Sichuanese dialects
This article needs additional citations for verification. (March 2020) |
Sichuanese | |
---|---|
Szechwanese | |
四川话 | |
Pronunciation | Chengdu [sz˨˩˧tsʰwan˦˥xwa˨˩˧] Chongqing [sz˨˩˦tsʰwan˥xwa˨˩˦] |
Native to | China |
Region | Sichuan, Chongqing and their neighboring provinces |
Ethnicity | Sichuanese people |
Dialects |
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | (a proposal to use scm was rejected in 2018[1]) |
Glottolog | None |
Sichuanese in Greater China | |
Sichuanese or Szechwanese (
Sichuanese is more similar to
Modern Sichuanese evolved due to a great wave of immigration during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644): many immigrants, mainly from Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi and Guangdong, flooded into Sichuan bringing their languages with them.[9] The influence of Sichuanese has resulted in a distinct form of Standard Chinese that is often confused with "real" Sichuanese. Sichuanese, spoken by about 120 million people, would rank tenth among languages by number of speakers (just behind Japanese) if counted as a separate language.
Geographic distribution and dialects
Sichuanese is mainly spoken in and around the Sichuan Basin, which includes almost all of Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality except for some Tibetan and Yi inhabited areas. It is also spoken in the border regions of Sichuan's neighboring provinces: northern Yunnan and Guizhou, southern Shaanxi and western Hubei.
However, it is possible to divide Sichuanese into four sub-dialects according to the preservation or distribution of the Middle Chinese checked tone: the Minjiang dialect (岷江小片), which preserves the checked tone; the Chengdu-Chongqing dialect (成渝片), in which the checked tone has merged into the light level tone; the Renshou-Fushun dialect (仁富小片), which merges the checked tone into the departing tone; and the Ya'an–Shimian dialect (雅棉小片), in which the checked tone is merged into the dark level tone.[2][10]
The Minjiang, Ya'an–Shimian and Renshou–Fushun dialects are spoken mainly in South and West Sichuan, regions in which the inhabitants have significantly more indigenous Sichuanese descent than those of North and East Sichuan. Thus, these dialects are often referred as Old Sichuanese, as the preserve many characteristics of
Name | Characteristics | Spoken areas |
---|---|---|
Chengdu–Chongqing dialect | entering tone distributed into light level tone | North and East Sichuan, the northeastern part of Ningnan ), Southern Shaanxi and Western Hubei
|
Minjiang dialect | entering tone preserved | 44 cities or counties in Yanting, Shehong , northern Yunnan and northern Guizhou
|
Renshou–Fushun dialect | entering tone distributed into departing tone | 8 cities or counties in Junlian and Mianning
|
Ya'an–Shimian dialect | entering tone distributed into dark level tone | Ya'an (prefecture-level city) in West Sichuan |
History
This section needs additional citations for verification. (October 2023) |
Like many of the southern provinces in China, Sichuan was fully
Phonology
This article or section should specify the language of its non-English content, using {{lang}}, {{transliteration}} for transliterated languages, and {{IPA}} for phonetic transcriptions, with an appropriate ISO 639 code. Wikipedia's multilingual support templates may also be used. (October 2023) |
Tones
There are five
The tone contours of the Sichuanese dialects are highly and quite different from those of Beijing Mandarin. In Sichuanese, the first tone (dark level tone) is a high level tone (like Beijing), the second tone (light level tone) is a low falling tone (the mirror image of Beijing), the third tone (rising tone) is a high falling tone and the fourth tone (departing tone) is a low or mid rising tone (interchanged compared to Beijing) and the fifth tone (entering tone) is mid or high if it's not merged, as shown in the chart below.[13]
Sub-dialects | 1st tone | 2nd tone | 3rd tone | 4th tone | 5th tone |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chengdu | ˥ 55 ˦˥ 45[15] |
˨˩ 21 | ˥˧ 53 | ˨˩˧ 213 | merged into the 2nd ˨˩ |
Chongqing | ˥ 55 | ˨˩ 21 | ˦˨ 42 | ˨˩˦ 214 | merged into the 2nd ˨˩ |
Leshan | ˥ 55 | ˨˩ 21 | ˥˨ 52 | ˨˨˦ 224 | ˧ 3 (checked) |
Yingjing |
˥ 45 | ˩˨˩ 121 | ˥˧ 53 | ˩ 11 (colloquial) ˨˩˧ 213 (literary) |
˧ 33 |
Luzhou | ˥ 55 | ˨˩ 21 | ˦˨ 42 | ˩˧ 13 | ˧ 33 |
Ya'an | ˥ 55 | ˨˩ 21 | ˦˨ 42 | ˩˦ 14 | merged into the 1st ˥ |
Zigong | ˥ 55 | ˧˩ 31 | ˥˧ 53 | ˨˦ 24 | merged into the 4th ˨˦ |
In the areas which keep the entering tone, the five tones of Sichuanese are nearly identical to the values of 5 of the 6 tones of the indigenous Southern Qiang language.
Initials
The following is the initial consonant inventory of Sichuanese, transcribed in the
Labial | Coronal | Alveolo-palatal | Velar | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | plain | /p/ b 贝 |
/ t /d 得 |
/k/ g 古 | |
aspirated
|
/pʰ/ p 配 |
/tʰ/ t 套 |
/kʰ/ k 可 | ||
Affricate
|
plain | /ts/ z 早 |
/tɕ/ j 价 |
||
aspirated
|
/tsʰ/ c 草 |
/tɕʰ/ q 巧 |
|||
Nasal
|
/m/ m 没 |
/ n /n 路 |
/ɲ/ ȵ 你 |
/ŋ/ ng 我 | |
Fricative
|
Voiceless | /f/ f 发 |
/s/ s 是 |
/ɕ/ x 小 |
/x/ h 好 |
Voiced
|
/v/ v 五 |
/z/ r 如 |
|||
Zero | ∅ 儿 |
Finals
A final, the remainder of syllable after the initial, consists of an optional medial glide, a vowel and an optional final consonants. There are 36 finals in the Chengdu dialect of Sichuanese. Four Sichuanese finals do not exist in Beijing: [ɛ], [iai], [uɛ], and [yo]. On the other hand, three Beijing finals do not exist in Sichuanese: [ɤ], [iŋ], and [əŋ].
The following is the inventory of Sichuanese finals, transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet, and under every IPA symbol in the inventory below there is the standard orthography of that sound in Sichuanese Pinyin and a Chinese character using that final:[13]
-Ø | -i or -u | nasal finals | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ø- | /z̩/ i 日 |
/ɚ/ er 二 |
/a/ a 大 |
/o/ o 我 |
/ɛ/ e 黑 |
/ai/ ai 街 |
/ei/ ei 批 |
/au/ ao 包 |
/əu/ ou 走 |
/an/ an 烦[16] |
/ən/ en 樱 |
/aŋ/ ang 帮 |
/oŋ/ ong 亩 |
i- | /i/ i 一 |
/ia/ ia 牙 |
/iɛ/ ie 叶 |
/iai/ iai 介 |
/iau/ iao 标 |
/iəu/ iu 九 |
/ian/ ian 变[16] |
/in/ in 兵 |
/iaŋ/ iang 量 |
||||
u- | /u/ u 五 |
/ua/ ua 瓜 |
/uɛ/ ue 国 |
/uai/ uai 乖 |
/uei/ ui 类 |
/uan/ uan 段[16] |
/uən/ un 春 |
/uaŋ/ uang 光 |
|||||
y- | /y/ ü 鱼 |
/yo/ üo 药 |
/ye/ üe 绝 |
/yan/ üan 鲜[16] |
/yn/ ün 泳 |
/yoŋ/ iong 蓉 |
Tense vowels for checked tone
There is a discrepancy between Old Sichuanese and New Sichuanese in terms of finals. In the "old"
example | Minjiang | Ya'an–Shimian | Chengdu-Chongqing | Renshou–Fushun | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Luzhou | Qionglai | Leshan | Luding | Chengdu | Chongqing | Zigong | |
搭 | [æ] | [æ] | [æ] | [a] | [a] | [a] | [a] |
说 | [ɵ] | [ʊ] | [ʊ] | [o] | [o] | [o] | [o] |
黑 | [e] | [æ] | [e] | [ɛ] | [ɛ] | [ɛ] | [ɛ] |
踢 | [ie] | [ie] | [ie] | [i] | [iɛ] | [i] | [i] |
出 | [ɵ] | [ʊ] | [ʊ] | [u] | [u] | [u] | [u] |
欲 | [yɵ] | [yʊ] | [yʊ] | [y] | [yo] | [yu] | [yi] |
湿 | [ə] | [ə] | [ə] | [z̩] | [z̩] | [z̩] | [z̩] |
掐 | [iæ] | [iɐ] | [iæ] | [ia] | [ia] | [ia] | [ia] |
刮 | [uæ] | [uɐ] | [uæ] | [ua] | [ua] | [ua] | [ua] |
铁 | [ie] | [ie] | [ie] | [iɛ] | [iɛ] | [iɛ] | [iɛ] |
获 | [ɵ] | [uæ] | [æ] | [uɛ] | [uɛ] | [uɛ] | [ue] |
阅 | [yɵ] | [ye] | [yʊ] | [yɛ] | [yɛ] | [yɛ] | [yɛ] |
药 | [yɵ] | [yʊ] | [yʊ] | [yo] | [yo] | [yo] | [yo] |
Literary and colloquial readings
The existence of
Example | Colloquial Reading | Literary Reading | Meaning | Standard Mandarin Pronunciation |
---|---|---|---|---|
在 | /tɛ˨˩˧/ | /tsai˨˩˧/ | at | /tsai˥˩/ |
提 | /tia˥/ | /tʰi˨˩/ | lift | /tʰi˧˥/ |
去 | /tɕʰie˨˩˧/ | /tɕʰy˨˩˧/ | go | /tɕʰy˥˩/ |
锯 | /kɛ/ | /tɕy˨˩˧/ | cut | /tɕy˥˩/ |
下 | /xa˨˩˧/ | /ɕia˨˩˧/ | down | /ɕia˥˩/ |
横 | /xuan˨˩/ | /xuən˨˩/ | across | /xəŋ˧˥/ |
严 | /ŋan/ | /ȵian/ | strict | /iɛn˧˥/ |
鼠 | /suei/ | /su˥˧/ | rat | /ʂu˨˩˦/ |
大 | /tʰai/ | /ta˨˩˧/ | big | /ta˥˩/ |
主 | /toŋ/ | /tsu˥˧/ | master | /tʂu˨˩˦/ |
Vocabulary
Only 47.8% of Sichuanese vocabulary is in common with the Beijing dialect on which Standard Chinese is based; indeed Sichuanese shares more vocabulary with the Xiang and Gan varieties of Chinese, even though Sichuanese is usually classified as a dialect of Mandarin.[2]
The vocabulary of Sichuanese has three main origins:
Sichuanese Dialect | Standard Chinese | Sichuanese Dialect | Standard Chinese | |
---|---|---|---|---|
歪(waī) | 凶恶(xīong è) | 巴(bā) | 粘贴(zhān tīe) | |
左(zuǒ) | 跑音(pǎo yīn) | 费(feì) | 调皮(tíao pí) | |
撵(nǐan) | 追赶(zhuī gǎn) | 刨(páo) | 拨弄(bō nòng) | |
号(hào) | 批阅(pī yuè) | 摸(mō) | 拖延(tuō yán) | |
巴适(bā shì) | 好(hǎo) | 盐巴(yán bá) | 盐(yán) | |
瓢羹(píao gēng) | 勺(sháo) | 𤆵和(pā huó) | 软(ruǎn) | |
嘎嘎(ga ga) | 肉(roù) | 几下(jǐ xià) | 快(kuaì) | |
估到(gū dào) | 逼(bī) | 啪啦(pā lā) | 堆(duī) |
Relation with other Chinese languages
The
In terms of vocabulary, Sichuanese has the second closest relationship with Xiang. The two varieties share a large number of exclusively unique words. This is mainly because many Xiang-speaking immigrants from Hunan moved to Sichuan during the great wave of immigration during the Ming and Qing dynasties, so Xiang does not have such a close relationship with other southwestern varieties of Chinese, such as those spoken in Yunnan, Guangxi or Hubei.[23] For example, in both Sichuanese and Xiang the verb "to squat" is "跍" (gu1) but "蹲" (dūn) in standard Mandarin, the noun "kitchen" is "灶屋" (zao4vu2) but "厨房" (chúfáng) in standard, and the adjective "thick" is "酽" (ȵian4) but "浓" (nóng) in standard.[24] Furthermore, the Sichuanese vocabulary also contains words from Old Xiang and Middle Xiang, such as "謱謰" (sloppy), "革" (old) and "崽" (son).[23]
Rank | Chinese languages | Major dialect | Percentage of the same vocabulary with Sichuanese |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Southwestern Mandarin-Yunnanese | Kunming | 58.3% |
2 | Xiang | Changsha | 54.9% |
3 | Jianghuai Mandarin |
Yangzhou | 52.7% |
4 | Gan | Nanchang |
49.4% |
5 | Northern Mandarin | Beijing | 47.8% |
6 | Wu | Suzhou | 36.4% |
7 | Yue | Guangzhou | 27.4% |
8 | Hakka | Meixian | 27.2% |
9 | Min | Xiamen | 20.2% |
Status
Though Sichuanese is not as endangered as some other languages of China,[25] the prevalence of Sichuanese has dramatically lessened as the popularity of Standard Chinese has risen.[26] Government policy limits the use of Sichuanese in broadcasting, television and many public places. Furthermore, the use of Sichuanese as a teaching medium is not permitted in the curriculum, which has resulted in a reduction of fluency among young people in Sichuanese-speaking areas since the 1980s and 1990s. The Sichuanese spoken by them is greatly influenced by the national language.[27]
The decline of Sichuanese threatens to severely impact Ba-Shu culture, rooted in the Sichuanese dialect, particularly traditional Shu arts such as Sichuan opera, risking severe decline or even extinction.[28] China enacted laws in 2000 mandating the use of Mandarin. Provinces, including Sichuan, established language committees to advise, monitor, and enforce Mandarin usage.[29] The mandate inevitably caused massive decline in audience members and the performance of traditional Ba-shu folk art.
See also
References
- ^ "Change Request Documentation: 2017-025". SIL International.
- ^ ISBN 7-5614-1296-7.
- ^ 严奇岩 (April 2007). 《移民与四川人"打乡谈"》. 成都大学学报(社科版).
- ^ 田畅(2009-07-29),《在四川灾区支教的300多个日夜》,鞍山日报
- ISBN 978-7-211-05482-4.
- ^ 吴丹, 梁晓明 (Nov 23, 2005). 四川交通:"窗口"飞来普通话. 中国交通报.
- ^ 张国盛, 余勇 (Jun 1, 2009). 大学生村官恶补四川方言 现在能用流利四川话和村民交流. 北京晨报.
- ^ 走进大山的志愿者. 四川青年报. Jul 18, 2009.
- ^ 彭金祥(March 2006),《四川方音在宋代以后的发展》,乐山师范学院学报
- ISBN 7-5621-2942-8.
- ISBN 7-5621-1603-2.
- ^ ISBN 0-691-01468-X.
- ^ a b c d 甄尚灵等(March 1960),《四川方言音系》,四川大学学报(社会科学版)
- ^ 易杰(2010),《川西大邑等七县市方言音系调查研究》,四川师范大学
- ^ Li, Rong. Chengdu Dialect Dictionary. 1998
- ^ a b c d There's a trend in Chengdu dialect that [æ] will replace [an]
- ^ 余江(May 2004),《四川官话雅棉小片入声归阴平研究》,汕头大学 (in Chinese)
- ^ 杨升初(1985年S2期),《剑阁摇铃话音系记略》,湘潭大学社会科学学报. (in Chinese)
- ^ 王庆(April 2010),《四川方言中没、术、物的演变》,西华大学学报(哲学社会科学版) (in Chinese)
- ^ 甄尚灵(January 1958),《成都语音的初步研究》,四川大学学报(哲学社会科学版)
- ^ 杨文全、鲁科颖(May 2005),《当代成都方言新词汇例释——兼论其造词心理与民间文化意蕴》,西华师范大学学报(哲学社会科学版)(in Chinese)
- ^ 沈荭(February 2008),《重庆言子儿的文化透视》,重庆大学学报(社会科学版)(in Chinese)
- ^ ISBN 978-7-81081-616-8.
- ISBN 978-957-671-397-2.
- ^ "四川经验:剽悍方言无需要保卫" (in Chinese). 新浪网新民周刊专题. Retrieved 2010-05-15.
- ^ 夏中易(April 2002),《近四十年成都话语音变动现象考论》,成都大学学报(社科版) (in Chinese)
- ^ 周及徐(April 2001),《20世纪成都话音变研究》,四川师范大学学报(社会科学版)(in Chinese)
- ^ Min, Chen (2022-04-13). "川剧传承保护何去何从?". Sohu.
- ^ Ni, Vincent (January 16, 2022). "Chinese dialects in decline as government enforces Mandarin". The Guardian. Retrieved March 20, 2024.