Wenchang dialect

Wenchang dialect
文昌话
Native to Southern China
Region Wenchang, Hainan
Language codes
ISO 639-3 –
Glottolog None
Linguasphere 79-AAA-kd

Wenchang dialect (simplified Chinese: 文昌话; traditional Chinese: 文昌話; pinyin: Wénchāng huà) is a dialect of Hainanese which spoken in Wenchang, a county-level city in the northeast of Hainan, an island province in southern China. It is considered the prestige form of Hainanese, and is used by the provincial broadcasting media.

Phonology

The initials of the Wenchang dialect are:[1]

Bilabial Dental Palatal Velar Glottal
Stop / Affricate voiceless t tɕ k ʔ
voiced implosive ɓ ɗ
voiced b d dʑ g
Nasal m n ŋ
Fricative voiceless ɸ ɕ h
voiced (w) (j) ɦ
Lateral l

The semivowels [w] and [j] are in complementary distribution with [ɦ], and may be treated as allophones of the same phoneme.[2] The voiced stops /d/ and /g/ occur with only about ten words each.[3]

There are five vowels, /i/, /u/, /e/, /o/ and /a/.[4] The high vowels /i/ and /u/ may also occur as medials.[5]

The possible finals are:[6]

Vocalic codas Nasal codas Stop codas
a ai au am an aŋ ap at ak
ia iau iam ian iaŋ iap iat iak
ua uai uan uaŋ uat uak
e ei eŋ ek
ue
o oi ou om oŋ op ok
io iom ioŋ iop iok
i iu
u ui un ut

There are also two syllabic nasals, /m̩/ and /ŋ̍/, which occur in a total of three words.[7]

Wenchang dialect has six tones on isolated syllabes:[8]

Middle Chinese tone
level (píng 平) rising (shàng 上) departing (qù 去) entering (rù 入)
upper (yīn 阴) 44 21ʔ 11 51ʔ
lower (yáng 阳) 33 42ʔ

References

  1. ↑ Woon (1979a), pp. 66–70.
  2. ↑ Woon (1979a), p. 70.
  3. ↑ Woon (1979a), pp. 69, 70.
  4. ↑ Woon (1979a), p. 73.
  5. ↑ Woon (1979a), pp. 74–75.
  6. ↑ Woon (1979a), pp. 71–75.
  7. ↑ Woon (1979a), pp. 72, 75.
  8. ↑ Woon (1979a), pp. 75–81.

Sources

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