| Weitou dialect | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 圍頭話 | ||||
| Spoken in | Southern China | |||
| Language family | ||||
| Language codes | ||||
| ISO 639-3 | – | |||
|
||||
Weitou dialect (simplified Chinese: 围头话; traditional Chinese: 圍頭話; literally "walled (village) language"; Jyutping: Waidau Waa) is a dialect of Yue Chinese. It forms part of the Guan-Bao (莞宝片, Dongguan-Bao'an) branch of Yuehai, sometimes called Cantonese. It is spoken by the older generations in Shenzhen, and by those in the New Territories, Hong Kong.
The Weitou dialect can be heard in Hong Kong TV dramas and movies, and is usually used to characterize characters who come from walled villages. For example, in the 1992 movie Now You See Love, Now You Don't《我爱扭纹柴》, the chief character, played by Chow Yun-fat who himself grown up in Lamma Island, consistently speaks the Weitou dialect.
In a more general sense, Weitou Hua can refer to any Chinese language/dialect spoken in the villages of Shenzhen and Hong Kong in southern China, including Hakka and rural Yue dialects, in contrast to Cantonese (Guangfu) spoken by the majority of Hong Kong and Shenzhen residents.
Zhang & Zhuang (2003:21-4) records the phonological systems of three varieties of the Weitou dialect spoken in Hong Kong. Following is the one of Fan Tin (蕃田), San Tin (in IPA).
| p | pʰ | b | f | w |
| t | tʰ | d | l | |
| tʃ | tʃʰ | ʃ | j | |
| k | kʰ | ɡ | h | |
| kʷ | kʷʰ | ɡʷ |
| a | œ | ɔ | ɛ | i | u | y | |
| ai | ɐi | ɵy | |||||
| au | ɐu | eu | |||||
| am | ɐm | em | |||||
| æŋ | ɐŋ | œŋ | ɛŋ | yœŋ | |||
| ɵŋ | oŋ | eŋ | |||||
| ap | ɐp | ep | |||||
| æk | ɐk | œk | ɛk | yœk | |||
| m | ŋ | ɵk | ok | ek |
There are four tone contours, when the "entering tones" (stopped syllables) are ignored:
| tone name | contour | description |
| Yin Ping | ˨˧ (23) or ˥ (55) | low rising or high |
| Yang Ping | ˨˩ (21) | low |
| Shang | ˧˥ (35) | high rising |
| Qu | ˧ (33) | mid |