Lower Yangtze Mandarin
Lower Yangtze Mandarin | |
---|---|
Xiajiang Guanhua | |
Region | Jianghuai people Subei people |
Native speakers | ca. 70 million (2011)[1] |
Written vernacular Chinese | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | None (mis ) |
ISO 639-6 | juai |
Glottolog | jing1262 |
Linguasphere | 79-AAA-bi |
Huang–Xiao Western Hongchao Eastern Hongchao Tong-Tai / Tai–Ru |
Lower Yangtze Mandarin (
During the Ming dynasty and early Qing dynasty, the lingua franca of administration was based on Lower Yangtze Mandarin. In the 19th century the base shifted to the Beijing dialect.
Geographic distribution
Lower Yangtze Mandarin is spoken in central Anhui, eastern Hubei, most of Jiangsu north of the Yangtze, as well as the area around Nanjing.[2] The number of speakers was estimated in 1987 at 67 million.[1]
Subgrouping
The Language Atlas of China divides Lower Yangtze Mandarin into three branches:[3]
- Hongchao dialects
- The largest and most widespread branch, mostly concentrated in Jiangsu and Anhui provinces, with smaller areas in Zhejiang province. The best-known variety is Nanjing dialect. Other cities in the area are Hefei in the west and Yangzhou, Zhenjiang and Yancheng in the east.
- Tong-Tai/ Tai–Ru
- Mostly spoken in the eastern Jiangsu prefectures of Taizhou and Nantong (including Rugao).
- Huang–Xiao
- Mostly spoken in the prefectures of Huanggang and Xiaogan in eastern Hubei province and the area around Jiujiang in northern Jiangxi, with an island in western Hubei around Zhushan, and another in Anhui around Anqing.
There are also small islands of
The Huizhou dialects, spoken in southern Anhui, share different features with Wu, Gan and Lower Yangtze Mandarin, making them difficult to classify. Earlier scholars had assigned to them one or other of those groups or to a top-level group of their own.[4][5] The Atlas adopted the latter position, but it remains controversial.[6]
Relations to other groups
The relationship of the Lower Yangtze Mandarin varieties to other varieties of Chinese has been an ongoing subject of debate. One quantitative study from the late 20th century by linguist Chin-Chuan Cheng focused on vocabulary lists, yielding the result that Eastern dialects of Jianghuai cluster with the Xiang and Gan varieties, whilst Northern and Southern Mandarin, despite being supposedly "genetically" related, were not in the original 35-word list. In the 100-word list they did cluster, albeit with other varieties.[7]
Some Chinese linguists like Ting have claimed that Jianghuai is mostly Wu containing a superstratum of Mandarin;[8] for example, the frequency and usage of the postposition 阿 as a postverbal
When vowels from Jianghuai Mandarin and Wu were compared to dialects from China's southeastern coast, it was concluded "that
Dialogue from literature published in Yangzhou, such as the 18th-century novel Qingfengzha (simplified Chinese: 清风闸; traditional Chinese: 清風閘; pinyin: Qīng Fēng Zhá), contains evidence of a Jianghuai dialect being an expression of identity clearly differentiated from that of others: locals spoke the dialect, as opposed to sojourners, who spoke Huizhou dialect or Wu dialects. Large numbers of merchants from Huizhou lived in Yangzhou and effectively were responsible for keeping the town economically afloat.[11]
Professor Richard VanNess Simmons has claimed that the Hangzhou dialect, rather than being Wu as it was classified by Yuen Ren Chao, is a Mandarin dialect closely related to Jianghuai Mandarin. Simmons claimed that, had Chao compared the Hangzhou dialect to the Common Wu syllabary that Chao developed, as well as to Jianghuai Mandarin, he would have found more similarities to Jianghuai than to Wu.[12]
Phonology
A characteristic feature of Lower Yangtze Mandarin is the treatment of
In Lower Yangtze varieties, the initial /n-/ has merged with /l-/. These initials have also merged in
It has been claimed that the Jianghuai varieties of Mandarin around Nanjing are an exception to the normal occurrence of the three medials [i], [y] and [u] in Mandarin, along with eastern Shanxi and some Southwestern Mandarin dialects.[20]
Literary and colloquial readings
The existence of
Example | Colloquial reading | Literary reading | Meaning | Standard Mandarin pronunciation |
---|---|---|---|---|
斜 | tɕia | tɕiɪ | oblique | ɕiɛ |
摘 | tiɪʔ | tsəʔ | pick | tʂai |
去 | kʰɪ | tɕʰy | go | tɕʰy |
锯 | ka | tɕy | cut | tɕy |
下 | xa | ɕia | down | ɕia |
横 | xoŋ | xən | across | xəŋ |
严 | æ̃ | iɪ̃ | strict | ian [jɛn] |
挂 | kʰuɛ | kua | hang | kua |
蹲 | sən | tən | crouch | tuən |
虹 | kaŋ | xoŋ | rainbow | xoŋ |
History
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|
The original dialect of
Immigrants from Northern China during the middle of the Song dynasty moved south, bringing a speech type from which Northern Wu and Jianghuai reading patterns both derive from. The northern immigrants almost totally replaced from the original inhabitants on the Yangtze's northern bank.[22] Jiang-huai, like other dialects of Chinese, has two forms for pronouncing words, the Bai (common, vulgar), and the Wen (literary). The Bai forms appear to preserve more ancient forms of speech dating from before the mass migration in the Song dynasty, which brought in the Wen pronunciations.[23]
Jianghuai Mandarin was possibly the native tone of the founding emperor of the
In the early Ming period, Wu speakers moved into the eastern Tong-Tai-speaking region, and Gan-speakers from Jiangxi moved into the western Huang–Xiao region, influencing the respective Jianghuai dialects.[25]
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, Jianghuai-speakers moved into Hui dialect areas.[26]
The Portuguese Chinese Dictionary (PCD), written by missionaries during the Ming dynasty, categorized several Jianghuai dialects with rounded finals. The eastern and southeastern variants of Jianghuai contain the rounded finals. The Nanjing dialect, on the other hand, is in another group.[27]
Matteo Ricci's Dicionário Português-Chinês documented Ming dynasty Mandarin. A number of words appeared to be derived from Jianghuai Mandarin dialect, such as "pear, jujube, shirt, ax, hoe, joyful, to speak, to bargain, to know, to urinate, to build a house, busy, and not yet."[28]
The "Guanhua
Some linguists have studied the influence that Nanjing Jianghuai Mandarin had on Ming dynasty guanhua/Mandarin.[30] Although the early Ming dynasty Mandarin/Guanhua was a koine based on the Nanjing dialect, it was not entirely identical, with some non-Jianghuai characteristics being found in it. Francisco Varo advised that to learn Chinese, one must acquire it from "Not just any Chinese, but only those who have the natural gift of speaking the Mandarin language well, such as those natives of the Province of Nan king, and of other provinces where the Mandarin tongue is spoken well."[31]
Jianghuai Mandarin shares some characteristics with Ming dynasty Southern Mandarin.[32]
Jianghuai Mandarin, along with Northern Mandarin, formed the standard for
Peking opera got its start in parts of Anhui and Hubei that spoke the dialect.
Jianghuai Mandarin is currently overtaking Wu as the language variety of multiple counties in Jiangsu. An example is Zaicheng Town, in
References
- ^ a b Yan (2006), p. 64.
- ^ Norman (1988), p. 191.
- ^ Kurpaska (2010), p. 67.
- ^ Yan (2006), pp. 222–223.
- ^ Kurpaska (2010), pp. 43–44, 48.
- ^ Kurpaska (2010), pp. 69, 75–76.
- PMID 16024359.
There is much conflict between and within Mandarin and Wu, which do not cluster for the 35 and 100 wordlists (figure 2). For the 35 wordlist, the Eastern Jianghuai Mandarin dialects (Yingshan, Wuhan) cluster with their geographical neighbours Xiang and Gan, but do not cluster with their putative genetic northern and southern Mandarin relatives.
- ISBN 978-0-19-924963-3. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
- ISBN 978-1-4020-8320-4. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
Examples of such markers include 阿[a/ia/ua/ka/0a] (at, to; perfective and durative marker) in the Taixing dialect, Jianghuai Mandarin (cf. Li R. 1957),倒[ tno] (at, to; durative marker)
- ^ École des hautes études en sciences sociales, École pratique des hautes études (France). Section des sciences économiques et sociales (1985). Revue bibliographique de sinologie, Volume 3. Editions de l'Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales. p. 180. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
Diachronic evidence from Wu dialects and Jiang-Huai Mandarin dialects on the one hand and from Southeast China coastal area dialects on the other hand (all dialect material drawn from other authors) show that chain-type shifts in Chinese follow the same general rules as have been revealed by Labov for American and British English dialects, such as: 1. peripheral vowels rise: 2. non-peripheral vowels usually fall: 3. back vowels move to
- ISBN 978-87-7694-035-5. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
Some grammatical features of Yangzhou dialect are shared with Jianghuai Mandarin . Others may be of more limited usage but are used in Dingyuan County (the setting of Qingfengzha), which belongs to the same subgroup of Jianghuai
- ISBN 978-90-272-4785-8. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
Had Chao developed a syllabary for the Jiang-Huai Mandarin dialects with a diagnostic power and representativeness comparable to that of his Wu Syllabary, and had he placed Hangzhou in that context, he most surely would have discovered
- ^ Norman (1988), pp. 194–195.
- ^ Yan (2006), p. 61.
- ^ Ting (1991), p. 190.
- ^ Kurpaska (2010), p. 74.
- ^ Yan (2006), p. 236.
- ^ Ting (1991), p. 193.
- ^ a b c Ting (1991), p. 192.
- ^ Norman (1988), p. 193.
- ^ Kurpaska (2010), p. 161.
- ^ Coblin (2002), p. 536.
- ^ Coblin (2002), p. 534.
- ^ Ming studies, Issue 56. Ming studies. 2007. p. 107. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
The first Ming emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang t^tcSj!, and a large number of his civil and military officials hailed from the Yangtze watershed and spoke dialects of the southern Mandarin or Jiang-Huai type, to which the dialect of Nanjing
[1] - ^ Coblin (2002), p. 541.
- ISBN 978-0-19-927213-6. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
According to Hirata, however, Hui is composed of many layers: its dialects are spoken in an area originally occupied by the Yue i* tribe, suggestive of a possible substrate, later to be overlaid by migrations from Northern China in the Medieval Nanbeichao period and the Tang and Song dynasties. This was followed by the Jiang-Huai Mandarin dialects of the migrants who arrived during the Ming and Qing periods, and more recently by Wu dialects in particular, acquired by peripatetic Hui merchants who have represented an active
- ^ Ming studies, Issue 56. Ming studies. 2007. p. 110. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
group, to which Nanjingese belongs. Rounded finals, on the other hand, are found in the eastern and southeastern Jiang-Huai dialects. The PCD language patterns with dialects of this type here. Let us now consider one more set of
- ISBN 978-972-565-298-5. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
Words for pear, jujube, shirt, ax, hoe, jorful, to speak, to bargain, to know, to urinate, to build a house, busy, and not yet are those typical of the Chiang-Huai or Southern dialects, not the Northern Mandarin dialect.
- ^ Ming studies, Issue 56. Ming studies. 2007. p. 108. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
missionary transcriptions and of fifteenth century Korean Guanhua transcriptions in the Hangul alphabet, the two syllable types are clearly distinguished. Guanhua and Nanjingese were clearly different here. Thus, we may suspect that the early Ming Guanhua koine was in reality a linguistic amalgam of some sort, though it certainly had deep roots in the Jiang -Huai dialects. In 1421 the Ming political and administrative capital was moved from
[2] - ISBN 978-957-671-936-3. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
to consider how it may have been influenced by possible relationships and interactions with the Jiang-Huai dialects of the Nanking area. This, in our view , should be done by first undertaking historical studies of these dialects
(the University of California) - ISBN 978-957-671-936-3. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
Reading system definitely possesses features which are not typical of the Jiang-Huai group as a whole (Coblin Ms. 1,3)/ Careful reading of early descriptions tends to confirm this conclusion. For example, Varo's association of his Mandarin phonology with Nankingese was not absolute and unequivocal. We should recall his counsel that Guanhua be learned from "natives of the Province of Nan king, and of other provinces where the Mandarin tongue is spoken well" [emphasis added]. We find a similar view in Morrison's accounts. On the one hand he says in his dictionary (1815:xviii), "The pronunciation in this work, is rather what the Chinese call the Nanking dialect, than the Peking.
(the University of California) - ^ 中央硏究院. 第2屆國際漢學會議論文集編輯委員會, 中央硏究院 (1989). 中央硏究院第2屆國際漢學會議論文集: 中華民國七十五年十二月廿九日至卅一日, Volume 2, Part 1. 中央硏究院. p. 223. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
Therefore, we might interpret the RES ts, ts', s as reflecting a phonological feature of the Southern Mandarin dialect of the Ming dynasty. This feature is also found among the modern Jiang-Huai dialects such as YC. It might also be a reflection of the dialect features of MH and AM.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) (the University of California) - ISBN 978-0-521-64572-0. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
This is true not only of writers from the Jiang-Huai and Northern Mandarin areas, but also of writers from the other dialect... Speakers of dialects other than Jiang- Huai or Northern Mandarin had to conform to the grammatical and
- ^ Journal of Asian Pacific communication, Volume 16, Issues 1-2. Multilingual Matters. 2006. p. 336. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
In Chinese dialectology, Lishui County is divided by the boundary between Jiang-Huai dialect and Wu dialect. In administrative distribution, eleven towns of the county lie in the Wu Dialect area and five in the Jiang-Huai Dialect area. The former includes 72.2% of the county's population; the latter 17.8% (Guo, 1995). The county seat is Zaicheng Town, also called Yongyang Town. The language varieties spoken in areas surrounding the town all belong to Wu dialect. Two varieties are spoken in the town, "the old Zaicheng Speech" and "the new Zaicheng Speech". The former is a variety of Wu Dialect, and the latter a Jiang-Huai Mandarin Dialect. The old dialect is disappearing. Its speakers, a minority of elders, use the variety only among family members. According to some interviewees over sixty years old, the new dialect has been spoken in the town area for about one hundred years. Before the 1960s, the new dialect was used only inside the town, which served as the county seat, therefore, it is called "Town Speech" or "Lishui Speech".
(the University of Michigan)
Works cited
- JSTOR 606615.
- ——— (2002), "Migration history and dialect development in the lower Yangtze watershed", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 65 (3): 529–543, JSTOR 4146032.
- Kurpaska, Maria (2010), Chinese Language(s): A Look Through the Prism of "The Great Dictionary of Modern Chinese Dialects", ISBN 978-3-11-021914-2.
- ISBN 978-0-521-29653-3.
- Ting, Pang-Hsin (1991). "Some theoretical issues in the study of Mandarin dialects". In Wang, William S-Y. (ed.). Language and Dialects of China. Journal of Chinese Linguistics Monograph Series. Vol. 3. Chinese University Press, Project on Linguistic Analysis. pp. 185–234. JSTOR 23827039.
- Yan, Margaret Mian (2006), Introduction to Chinese Dialectology, LINCOM Europa, ISBN 978-3-89586-629-6.
Further reading
- Kong, Huifang; Wu, Shengyi; Li, Mingxing (2022). "Hefei Mandarin". Illustrations of the IPA. Journal of the International Phonetic Association: 1–22. , with supplementary sound recordings.
- Chen, Yiya; Guo, Li (2022). "Zhushan Mandarin". Illustrations of the IPA. Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 52 (2): 309–327. , with supplementary sound recordings.