She language

She
Ho Ne 山客話 San Ha Ue
Pronunciation	[hɔ˨ne˥˧] [saŋ˦ xaʔ˥ uə˨˩]
Spoken in	China
Region	Zengcheng, Boluo County, Huidong County and Haifeng County in Guangdong
Native speakers	1,200  (2002)
Language family	Hmong–Mien Hmongic Jiongnai She
Language codes
ISO 639-3	shx
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The She language (Chinese: 畲語 shēyǔ), spoken by the She people,^[1] is an endangered Hmong–Mien language. Most of the over 709,000 She people today speak Hakka Chinese. Those who retain their own language – approximately 1,200 individuals in Guangdong province – call themselves Ho Ne "mountain people" (Chinese: 活聶 huóniè).

Contents 1 Dialects 2 External relationships 2.1 Relationship with Hakka 2.2 Relationship with Min Dong 3 Phonology 3.1 Consonants 3.2 Vowels 4 Vocabulary 4.1 Loanwords from Classical Chinese 5 References 6 External links

Dialects

Dialects of She as listed in You (2002) include:

• Fu'an 福安, Ningde, Zhejiang
• Fuding 福鼎, Ningde, Zhejiang
• Luoyuan 罗源, Fuzhou, Fujian
• Sanming 三明, Fujian
• Shunchang 顺昌, Nanping 南平, Fujian
• Hua'an, Zhangzhou 华安, southern Fujian
• Guixi 贵溪, Yingtan 鹰潭, Jiangxi
• Cangnan 苍南, Wenzhou 温州, Zhejiang
• Jingning 景宁, Lishui, Zhejiang
• Lishui 丽水, Zhejiang
• Longyou 龙游, Quzhou 衢州, Zhejiang
• Chaozhou 潮州, Guangdong
• Fengshun 丰顺, Meizhou 梅州, Guangdong

External relationships

She has been difficult to classify due to the heavy influence of Chinese on the language. Matisoff (2001), for example, left it unclassified within the Hmongic (Miao) languages, and it some have considered that much to be doubtful, leaving it unclassified (and potentially a third branch) of the Hmong–Mien (Miao–Yao) languages. However, Ratliff (2010), in her reconstruction of Proto-Hmong–Mien, determined She to be most closely related to Jiongnai, another divergent Hmongic language.^[2]

Relationship with Hakka

The She have strongly influenced, and been strongly influenced by, the Hakka Chinese, both in language and culture.

Relationship with Min Dong

The She people of Eastern Fujian speak a Min Dong–influenced variety of She. The first person singular 我 is pronounced as [ŋuai]（Compare Fuzhou dialect nguāi）

The word 囝 (a diminutive particle) is pronounced as [kiaŋ], just as giāng in Fuzhou dialect.

They both share the same verbs.

Phonology

Consonants

		Bilabial		Labio- dental	Alveolar		Velar			Glottal
		Plain	Palatalized		Plain	Palatzd	Plain	Palatzd	Labialized	Plain	Palatzd
Nasals	Voiced	m	mʲ		n	nʲ	ŋ	ŋʲ
	Voiceless						ŋ̊
Plosives	Voiceless unaspirated	p	pʲ		t	tʲ	k	kʲ	kʷ
	Voiceless aspirated	pʰ	pʰʲ		tʰ	tʰʲ	kʰ	kʰʲ	kʰʷ
Affricates	Voiceless unaspirated				ts	tsʲ
	Voiceless aspirated				tsʰ	tsʰʲ
Fricatives	Voiceless			f	s	sʲ				h	hʲ
	Voiced			v	z	zʲ

Vowels

Vocabulary

Loanwords from Classical Chinese

Like Southern Chinese dialects, the She language has loanwords from Classical Chinese. 走 to run 行 to walk 烏 black 赤 red 寮 house 禾 rice (plant) 鑊 wok 奉 to give 其 he/she/it 着 to wear 睇 to look 戮 to kill 齧 to bite 使 to use

References

• Mao, Zongwu & Meng, Chaoji. 1986. She yu jian zhi (A Sketch of the She language). Beijing, China: Nationalities Press. (毛宗武, 蒙朝吉. 1986. 畬語簡志. 北京: 民族出版社)
• Ratliff, Martha. 1998. Ho Ne (She) is Hmongic: One final argument. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 21.2:97-109.
• You, Wenliang. 2002. She zu yu yan [The languages of the She people]. Fuzhou, China: Fujian People's Publishing House. (游文良. 2002. 畲族语言. 福州: 福建人民出版社)

External links

• Entry for She at Rosetta Project