Gan Chinese

Gan Chinese
Traditional Chinese 贛語
Simplified Chinese 赣语
Gan Gon ua
Commonly known as
Traditional Chinese 江西話
Simplified Chinese 江西话
Gan ua
贛語/赣语
Spoken in
Region central and northern Jiangxi, eastern Hunan, parts of Fujian, Anhui, Hubei
Total speakers 20 million~50 million
Ranking 38
Language family Sino-Tibetan
Language codes
ISO 639-1 zh
ISO 639-2 chi (B)  zho (T)
ISO 639-3 gan
Linguasphere
Gan in PRC.png
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Gàn (Chinese: 贛語; Gan: Gon ua), alternatively Jiangxinese (Chinese: 江西话 Jiangxi hua; Gan: Kongsi ua) is one of the major divisions of spoken Chinese, a member of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. Gan speakers are concentrated in and typical of Jiangxi Province, as well as the northwest of Fujian; and some parts of Anhui and Hubei in mainland China.

Different dialects of Gan exist, and the representative dialect is the Nanchang dialect.

The name "Gàn" comes from the shortened name of Jiangxi Province (through which the Gan River flows).

Contents

Classification

The classification of Gan is a subject of ongoing debate. Like all other varieties of Chinese, there is large amount of dispute as to whether Gan is a language or a dialect. It could be generally divided into three viewpoints:

Please see Identification of the varieties of Chinese for the issues surrounding this dispute.

Name

Relation with other Chinese languages

In ancient times, Jiangxi was divided into the same politic division with its neighboring provinces. Large numbers of people immigrated into Jiangxi naturally resulted in some similarities with the surrounding languages, Gan and Hakka are the most similar.

Relationship between Gan and other Chinese languages[1]
Hakka Hui Wu Xiang Yue Min
Gan 11.6 9.7 8.8 8.2 5.5 5.1
Relationship between Gan and other Chinese languages in phonology[2]
Min bei Xiang Min nan Wu Hakka Mandarin Yue
Gan 0.778 0.775 0.727 0.708 0.689 0.676 0.647
Cognate words between Gan and other Chinese languages[3]
Xiang Wu Yue Hakka Mandarin Min
Gan 88 84 78 77 76 64

Geographical distribution

The area coloured in light yellow shows the Gan-speaking region in the PRC.

Region

Gan speakers almost live in the middle and lower reaches of Gan River, the drainage area of Fu River and the region of Poyang Lake, there are also many Gan speakers living in eastern Hunan, eastern Hubei, southern Anhui and northwest Fujian, etc.

According to the《Diagram of Divisions in the People’s Republic of China》(《中華人民共和國行政區劃簡冊》)(2004), Gan is spoken by approximately 48,000,000 people, while 29,000,000 in Jiangxi [1], 4,500,000 in Anhui [2], 5,300,000 in Hubei [3], 9,000,000 in Hunan [4], 270,000 in Fujian [5].

History

Ancient Ages

During the Qin Dynasty (221 BC), a large number of troops were sent to southern China in order to conquer the Baiyue (百越) territories in Fujian and Guangdong, as a result, numerous Han Chinese emigrated to Jiangxi in the years following. In the early years of the Han Dynasty (202 BC), Nanchang was established as the capital of the Yuzhang Commandery (豫章郡) (this name stems from the original name of Gan River), along with the 18 counties (縣) of Jiangxi Province. The population of the Yuzhang Commandery increased to 1,670,000 (by AD 140) from 350,000 (in AD 2), with a net growth of 1,320,000. The Yuzhang Commandery ranked forth in population among the more than 100 contemporary commanderies of China. As the largest commandery of Yangzhou (揚州), Yuzhang accounted for two fifths of the population and Gan gradually took shape during this period.

Middle Ages

As a result of continuous warfare in the region of central China, the first large-scale emigration in the history of China took place. Large numbers of people in central China relocated to southern China in order to escape the bloodshed and at this time, Jiangxi played a role as a transfer station. Also, during this period, ancient Gan began to be exposed to the northern Mandarin Guan-hua (官話) dialects. After centuries of rule by the Southern Dynasties, Gan still retained many original characteristics despite having absorbed some elements of Guan-Hua. Up until the Tang Dynasty, there was little difference between old Gan and the contemporary Gan of that era. Beginning in the Five Dynasties period, however, inhabitants in the central and northern parts of Jiangxi Province began to migrate to eastern Hunan, eastern Hubei, southern Anhui and northwest Fujian. During this period, following hundreds of years of migration, Gan spread to its current areas of distribution.

Recent History

Guan-hua evolved into a language based on Beijing Mandarin, owing largely to political factors. At the same time, the differences between Gan and Guan-hua continued to become more pronounced. However, because Jiangxi borders on Jianghuai, a Guan-hua, Xiang, and Hakka speaking region, Gan proper has also been influenced by these surrounding languages, especially in its border regions.

Modern Times

After 1949, as a “dialect” in Mainland China, Gan faced a critical period. The impact of Mandarin is quite evident today as a result of official governmental linguistic campaigns. Currently, many youths are unable to master Gan expressions, and some are no longer able speak Gan at all.

Recently, however, as a result of increased interest in protecting the local language, Gan now has begun to appear in various regional media, and there are also newscasts and television programs broadcast in the Gan language.

History of Gan

Dialects

There are differences within the dialect speaking region. For example in Anfu county which was categorized as Ji-Cha, there are two main dialects, called Nanxiang Hua (Southern region) and Baixiang Hua (Northern region). People from one region cannot even understand people from the other region if they were not well educated or exposed to the other dialects.

The main dialect areas of Gan in Mainland China.

According to 《Atlas of Chinese languages》(《中國語言地圖集》)(1987), there are 9 dialects in Gan.

dialect representative Provinces Cities
Chang-Du Nanchang dialect northwestern Jiangxi (Jiangxi) Nanchang City, Nangchang, Xinjian, Anyi, Yongxiu, Xiushui*, De'an, Xingzi, Duchang, Hukou, Gao'an*, Fengxin*, Jing'an*, Wuning*, Tonggu*; (Hunan) Pingjiang.
Yi-Liu Yichun dialect central and western Jiangxi (Jiangxi) Yichun City, Yichun, Yifeng*, Shanggao, Qingjiang, Xingan, Xinyu City, Fen yi, Pingxiang City, Fengcheng, Wanzai; (Hunan)Liuyang*, Liling.
Ji-Cha Ji'an dialect central and southern Jiangxi, eastern Hunan (Jiangxi) Ji'an City, Ji'an*, Jishui, Xiajiang, Taihe*, Yongfeng*, Anfu, Lianhua, Yongxin*, Ninggang*, Jianggangshan* Wan'an, Suichuan*; (Hunan)Youxian*, Chaling*, Linxian.
Fu-Guang Fuzhou dialect (撫州, not to be confused with 福州) central and eastern Jiangxi, southwestern Fujian (Jiangxi) Fuzhou City, Linchuan, Chongren, Yihuang, Le'an, Nancheng, Lichuan, Zixi, Jinxi, Dongxiang, Jinxian, Nanfeng, Guangchang*; (Fujian)Jianning, Taining.
Ying-Yi Yingtan dialect northeastern Jiangxi (Jiangxi) Yingtan City, Guixi, Yujiang, Wannian, Leping, Jingdezhen*, Yugan, Poyang, Pengze, Hengfeng, Yiyang, Chuanshan.
Datong Daye dialect southeastern Hubei, eastern Hunan (Hubei) Daye, Xianning City, Jiangyu, Puxin, Chongyang, Tongcheng, Tongshan, Yangxin, Jianli*; (Hunan)Linxiang*, Yueyang*,Huarong.
Lei-Zi Leiyang dialect eastern Hunan (Hunan) Leiyang, Changning, Anren, Yongxing, Zixing City.
Dong-Sui Dongkou dialect southwestern Hunan (Hunan) Dongkou*, Suining*, Longhui*.
Huai-Yue Huaining dialect southwestern Anhui (Anhui) Huaining, Yuexi, Qianshan, Taihu, Wangjiang*, Susong*, Dongzhi*, Shitai*, Guichi*.

Ps: name with * means Gan is partly spoken in this city.

Sounds

Gan (e.g. Nanchang dialect) has 19 syllable onset (聲母), 65 syllable rimes (韻母) and 5 tones (counted as 7 in Chinese classifications).

Vowels

Gan has 6 vowels:

Front Central Back
plain lab.
Close i y u
Mid ɛ ə ɔ
Open ɑ
Syllabic consonant z̩

Tone

Like other Chinese languages, tones in Gan makes phonemic distinctions. There are five phonemic tones in Gan, which are reduced to two 'entering tones' before stop consonants. In the traditional classification, these are considered separately:

tones of Gan
Tone name Pitch numbers IPA transcription (on a)
lower level (42) a˦˨ or â
upper level (24) a˨˦ or ǎ
rising (213) a˨˩˧ or á̀́
lower departing (55) a˥ or á
upper departing (21) a˨˩ or à
lower entering (5) ak˥ or ák
upper entering (21) ak˨˩ or àk

The 6th and 7th tones are the same as the 4th and 5th tones, except that the syllable ends in a stop consonant, /t/ or /k/.

Initials

In each cell below, the first line indicates IPA transcription, the second indicates pinyin.

Bilabial Dental/
Alveolar		 (Alveolo-)
palatal		 Velar Glottal
Nasal m
m 麻		 ɲ
gn 魚		 ŋ
ng 牙
Plosive plain p
b 巴		 t
d 打		 k
g 加
aspirated pʰ
p 怕		 tʰ
t 讀		 kʰ
k 卡
Affricate plain ts
ts 渣		 tɕ
j 脊
aspirated tsʰ
ts 茶		 tɕʰ
ch 喫
Fricative ɸ
f 花		 s
s 紗		 ɕ
sh 寫		 h
h 蝦
Lateral l
l 啦

Finals

opening finals(24):

[a]

a 媽

 [ia]

ia 惹

 [ua]

ua 瓦

 [ai]

ai 崽

 [au]

au 冇

 [uai]

uai 外
[o]

o 荷

 [uo]

uo 禾

 [oi]

〔oi 礙〕

 [ɨu]

iu 仇

 [iu]

iiu 有

 [ui]

ui 微
[e]

e 擿

 [ie]

ie 葉

 [ue]

ue 哇(叫)

 [ye]

ye 越

 [ei]

ei 恁(邊)

 [ɛu]

eu 浮

 [iɛu]

ieu 妖
[ɨ]

i 痴

 [i]

ii 依

 [ɨi]

ij 非

 [y]

y 於

 [u]

u 烏

nasal finals(19):

[an]

an 鹹

 [uan]

uan 晚

 [aŋ]

ang 彭

 [iaŋ]

iang 影

 [uaŋ]

uang 汪
[on]

on 漢

 [uon]

uon 碗

 [yon]

yon 遠

 [ɔŋ]

ong 胖

 [iɔŋ]

iong 陽

 [uɔŋ]

uong 王
[en]

en 痕

 [iɛn]

ien 言

 [uŋ]

ung 翁

 [iuŋ]

iung 用
[ɨn]

in 深

 [in]

iin 因

 [un]

un 問

 [yn]

yn 雲

entering finals(20):

[at]

at 抲

 [uat]

uat 濩

 [aʔ]

ak 客

 [iaʔ]

iak 喫

 [uaʔ]

uak 刮
[ot]

ot 磕

 [uot]

uot 闊

 [yot]

yot 月

 [ɔʔ]

ok 殼

 [iɔʔ]

iok 雀

 [uɔʔ]

uok 擴
[ɛt]

et 虱

 [iɛt]

iet 咳

 [ut]

ut 窟

 [uɛt]

uet 國

 [uʔ]

uk 哭

 [iuʔ]

iuk 肉
[ɨt]

it 濕

 [it]

iit 日

 [yt]

yt 曲

independent finals(3):

[m̩]

m 唔

 [n̩]

n 你

 [ŋ̍]

ng 五

consonantal finals

consonantal finals -t -k -n -ng
IPA [-t] [-k] [-n] [-ŋ]
Example 白 拍 冰 碰

Example

春曉　　孟浩然 Tsun1 Shieu3　　 Mung5 Hau5-lan4
春眠不覺曉， tsun1 mien4 bit6 got6 shieu3,
處處聞啼鳥。 tsu2 tsu2 wun4 tii2 nieu3.
夜來風雨聲， ya5 lai4 fung1 e3 san1,
花落知多少？ fa1 lok7 tzi1 do1 sieu3?

Grammar

In Gan, there are 9 principal grammatical tenses – initial （起始）, progressive （進行）, experimental （嘗試）, durative （持續）, processive （經歷）, continuative （繼續）, repeating （重行）, perfect （已然）, complete （完成）.

The grammar of Gan is similar to southern Chinese languages. The sequence 'subject verb object’ is most typical, but ' subject object verb ' or the passive voice (with the sequence ' 'object subject verb') is possible with particles. Take a simple sentence for example: "I hold you." The words involved are: ngo ("I" or "me"), tsot dok ("to hold"), ň ("you").

Vocabulary

In Gan, there are a number of archaic words and expressions originally found in ancient Chinese, and which are now seldom or no longer used in Mandarin. For example, the noun ‘clothes’ in Gan is ‘衣裳’ while ‘衣服’ in Mandarin, the verb ‘sleep’ in Gan is ‘睏覺’ while ‘睡覺’ in Mandarin. Also, to describe something dirty, Gan speakers use ‘下里巴人’, which is a reference to a song from the Chu （楚國） region dating to China's Spring and Autumn Period.

Additionally, there are numerous interjections in Gan （e.g. 哈、噻、啵）, which can largely strengthen sentences, and better express different feelings.

Writing system

Gan is written with Chinese characters, though it does not have a strong written tradition. There are also some romanization schemes, but none is widely used. Gan speakers usually use Vernacular Chinese as the written form, which is used by all Chinese speakers.[4]

Note

  1. ↑ Li Rulong (李如龍), Comparative study on Chinese Fangyan (漢語方言的比較研究)
  2. ↑ Glossika
  3. ↑ Xu Tongjiang (徐通鏘), Historical linguistics (歷史語言學)
  4. ↑ Ethnologue report on Gan

See also

References

External links

History of the Gan language

Old Gan · Late Old Gan · Middle Gan · Late Middle Gan · Early Modern Gan · Modern Gan