大埔客家族群在臺灣由於人數少，大致進中在臺中縣東勢及新社一帶，在地理環境的分布上，受到閩南族群的圍繞環伺，其語言文化的保專，正面臨岌岌可危的情況。本文為探討大埔客家話35/55調的緣由及性質，除了到大陸原鄉──廣東省大埔縣蒐集相關詞彙之外，並前往新加坡大埔客家族群聚集之處，作採樣分析，透過兩岸三地，即臺中東勢、廣東大埔(主要是高陂)以及新加坡，大埔客家話的比較，藉以釐清35/55調的性質、作用以及歷史來源的問題。此外，並以語法化輪迴的角度切入分析東勢特殊35/55調，發現透過這種新觀點讓我們清楚看出東勢特殊35/55調是原來小稱詞的殘存部分。

　　　　　The Da-pu大埔Hakka in Taiwan have become endangered due to the decreasing population of those who speak this dialect and increasing contact with more dominant dialects. This study aims at providing a complete and integrated anlaysis of the properties and development of 35/55 tones based on the data collected from Dongshi東勢, Da-pu, and Singapore. By virtue of the proposed grammaticalization cycle, it was found that the distinctive use of 35/55 is actually the evidence to substantiate our claim that 35/55 tones are leftovers developed form diminutives after the loss of the solid parts.