Meixian dialect (original) (raw)

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Dialect of Hakka Chinese

The Meixian dialect (Chinese: 梅縣話; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: Mòi-yan-fa; IPA: [moi˩ jan˥ fa˥˧]), also known as Moiyan dialect, as well as Meizhou dialect (梅州話), or Jiaying dialect and Gayin dialect, Kayin dialect[1] is the prestige dialect of Hakka Chinese. It is named after Meixian District, Meizhou, Guangdong. Sixian dialect (in Taiwan) is very similar to Meixian dialect.

There are two series of stops and affricates in Hakka, both voiceless: tenuis /p t ts k/ and aspirated /pʰ tʰ tsʰ kʰ/.

| | Labial | Dental | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------ | | Nasal | /m/ ⟨m⟩ | /n/ ⟨n⟩ | [ɲ] ⟨ng(i)⟩* | /ŋ/ ⟨ng⟩ | | | | Plosive | tenuis | /p/ ⟨b⟩ | /t/ ⟨d⟩ | [c] ⟨g(i)⟩* | /k/ ⟨g⟩ | (ʔ) | | aspirated | /pʰ/ ⟨p⟩ | /tʰ/ ⟨t⟩ | [cʰ] ⟨k(i)⟩* | /kʰ/ ⟨k⟩ | | | | Affricate | tenuis | | /ts/ ⟨z⟩ | | | | | aspirated | | /tsʰ/ ⟨c⟩ | | | | | | Fricative | /f/ ⟨f⟩ | /s/ ⟨s⟩ | [ç] ⟨h(i)⟩* | | /h/ ⟨h⟩ | | | Approximant | /ʋ/ ⟨v⟩ | /l/ ⟨l⟩ | | | | |

* When the initials /k/ ⟨g⟩, /kʰ/ ⟨k⟩, /h/ ⟨h⟩, and /ŋ/ ⟨ng⟩ are followed by a palatal medial /j/ ⟨i⟩, they become [c̟]/[c] ⟨g(i)⟩, [c̟ʰ]/[cʰ] ⟨k(i)⟩, [ç] ⟨h(i)⟩, and [ɲ̟]/[ɲ] ⟨ng(i)⟩, respectively.[4][5]

Moiyan Hakka has seven vowels, /ɹ̩/, /i/, /e/, /a/, /ə/, /ɔ/ and /u/, that are romanised as ii, i, ê, a, e, o and u, respectively.

| | Out | Front | Central | Back | | | ------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Close | /ɹ̩/ ⟨ii⟩ | /i/ ⟨i⟩ | | /u/ ⟨u⟩ | | Mid | | /e̞/ ⟨ê⟩ | /ə/ (/ɘ/) ⟨e⟩ | /ɔ/ ⟨o⟩ | | Open | | | /a/ ⟨a⟩ | |

Moreover, Hakka finals exhibit the final consonants found in Middle Chinese, namely [m, n, ŋ, p, t, k] which are romanised as m, n, ng, b, d, and g respectively in the official Moiyan romanisation.

Finals of Meixian dialect[6]

Moiyan Hakka has six tones. The Middle Chinese fully voiced initial syllables became aspirated voiceless initial syllable in Hakka. Before that happened, the four Middle Chinese 'tones', ping, shang, qu, ru, underwent a voicing split in the case of ping and ru, giving the dialect six tones in traditional accounts.

Moiyan tones

These so-called yin-yang tonal splittings developed mainly as a consequence of the type of initial a Chinese syllable had during the Middle Chinese stage in the development of Chinese, with voiceless initial syllables [p- t- k-] tending to become of the yin type, and the voiced initial syllables [b- d- ɡ-] developing into the yang type. In modern Moiyan Hakka however, part of the Yin Ping tone characters have sonorant initials [m n ŋ l] originally from the Middle Chinese Shang tone syllables and fully voiced Middle Chinese Qu tone characters, so the voiced/voiceless distinction should be taken only as a rule of thumb.

Hakka tone contours differs more as one moves away from Moiyen. For example, the Yin Ping contour is ˧ (33) in Changting and ˨˦ (24) in Sixian (四縣), Taiwan.

Entering tone

Hakka preserves all of the entering tones of Middle Chinese and it is split into two registers. Meixian has the following:

• 陰入 [ ˩ ] a low pitched checked tone
• 陽入 [ ˥ ] a high pitched checked tone

Middle Chinese entering tone syllables ending in [k] whose vowel clusters have become front high vowels like [i] and [e] shifts to syllables with [t] finals in modern Hakka[7] as seen in the following table.

For Moiyan Hakka, the yin ping and qu tone characters exhibit sandhi when the following character has a lower pitch. The pitch of the yin ping tone changes from ˦ (44) to ˧˥ (35) when sandhi occurs. Similarly, the qu tone changes from ˥˧ (53) to ˦ (55) under sandhi. These are shown in red in the following table.

Moiyen tone sandhi

| | + ˦ Yin Ping | + ˩ Yang Ping | + ˧˩ Shang | + ˥˧ Qu | + ˩ʔ Yin Ru | + ˥ʔ YangRu | + Neutral | | | ---------------- | -------------- | ----------- | -------- | ------------ | ------------ | ---------- | ---- | | ˦ Yin Ping + | ˦.˦ | ˧˥.˩ | ˧˥.˧˩ | ˧˥.˥˧ | ˧˥.˩ʔ | ˦.˥ʔ | ˧˥.˧ | | ˥˧ Qu + | ˥˧.˦ | ˥.˩ | ˥.˧˩ | ˥.˥˧ | ˥.˩ʔ | ˥˧.˥ʔ | ˥.˧ |

The neutral tone occurs in some postfixes. It has a mid pitch.

The Meixian dialect can be divided into four accents, which are:

Meicheng accent: Most of the townships in the central part of Meixian County (including present-day Meijiang District)

Songkou accent: Songkou, Longwen, Taoyao.

Meixi accent: Meixi.

Shejiang River accent: Shejiang River in the southwest of Meixian County.

1. ^ Maciver, D. A Chinese-English Dictionary: Hakka-Dialect as Spoken in Kwang-Tung Province.
2. ^ 黃, 雪貞. "梅縣客家話的語言特點". 方言 (1992(4)): 275–289.
3. ^ 黃, 曉煜 (2018). 客家方言嘉應小片語音研究. 暨南大學.
4. ^ 嚴, 修鴻; 黄, 良喜. "結構所引起的輔音音變——論三個客家話軟齶音齦顎化演變的不平衡". 語言科學 (2008(36)): 449–458.
5. ^ Zee, Eric; Lee, Wai-sum (2008). "The Articulatory Characteristics of the Palatals, Palatalized Velars and Velars in Hakka Chinese" (PDF). In Sock, Rudolph; Fuchs, Susanne; Laprie, Yves (eds.). Proceedings of the 8th International Seminar on Speech Production (ISSP2008). INRIA. pp. 113–116. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-03-05.
6. ^ Cheung, Yuk Man (2011). Vowels and Tones in Mei Xian Hakka: An Acoustic and Perceptual Study (PhD thesis). City University of Hong Kong.
7. ^ Sung, Dylan W. H. (2000). "Chinese Numerals: A Comparison of Readings from China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam". dylansung.tripod.com. Archived from the original on 1 September 2017. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
8. ^ "廣韻入聲卷第五". kanji-database.sourceforge.net. Archived from the original on 24 April 2018. Retrieved 24 April 2018.

• Lee, Wai-Sum & Zee, Eric (2009). "Hakka Chinese". Illustrations of the IPA. Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 39 (1): 107–111. doi:10.1017/S0025100308003599{{[cite journal](/wiki/Template:Cite%5Fjournal "Template:Cite journal")}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link), with supplementary sound recordings.