This book collects Beijing Language and Culture University researchers' new investigations on Chinese dialect from the end of 2004 to the beginning of 2008. It has altogether 28 papers, which can be divided into 6 aspects: (1) geographical linguistics; (2) dialect and culture; (3) dialect island and endangered dialect; (4) the coverage and area division of dialect; (5) grammar of dialect; (6) pronunciation of dialect.  (The last aspect is mostly confined to the evolution of pronunciation. Papers that describe and analyze the pronunciation of dialect are not included in this book considering the need of general readers.)

Cao Zhiyun is a Director of Beijing Language Institute of Beijing Language and Culture University, Editor-in-chief of Language Teaching and Linguistic Studies, a Professor of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, a supervisor of PhD. students, a candidate of the First Group of Ten Million State-Level Talents Project in New Century, a winner of Ministry of Education (MOE) Excellent Young College Teacher Prize, an Academic Leader of Beijing Colleges and Universities, a winner of State Council Special Allowance, a Director of Chinese Language Society and Society of Chinese Minority Languages, the first President of the Association of Chinese Sociolinguistics and the first Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Chinese Sociolinguistics. Prof. Cao's major research areas are Chinese dialectology and sociolinguistics. He has not only published many works, such as Studies on Wu Dialect in South China, Studies on Dialect in Yanzhou, Studies on Wu Dialect in Chuqu, Jinhua Dialect Dictionary etc, b