| Jian'ou | |
| Nativename: | / 建甌事 |
| Pronunciation: | pronounced as /[kuiŋ˧ ɪ˥˦ ti˦]/ |
| States: | Southern China |
| Region: | Jian'ou, Fujian province |
| Speakers: | ? |
| Familycolor: | Sino-Tibetan |
| Fam2: | Sinitic |
| Fam3: | Chinese |
| Fam4: | Min |
| Fam5: | Inland Min |
| Fam6: | Northern Min |
| Ancestor: | Proto-Sino-Tibetan |
| Ancestor2: | Old Chinese |
| Ancestor3: | Proto-Min |
| Script: | Chinese character, Kienning Colloquial Romanized |
| Isoexception: | dialect |
| Glotto: | jian1240 |
| Glottorefname: | Jian'ou |
| Notice: | IPA |
The Jian'ou dialect (Northern Min: / 建甌事; Chinese:), also known as Kienow dialect, is a local dialect of Northern Min Chinese spoken in Jian'ou in northern Fujian province. It is regarded as the standard common language in Jian'ou.
According to The Eight Tones of Kien-chou (Chinese: 建州八音), a rime dictionary published in 1795, the Jian'ou dialect had 15 initials, 34 rimes and 7 tones in the 18th century, however there are only 6 tones in the modern dialect as the "light level" (Chinese: 陽平) tone has disappeared.
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless unaspirated | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| voiceless aspirated | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Affricate | voiceless unaspirated | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| voiceless aspirated | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Open syllable | Nasal coda | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open mouth | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/[1] | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/[2] | pronounced as /ai/ | pronounced as /au/ | pronounced as /aŋ/ | pronounced as /aiŋ/ | pronounced as /eiŋ/ | pronounced as /œyŋ/ | pronounced as /ɔŋ/ [3] | |||
| Even mouth | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /ia/ | pronounced as /iɛ/ | pronounced as /iɔ/ | pronounced as /iau/ | pronounced as /iu/ | pronounced as /iŋ/ | pronounced as /iaŋ/ | pronounced as /ieiŋ/[4] | pronounced as /iɔŋ/ | ||||||
| Closed mouth | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /ua/ | pronounced as /uɛ/ | pronounced as /uai/ | pronounced as /uiŋ/ | pronounced as /uaŋ/ | pronounced as /uaiŋ/ | pronounced as /uɔŋ/ | ||||||||
| Round mouth | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /yɛ/ [5] | pronounced as /yiŋ/ [6] | |||||||||||||
Jian'ou has four tones, which are reduced to two in checked syllables.
| Tone number | Tone contour | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | level (Chinese: 平聲) | pronounced as /˥˦/ (54) or pronounced as /˥/ (5) | |
| 2 | rising (Chinese: 上聲) | pronounced as /˨˩/ (21) or pronounced as /˩/ (1) | |
| 3 | dark departing (Chinese: 陰去) | pronounced as /˨/ (2) | |
| 4 | light departing (Chinese: 陽去) | pronounced as /˦/ (4) | |
| 5 | dark entering (Chinese: 陰入) | pronounced as /˨˦/ (24) | |
| 6 | light entering (Chinese: 陽入) | pronounced as /˦˨/ (42) |
The entering tones in the Jian'ou dialect do not have any entering tone coda (Chinese: 入聲韻尾) such as pronounced as //-ʔ//, pronounced as //-p̚//, pronounced as //-t̚// and pronounced as //-k̚// which makes it distinct from many other Chinese varieties.