Changsha dialect

Changsha dialect
长沙话 Tsã13sɔ33ɣo21
Native to China
Region Changsha, Hunan province
Native speakers
 6 million
Sino-Tibetan
Language codes
ISO 639-3 –
hsn-cha
Glottolog chan1326[1]

Changsha dialect (simplified Chinese: 长沙话; traditional Chinese: 長沙話; pinyin: Chángshā-huà; Xiang: Tsã13 sɔ33 ɣo21) is a dialect of New Xiang Chinese. It is spoken predominantly in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province. It is not mutually intelligible with Standard Mandarin, the official language of China.

Classification

Changsha dialect is what Chinese dialectologists would call a New Xiang variety, as opposed to Old Xiang; the distinction is mainly based on the presence of the Middle Chinese voiced plosives and affricates. The Old Xiang varieties, being more conservative, have in general kept them while the New Xiang ones have altogether lost them and changed them to voiceless unaspirated consonants. Although most Chinese dialectologists treat New Xiang as part of the group, Zhou Zhenhe and You Rujie classify it as Southwestern Mandarin.[2]

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 final in the two varieties.

Dialects

There are no substantial differences between dialects in the neighbourhoods 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 finals [-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].

Phonetics and Phonology

The Changsha dialect, together with other New Xiang varieties, has lost the Middle Chinese obstruents, which are changed to voiceless unaspirated consonants. It has also lost all the final plosives found in the rù tone in Middle Chinese.

Consonants

Consonants of the Changsha dialect
  Labial Alveolar Alveolo-
palatal		 Retroflex Velar
Nasal m n ɲ   ŋ
Plosive voiceless unaspirated p t     k
voiceless aspirated pʰ tʰ     kʰ
Affricate voiceless unaspirated   ts tɕ tʂ  
aspirated   tsʰ tɕʰ tʂʰ  
Fricative voiceless f s ɕ ʂ x
voiced       ʐ  
Lateral approximant   l    

Tones

Changsha has 5 tones, which are neutralized in syllables ending in a stop.

Tone chart of the Changsha dialect
Tone numberTone nameTone contourDescription
1 yin ping (陰平)˧ (3) or āmid
2 yang ping (陽平)˩˧ (13) or ǎrising
3 shang sheng (上聲)˦˩ (41) or âfalling
4 yin qu (陰去)˥ (5) or áhigh
5 yang qu (陽去)˨˩ (21) or àlow
6 ru sheng (入聲)˨˦ʔ (24′) or aʔchecked

See also

References

  1. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Changsha". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  2. ↑ Zhou Zhenhe & You Rujie (1986) Fangyan yu Zhongguo wenhua [Dialects and Chinese culture]. Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe
  • 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.)


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