Pinghua

Pinghua may also refer to a dialect of Min Dong which is spoken in Fujian.
Pinghua
廣西平話

Pinghua written in Chinese characters
Spoken in China
Region Guangxi
Native speakers 2,300,000  (date missing)
Language family
Sino-Tibetan
Language codes
ISO 639-3 None
This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.
Pinghua
Traditional Chinese 平話
Simplified Chinese 平话
Hanyu Pinyin Píng Huà
Alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese 廣西平話
Simplified Chinese 广西平话

Pinghua (simplified Chinese: 平话; traditional Chinese: 平話 Pínghuà, sometimes disambiguated as 廣西平話/广西平话 Guǎngxī Pínghuà) is a variety of Chinese, spoken mainly in parts of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, with some speakers in Yunnan province. Pinghua is a trade language in some areas of Guangxi, where it is spoken as a second language by speakers of Zhuang languages. Some speakers of Pinghua are officially classified as Zhuang, and many are genetically distinct from the Han majority of Chinese speakers.[1] The northern sub-dialect of Pinghua is centered around Guilin and the southern sub-dialect around Nanning. Pinghua has several notable features such as having four distinct checked tones, and using various loan words from Zhuang, such as the final particle "wei" for imperative sentences.

Contents

History

Language surveys in Guangxi during the 1950s noted a lect of Chinese different from those in Guangdong that was previously considered by default as a subdivision of Yue, or Cantonese. Pinghua was designated as a separate dialect from Cantonese by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in the 1980s [2] and since then has been treated as a separate dialect in textbooks and surveys. Pinghua is not at present noted in Ethnologue.

Since designation as a separate dialect there has been increased research into Pinghua. In 2008 a report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences of research into Chinese dialects noted an increase in research papers and surveys of Pinghua, from 7 before the publication of the revised Chinese dialect map in 1987, and about 156 between then and 2004.[3]

In the 1980s the number of speakers was listed as over 2 million.[4]

Phonology

Pinghua makes use of a voiceless el [ɬ],[5] for example in the numbers /ɬam/ "three" and /ɬi/ "four". This is unlike Cantonese but like some other Yue dialects such as Taishanese.

Tones

Pinghua has 6 phonemic tones, reportedly reduced to 4 entering tones before stop consonants, and as with all Chinese dialects there is regional variation of pitch in these tones. The table below shows the tones for Nanning Pinghua.[6]

Tone name
平
上
去
入

陰
高		 52 or ˥˨ 33 or ˧˧ 55 or ˥˥ 5 or ˥

低		 3 or ˧
陽
高		 21 or ˨˩ 24 or ˨˦ 22 or ˨˨ 23 or ˨˧

低		 2 or ˨

However, Lee (1993)[7] concludes that the alleged split in 陰入 is a changed tone analogous to the diminutive in Cantonese, and that only 陽入 has a historical split. It depends on whether the initial consonant is a sonorant or obstruent, as in yang-tone splits in other Chinese dialects.

Anthropological

Genetically speaking Pinghua speakers have more in common with non-Han ethnic minorities in southern China than with other Han groups.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b Pinghua population as an exception of Han Chinese's coherent genetic structure http://www.springerlink.com/content/e803426681664g43/
  2. ^ 现代汉语 "Modern Chinese" ISBN 7-04-002652-X page 15
  3. ^ cass report by 王宏宇 in Chinese April 2008 http://www.cass.net.cn/file/20080415120275.html
  4. ^ 现代汉语 "Modern Chinese" ISBN 7-04-002652-X page 21
  5. ^ http://www.glossika.com/en/dict/vocab/numbers.htm#pinghua
  6. ^ 南寧平話詞典 Nanning Pinghua Dictionary ISBN 7-5343-3119-6 page 6
  7. ^ Gina Lee, 1993. Comparative, diachronic and experimental perspectives on the interaction between tone and the vowel in Standard Cantonese

External links