Jian'ou dialect

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Jian'ou
Gṳ̿ing-é-dī / 建甌事
Pronunciation[kuiŋ˧ ɪ˥˦ ti˦]
Native toSouthern
Fujian province
Early forms
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
Glottologjian1240
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Jian'ou dialect
Hanyu Pinyin
Jiàn'ōuhuà
Alternative Chinese nameTraditional Chinese建甌事Simplified Chinese建瓯事
Bible in Jian'ou Romanised (Genesis), published by the British and Foreign Bible Society.

The Jian'ou dialect (Northern Min: Gṳ̿ing-é-dī / 建甌事; Chinese: simplified Chinese: 建瓯话; traditional Chinese: 建甌話; pinyin: Jiàn'ōuhuà), also known as Kienow dialect, is a local dialect of Northern Min Chinese spoken in Jian'ou in northern Fujian province. It is regarded as the standard common language in Jian'ou.

Phonetics and phonology

According to The Eight Tones of Kien-chou (建州八音), a rime dictionary published in 1795, the Jian'ou dialect had 15 initials, 34 rimes and 7 tones in the 18th century, however there are only 6 tones in the modern dialect as the "light level" (陽平) tone has disappeared.

Initials

Initials of the Jian'ou dialect
  Bilabial Alveolar Velar Glottal
Nasal
 m
n
 		ŋ  
Plosive
unaspirated
 		p
t
 		k ʔ
voiceless aspirated pʰ tʰ kʰ  
Affricate
 voiceless unaspirated   ts    
voiceless aspirated   tsʰ    
Fricative
   s x  
Approximant
  
l
 		   

Rimes

Rimes of the Jian'ou dialect
Open syllable Nasal coda
Open mouth a e[4] ɛ œ ɔ o[5] ai au aŋ aiŋ eiŋ œyŋ ɔŋ [6]
Even mouth i ia iɛ iɔ iau iu iŋ iaŋ ieiŋ[7] iɔŋ
Closed mouth u ua uɛ [8] uai uiŋ [9] uaŋ uaiŋ uɔŋ
Round mouth y yɛ [8] yiŋ [9]

Tones

Jian'ou has four tones, which are reduced to two in checked syllables.

Tone chart of the Jian'ou dialect
Tone number Tone name Tone contour
1 level (平聲) ˥˦ (54) or ˥ (5)
2 rising (上聲) ˨˩ (21) or ˩ (1)
3 dark departing (陰去) ˨ (2)
4 light departing (陽去) ˦ (4)
5 dark entering (陰入) ˨˦ (24)
6 light entering (陽入) ˦˨ (42)

The entering tones in the Jian'ou dialect do not have any entering tone coda (入聲韻尾) such as /-ʔ/, /-p̚/, /-t̚/ and /-k̚/ which makes it distinct from many other Chinese varieties.

Notes

  1. ^ Min is believed to have split from Old Chinese, rather than Middle Chinese like other varieties of Chinese.[1][2][3]

References

  1. JSTOR 2718766
  2. ISBN 978-0-7748-0192-8
  3. doi:10.5281/zenodo.7398962. Archived
    from the original on 2023-10-13. Retrieved 2023-10-13.
  4. ^ /e/ tends to merge to [ɪ]
  5. ^ /o/ tends to merge to [ʊ]
  6. ^ /oŋ/ which is mentioned in Kienning Colloquial Romanized has merged into /ɔŋ/ in the modern dialect.
  7. ^ /ieiŋ/ is not mentioned in Kienning Colloquial Romanized as it diverged from /iŋ/ after the romanization system was established.
  8. ^ a b /yɛ/ tends to merge into /uɛ/.
  9. ^ a b /yiŋ/ tends to merge into /uiŋ/.

Sources

External links
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