Abstract
The dialect of Guishan Island in Yilan County has the typical final[ũi]of the Changchou-type accent as well as the final[iŋ]found in other dialects. The vowel system /i, e, a, u, ɔ/ of this dialect is also different from that of other dialects in Yilan (/i, e, a, u, ɔ/). This paper examines the dialect of Guishan Island to determine if it preserves the feature[ũi] of Changchou-type accent more than other dialects in Yilan County; the paper also looks at sound variation and change in the Guishan Island dialect and the social factors that result in the change. With vocabulary tables, I investigated 88 informants from different generations. The main materials for analysis are from 52 senor, middle-aged and young informants, all inhabitants of Guishan Island. The study shows that the dialect of Guishan Island does preserve more of [ũi] and[iŋ]than the dialects of Toucheng Town and Jiaoxi Town. The vowel system of this dialect does not distinguish /o/ from /ɔ/, and its vowel system /i, e, a, u, ɔ/ makes this dialect stable with little variation. Lastly, the main social linguistic factor that brings about sound change appears to be age rather than gender.