This thesis aims at developing an analysis of the fact that obstruent voicing interacts with tone registers in the Xiangxiang Dialect (hereafter the XXD), a subdialect of the Xiang Dialects of Chinese, within the framework of Optimality Theory (OT).

Results show that they are actually prenasalized stops [mb ηg nd] respectively, rather than two plain voiced stops and a lateral sound as transcribed in the traditional literature.

The paper analyzes initial devoicing and aspirate/unaspirate unvoiced distribution in MC voiced initial entering words,reveals that voiced initial would have changed to aspirate unvoiced consonant,but initial devoicing of time difference brings about the differentces in today.