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Changsha dialect (traditional Chinese: 長沙話; simplified Chinese: 长沙话; pinyin: Chángshā-huà) is a dialect of the Xiang language family, which in turn constitutes one of the Sinitic language families. It is spoken predominantly in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province. It is not mutually intelligible with Standard Mandarin, the official language of China.
[edit] Classification
Changsha dialect is what Chinese dialectologists would call a New Xiang language, as opposed to an Old Xiang language. The distinction is mainly based on the presence of the Middle Chinese voiced stops and affricates. The Old Xiang languages, being more conservative, have in general kept them while the New Xiang languages have altogether lost them and changed them to voiceless unaspirated consonants.
[edit] Geographic distribution
Changsha dialect is spoken in the city of Changsha and its neighbouring suburbs. However, there are some slight differences between the urban and suburban speech. For instance, the retroflex set is only heard in the suburbs, but not in the city and some words have a different rime in the two varieties.
[edit] Dialects
There are no substantial differences between dialects in the neighbourhood of Changsha; however, age dialects do exist. For example, the distinction between alveolar and alveolo-palatal consonants is only made by the elderly while the younger generations do not normally distinguish them. The rimes [-oŋ] and [-ioŋ] have become [-ən] and [-in] in the younger speech. Also, the initial consonant [ɲ] in the elderly's and middled-aged's speech is either dropped altogether or changed to [l].
[edit] Phonetics and Phonology
The Changsha dialect, together with other New Xiang languages, has lost the Middle Chinese obstruents, which are changed to voiceless unaspirated consonants in the language. It has also lost all the final stops found in the rù tone in Middle Chinese.
[edit] Consonants
[edit] Vowels
Changsha has 5 tones, which are neutralized in syllables ending in a stop.
Tone chart of the Changsha dialect
| Tone number |
Tone name |
Tone contour |
Description |
| 1 |
yin ping (陰平) |
˧ (33) or ā |
mid |
| 2 |
yang ping (陽平) |
˩˧ (13) or ǎ |
rising |
| 3 |
shang sheng (上聲) |
˦˩ (41) or â |
falling |
| 4 |
yin qu (陰去) |
˥ (55) or á |
high |
| 5 |
yang qu (陽去) |
˨˩ (21) or à |
low |
| 6 |
ru sheng (入聲) |
˨˦ʔ (24') or aʔ |
checked |
[edit] References
- Běijīng dàxué zhōngguóyǔyánwénxuéxì yǔyánxué jiàoyánshì. (1989) Hànyǔ fāngyīn zìhuì. Běijīng: Wénzìgǎigé chūbǎnshè.(北京大學中國語言文學系語言學教研室. 1989. 漢語方音字匯. 北京: 文字改革出版社)
- Norman, Jerry. [1988] (2002). Chinese. Cambridge, England: CUP ISBN 0-521-29653-6
- Wu, Yunji. (2005). A Synchronic and diachronic study of the grammar of the Chinese Xiang dialects. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 3-11-018366-8
- Yuán, jiāhuá (1989). Hànyǔ fāngyán gàiyào (An introduction to Chinese regional speech varieties). Beijing, China: Wénzì gǎigé chūbǎnshè. (袁家驊. 1989. 漢語方言概要. 北京:文字改革出版社.)
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
