Raoping Hakka (original) (raw)

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Hakka dialect of Southern China and Taiwan

This article is about a dialect of Hakka Chinese. For the variety of Teochew spoken in Raoping, see Teochew dialect.

Raoping
饒平客家話
Native to Southern China, Taiwan
Region Raoping County (Guangdong), Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Miaoli, Taichung (Taiwan)
Language family Sino-Tibetan SiniticChineseHakka–Gan?Hakka–She?Hakka(unclassified)Raoping
Writing system Chinese charactersPha̍k-fa-sṳ
Language codes
ISO 639-3
Glottolog None

Raoping Hakka (traditional Chinese: 饒平客家話; simplified Chinese: 饶平客家话; Taiwanese Hakka Romanization System: ngiau pin kagˋ gaˇ faˋ), also known as Shangrao Hakka (traditional Chinese: 上饒客家話; simplified Chinese: 上饶客家话),[1] is a dialect of Hakka Chinese spoken in Raoping, Guangdong, as well as Taiwan.

In Raoping County, Hakka is spoken in the north, including the towns of Shangshan, Shangrao, Raoyang, Jiucun, Jianrao, and Xinfeng, as well as some villages in Hanjiang Forest Farm. As of 2005, there are 190,000 Hakka speakers in Raoping County (19% of the county's population).[1]

The distribution of Raoping Hakka in Taiwan is scattered. It is mainly spoken in Taoyuan City (Zhongli, Pingzhen, Xinwu, Guanyin, Bade), Hsinchu County (Zhubei, Qionglin), Miaoli County (Zhuolan), and Taichung City (Dongshi).[2][3] In 2013, only 1.6% of Hakka people in Taiwan were reported to be able to communicate in the Raoping dialect.[3]

Raoping Hakka has some phonological and lexical features that appear to come from contact with Teochew. Some nasalized vowels come from Teochew, such as 鼻 'nose' /pʰĩ˧˥/ (Teochew /pʰĩ˩/), 好 'to like' /hãũ˥˧/ (Teochew /hãũ˨˩˧/).[4] Some characters that were pronounced with a 溪 initial (/kʰ/) in Middle Chinese but with /f/ or /h/ in the Meixian dialect are pronounced with /kʰ/, just like in Teochew, such as 苦 'bitter' /kʰu˥˧/ (Meixian /fu˧˩/, Teochew /kʰɔ˥˧/), 去 'to go' /kʰiəu˥˧/ (Meixian /hi˥˧/, Teochew /kʰɯ˨˩˧/).[5] There is also many shared lexical items with Teochew:[5]

English Chinese characters Teochew Raoping Hakka (Raoping County)
cigarette /huŋ˧/ /fun˩/
peanut 地豆 /ti˩ tau˩/ /tʰi˧˥ tʰeu˧˥/
congee /mue˥/ /moi˥/
comfortable 心適 /sim˧ sek˨˩/ /sim˩ set˨˩/
just; exactly 堵堵 /tu˥˧ tu˥˧/ /tu˥˧ tu˥˧/

In Taiwan, Raoping Hakka is in contact with other varieties of Hakka, notably Sixian and Hailu dialects. There are some phonological and morphological features that appear to originate in these surrounding varieties. For example, in Taoyuan near Sixian-speaking areas, the diminutive suffix is pronounced /e˧˩/ as it is pronounced in Sixian, while in Hailu-dominant Hsinchu, the suffix is pronounced as the Hailu /ə˥/.[6]

  1. ^ a b Raoping County 2011, p. 128.
  2. ^ HAC 2018.
  3. ^ a b HAC 2013, p. 73.
  4. ^ Zhan 1992, pp. 157–158.
  5. ^ a b Zhan 1992, p. 158.
  6. ^ Hsu 2005, p. 77.