Rusheng is a rather complex issue in Chinese tones which deserves explorations. Jianghuai Mandarin is a kind of dialect, whose most striking characteristics is that it independently exists. This book employs traditional dialectology, sociolinguistics, geographical linguistics and historical comparative linguistics as the research methods, takes Rusheng in Jianghuai Mandarin as the research target, and acquires the first-hand materials based on the author's field work. Combining the previous research findings, it categorizes and describes the linguistic facts, then it diachronically and synchronically reorganizes the glottal stop dropping in Jianghuai Mandarin, the types of vowels and the tail vowels in Rusheng characters, summarizes the Rusheng tones in Jianghuai Mandarin and the vowel evolution rules in Rusheng characters, thus helping explain the disappearance of Rusheng in Chinese dialect, the formation of Mandarin, and other important issues. 

Shi Shaolang, born in Sihong, Jiangsu Province, graduated from Peking University with a Doctor of Arts degree in 2007. He now works at the Institute for Chinese Language Policies and Standards, Beijing Language and Culture University, and his research interest focuses on Chinese dialectology and sociolinguistics. He has been studying the linguistic and cultural resources in Beijing and has been working as an editor of Journal of Language Planning in recent years. 

A reference book for studying and teaching dialectology and phonetics