| Meixian | |
| Nativename: | 梅縣話 |
| States: | Guangdong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia |
| Region: | Meixian |
| Speakers: | ? |
| Familycolor: | Sino-Tibetan |
| Fam2: | Sinitic |
| Fam3: | Chinese |
| Fam4: | Hakka |
| Fam5: | Yue-Tai Hakka |
| Fam6: | Mei-Hui section |
| Isoexception: | dialect |
| Script: | Chinese characters |
| Glotto: | yuet1238 |
| Glottorefname: | Meixian |
| Lingua: | 79-AAA-gam |
| Pronunciation: | pronounced as /[moi˩ jan˥ fa˥˧]/ |
The Meixian dialect (; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: Mòi-yan-fa; IPA: pronounced as /[moi˩ jan˥ fa˥˧]/), also known as Moiyan dialect, as well as Meizhou dialect (Chinese: 梅州話), or Jiaying dialect and Gayin 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 /pronounced as /p t ts k// and aspirated /pronounced as /pʰ tʰ tsʰ kʰ//.
| Labial | Dental | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | /pronounced as /link// | /pronounced as /link// | [{{IPA link|ɲ}}] * | /pronounced as /link// | |||
| Plosive | /pronounced as /link// | /pronounced as /link// | [{{IPA link|c}}] * | /pronounced as /link// | (pronounced as /link/) | ||
| /pronounced as /link// | /pronounced as /link// | [{{IPA link|cʰ}}] * | /pronounced as /link// | ||||
| Affricate | /pronounced as /link// | ||||||
| /pronounced as /link// | |||||||
| Fricative | /pronounced as /link// | /pronounced as /link// | [{{IPA link|ç}}] * | /pronounced as /link// | |||
| Approximant | /pronounced as /link// | /pronounced as /link// | |||||
* When the initials /pronounced as /link//, /pronounced as /link//, /pronounced as /link//, and /pronounced as /link// are followed by a palatal medial /pronounced as /link//, they become [{{IPA link|c̟}}]/[{{IPA link|c}}], [{{IPA link|c̟ʰ}}]/[{{IPA link|cʰ}}], [{{IPA link|ç}}], and [{{IPA link|ɲ̟}}]/[{{IPA link|ɲ}}], respectively.[4] [5]
Moiyan Hakka has seven vowels, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/, that are romanised as ii, i, ê, a, e, o and u, respectively.
| Out | Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ |
Moreover, Hakka finals exhibit the final consonants found in Middle Chinese, namely pronounced as /[m, n, ŋ, p, t, k]/ which are romanised as m, n, ng, b, d, and g respectively in the official Moiyan romanisation.
| nucleus | medial | coda | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -∅ | pronounced as /-i/ | pronounced as /-u/ | pronounced as /-m/ | pronounced as /-n/ | pronounced as /-ŋ/ | pronounced as /-p/ | pronounced as /-t/ | pronounced as /-k/ | |||
| rowspan="3" | -a- | ∅- | pronounced as /a/ | pronounced as /ai/ | pronounced as /au/ | pronounced as /am/ | pronounced as /an/ | pronounced as /aŋ/ | pronounced as /ap/ | pronounced as /at/ | pronounced as /ak/ |
| pronounced as /j-/ | pronounced as /ja/ | pronounced as /jai/ | pronounced as /jau/ | pronounced as /jam/ | pronounced as /jan/ | pronounced as /jaŋ/ | pronounced as /jap/ | pronounced as /jat/ | pronounced as /jak/ | ||
| pronounced as /w-/ | pronounced as /wa/ | pronounced as /wai/ | pronounced as /wan/ | pronounced as /waŋ/ | pronounced as /wat/ | pronounced as /wak/ | |||||
| rowspan="3" | -e- | ∅- | pronounced as /e̞/ | pronounced as /e̞u/ | pronounced as /e̞m/ | pronounced as /e̞n/ | pronounced as /e̞p/ | pronounced as /e̞t/ | |||
| pronounced as /j-/ | pronounced as /je̞/ | pronounced as /je̞n/ | pronounced as /je̞t/ | ||||||||
| pronounced as /w-/ | we̞ | pronounced as /we̞n/ | pronounced as /we̞t/ | ||||||||
| -i- | ∅- | pronounced as /i/ | wi | pronounced as /im/ | pronounced as /in/ | pronounced as /ip/ | pronounced as /it/ | ||||
| pronounced as /-o-/ | ∅- | pronounced as /o/ | pronounced as /oi/ | pronounced as /on/ | pronounced as /oŋ/ | pronounced as /ot/ | pronounced as /ok/ | ||||
| pronounced as /j-/ | pronounced as /jo/ | joi | pronounced as /jon/ | pronounced as /joŋ/ | pronounced as /jok/ | ||||||
| pronounced as /w-/ | pronounced as /wo/ | pronounced as /won/ | pronounced as /woŋ/ | pronounced as /wok/ | |||||||
| pronounced as /-u-/ | ∅- | pronounced as /u/ | pronounced as /un/ | pronounced as /uŋ/ | pronounced as /ut/ | pronounced as /uk/ | |||||
| pronounced as /j-/ | pronounced as /jui/ | ju | pronounced as /jun/ | pronounced as /juŋ/ | pronounced as /jut/ | pronounced as /juk/ | |||||
| pronounced as /-ə-/ | ∅- | pronounced as /əm/ | pronounced as /ən/ | pronounced as /əp/ | pronounced as /ət/ | ||||||
| Syllabics | pronounced as /ɹ̩/ | pronounced as /m̩/ | n̩ | pronounced as /ŋ̩/ | |||||||
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.
| Tone number | Tone name | Hanzi | Tone letters | number | English | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | yin ping | 陰平 | pronounced as /˦/ | 44 | high level | |
| 2 | yang ping | 陽平 | pronounced as /˩/ | 11 | low level | |
| 3 | shang | 上 | pronounced as /˧˩/ | 31 | low falling | |
| 4 | qu | 去 | pronounced as /˥˧/ | 53 | high falling | |
| 5 | yin ru | 陰入 | pronounced as /˩/ | 2 | low checked | |
| 6 | yang ru | 陽入 | pronounced as /˥/ | 5 | high checked |
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 pronounced as /[p- t- k-]/ tending to become of the yin type, and the voiced initial syllables pronounced as /[b- d- ɡ-]/ developing into the yang type. In modern Moiyan Hakka however, part of the Yin Ping tone characters have sonorant initials pronounced as /[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 pronounced as /˧/ (33) in Changting (Chinese: 長汀) and pronounced as /˨˦/ (24) in Sixian (Chinese: 四縣), Taiwan.
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.
| Character | Guangyun Fanqie | Middle Chinese reconstruction[8] | Hakka | Main meaning in English | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 職 | 之翼切 | tɕĭək | tsit˩ | vocation, profession | |
| 力 | 林直切 | lĭək | lit˥ | strength, power | |
| 食 | 乗力切 | dʑʰĭək | sit˥ | eat, consume | |
| 色 | 所力切 | ʃĭək | set˩ | colour, hue | |
| 德 | 多則切 | tək | tet˩ | virtue | |
| 刻 | 苦得切 | kʰək | kʰet˩ | carve, engrave, a moment | |
| 北 | 博墨切 | pək | pet˩ | north | |
| 國 | 古或切 | kuək | kuet˩ | country, state |
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 pronounced as /˦/ (44) to pronounced as /˧˥/ (35) when sandhi occurs. Similarly, the qu tone changes from pronounced as /˥˧/ (53) to pronounced as /˦/ (55) under sandhi. These are shown in red in the following table.
| pronounced as /˦/ Yin Ping + | pronounced as /˦.˦/ | pronounced as /˧˥/pronounced as /.˩/ | pronounced as /˧˥/pronounced as /.˧˩/ | pronounced as /˧˥/pronounced as /.˥˧/ | pronounced as /˧˥/pronounced as /.˩ʔ/ | pronounced as /˦.˥ʔ/ | pronounced as /˧˥/pronounced as /.˧/ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| pronounced as /˥˧/ Qu + | pronounced as /˥˧.˦/ | pronounced as /˥/pronounced as /.˩/ | pronounced as /˥/pronounced as /.˧˩/ | pronounced as /˥/pronounced as /.˥˧/ | pronounced as /˥/pronounced as /.˩ʔ/ | pronounced as /˥˧.˥ʔ/ | pronounced as /˥/pronounced as /.˧/ |
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.