During much of the last century the field of Hakka linguistic studies was fairly sedate and monolithic.The majority of Sino-linguists agreed regarding what the term “Hakka” meant and what the general characteristics of the dialect family were.Today,on the other hand,there have been new developments in the area of Hakka studies,which have changed that earlier picture in significant ways,though familiarity with these changes is for the most part limited to a small number of specialists.The purpose of the present paper is to introduce certain of these new advances,especially as regards their historical and comparative phonological implications.