Chawan dialect explained

Chawan dialect
Nativename:詔安話
States:China
Region:Southern part of the Zhao'an County
Speakers:270,000
Date:2021
Ref:[1]
Familycolor:Sino-Tibetan
Fam2:Sinitic
Fam3:Chinese
Fam4:Min
Fam5:Coastal Min
Fam6:Southern Min
Fam7:Hokkien
Ancestor:Proto-Sino-Tibetan
Ancestor2:Old Chinese
Ancestor3:Proto-Min
Script:Han characters
Isoexception:dialect

Chawan dialect[1] is a variety of Southern Min spoken in the Chawan (Zhao'an) County in Fujian province, China. It is usually considered a divergent dialect of Hokkien exhibiting some Teochew influence.

Geography and classification

Chawan dialect is spoken in the southern half of the Chawan (Zhao'an) county. The northern part of the county, with roughly one-third of its population, is mainly Hakka-speaking, and the border between the Chawan-speaking and the Hakka-speaking parts of county lies within the Hongxing township (Chinese: 红星乡) and Taiping town (Chinese: 太平镇).[2]

The dialect spoken in Sidu (Chinese: 四都镇), Meizhou (Chinese: 梅洲乡) and Jinxing (Chinese: 金星乡), three localities in the eastern part of the Chawan county, is closer to the Yunxiao Hokkien. The Yunxiao dialect bears some affinity to Chawan, however, it lacks some of its notable characteristicts, such as vowels /ɯ/ and /ə/.

A related dialect is spoken in some parts of the Dongshan island, particularly the Qianlou town (Chinese: 前楼镇).[3]

The speech of the Nanzhao town is taken as representative for Chawan dialect. There are some internal differences, but the subdialects of Chawan are yet poorly described. E.g.:[4]

Chawan is usually classified as a dialect of Hokkien. However, it also has some common traits with Teochew, particularly in its vocabulary, e.g.:

Phonology

Consonants

In terms of consonants, Chawan does not differ much from other dialects of Hokkien. It has as total of 15 initials. Denasalization is extensive, which is typical for Hokkien, but not for Teochew.

Rimes

The most notable feature of Chawan is the presence of the vowels /ɯ/ and /ə/, which are absent in the general Zhangzhou dialects.

feature! colspan="6"
HokkienTeochew
ChawanQianlou
(Dongshan)
Yunxiao and
rural Dongshan
ZhangzhouAmoyQuanzhouRaoping
rime in ɯuiiuɯə
rime in əəeeeəo
rime in eieieiei
rime in ɛɛɛɛe

Chawan is also notable for distinguishing /ue/ and /uɛ/. While the former rime is common across Hokkien dialects, the latter is usually merged with /ue/ (in Quanzhou Hokkien) or /ua/ (in Zhanghzou Hokkien). To a lesser extent, Yunxiao Hokkien also distinguishes /ue/ and /uɛ/.

feature! colspan="5"
HokkienTeochew
ChawanYunxiaoZhangzhouAmoyQuanzhouRaoping
rime in, uauauauauaua
rime in, ueueue
rime in, ueueueeə
rime in, uaʔuaʔuaʔuaʔuaʔuaʔ
rime in uɛʔuɛʔuiʔueʔueʔ
rime in, ueʔueʔueʔəʔ
rime in,
rime in, uɛ̃uẽuãiuẽ
rime in, uẽɛ̃ãieə

Chawan dialect does not dissimilate the rimes /uam/ and /uap/ (in hoâm, hoām, hoap), similarly to Teochew. Most other Hokkien dialects have /uan/ and /uat/ instead.

Tones

Chawan has 7 citation tones, which are mostly similar to general Zhangzhou Hokkien tones.

! colspan="4"
citation tonespost-sandhi tones
Chinese:
level
Chinese:
rising
Chinese:
departing
Chinese:
entering
Chinese:
level
Chinese:
rising
Chinese:
departing
Chinese:
entering
-p, -t, -k
Chinese: dark55532133335535
Chinese: light13331321313

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Reclassifying ISO 639-3 [nan]

    An Empirical Approach to Mutual Intelligibility and Ethnolinguistic Distinctions]

    . https://web.archive.org/web/20210919021444/https://raw.githubusercontent.com/KIRINPUTRA/reclassifying-ISO-639-3-nan/main/Reclassifying_ISO_639-3_%5Bnan%5D__An_Empirical_Approach_to_Mutual_Intelligibility_and_Ethnolinguistic_Distinctions.pdf. 2021-09-19.
  2. 洪惟仁 . 2011-03-01 . 漳州詔安縣的語言分佈 . 臺灣語文研究 . 6 . 1 . 23–36 . 10.6710/JTLL.201103_6(1).0003.
  3. Book: 东山县地方志编纂委员会 . 東山县志 . 1994 . 978-7-101-01330-6 . 中华人民共和国地方志 : 福建省 .
  4. Web site: 福建詔安閩南方言研究__臺灣博碩士論文知識加值系統 . 2024-05-15 . ndltd.ncl.edu.tw.