母字在今客、赣方言中读不送气声母。 深入的研究使我们发现这些不送气字实际上是 “送气音变” 的剩余，而且通过对比分析从分别以第一版和第二版 《汉语方音字汇》 为基础的两个DOC数据库得出的材料，我们发现 “送气音变” 仍在进行过程当中。 客、赣方言在送气特征和不送气 “例外” 上的高度相似性可以认为是客、赣方言有亲属关系的有力证据。 这对现行的对客、赣方言形成的推測做了补充，更启示我们对当前汉语方言分区及汉语方言理论的研究进行深入的思考和探讨。 It is usually assumed that all Middle Chinese voiced obstruent initials became aspirated after devoicing in modern Hakka and Gan dialects, irrespective of ancient tone categories. Further examination of the modern reflexes of these initials in Meixian and Nanchang dialects, utilizing the DOC database, indicates that a number of words with Middle Chinese voiced obstruent initials are currently unaspirated. Moreover, the findings of the systematic distribution of such words in most Hakka and Gan dialect areas indicate that they are indeed residues of the Aspiration Sound Change. This sound change has been undergoing a process of lexical diffusion. A careful examination of these unaspirated words in two versions of DOC, which are respectively based on the two editions of Hanyu Fangyin Zihui, further reveals that this process is still continuing. The striking resemblance that Meixian and Nanchang bear, either on the aspirated or unaspirated words, together with the sharp contrasts they make with other dialect localities included in DOC, lend strong support to the observation that there is close genetic relationship between Hakka and Gan. The different rates and directions of these changes, that Hakka and Gan are undergoing, show that the two dialects are currently developing in divergent ways. The present study can amplify existing speculations concerning the formation of Hakka and Gan dialects. It also can stimulate linguists to think and to probe more deeply into issues about the future division of Chinese dialects.

These two fields, Linguistics and Sinology, flow together in their concern with the Chinese Language. The central questions on the language remain the same: its structure, its ontogeny, and its phylogeny, as well as the interactions between the Chinese Language on the one hand, and Chinese thought, literature, and social systems on the other. Also of considerable interest are the questions which arise when the Chinese language comes into contact with other languages, be it in the controlled context of a language class or on the streets of an emigrant community. All in all, there is much to be done. Papers on Chinese Linguistics had to seek foster homes in diverse journals of general linguistics and in publications of various hues of orientalia. This situation was at best a nuisance, and at worst a serious impediment to the communication and progress of our field. In this journal, let us hope, Chinese Linguistics will have found its own voice.

The Chinese University Press was established in 1977 as the publishing house of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. It is a non-profit organization devoted to the advancement, preservation and dissemination of knowledge, as well as the promotion of multi-cultural academic exchanges. The Press publishes more than fifty titles per year and carries well over 1,300 titles on its backlist. It is an established publisher of many scholarly works on China and Hong Kong studies and on Chinese culture.