Swatow dialect

Swatow dialect
Swatow dialect
Shantou
汕頭話 Suan¹tao⁵ uê⁷
Native to	China
Region	Mainly in Shantou, southeastern Guangdong province.
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Min Coastal Min Southern Min Chaoshan Min Swatow dialect; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Early forms	Proto-Sino-Tibetan Old Chinese Proto-Min ; ;
Writing system	Peng'im
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	shan1244
Linguasphere	79-AAA-jif
	Shantou dialect

Last updated January 16, 2025

The Swatow dialect, or in Mandarin the Shantou dialect, is a Chinese dialect mostly spoken in Shantou in Guangdong, China. It is a dialect of Chaoshan Min language.^[4] It is similar to and largely mutually intelligible with the Teochew dialect.

Phonology

Shantou dialect has 18 initials, 61 rimes and 8 tones.

Initials

		Bilabial	Alveolar		Velar	Glottal
		Bilabial	plain	sibilant	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		/m/ 毛	/n/ 腦		/ŋ/ 俄
Plosive/ Affricate	tenuis	/p/ 波	/t/ 刀	/ts/ 之	/k/ 哥	/ʔ/ 烏
	aspirated	/pʰ/ 抱	/tʰ/ 天	/tsʰ/ 此	/kʰ/ 戈
	voiced	/b/ 無			/g/ 鵝
Continuant	voiceless			/s/ 思
Continuant	voiced		/l/ 羅	/z/ 入		/h/ 何

Rimes

	i 衣	u 污
a 亞	ia 呀	ua 娃
o 窩	io 腰
e 啞		ue 鍋
ɯ 余
ai 哀		uai 歪
oi 鞋		ui 威
au 歐	iau 夭
ou 烏	iu 憂
	ĩ 丸
ã 噯	ĩã 營	uã 鞍
	ĩõ 羊
ẽ 楹
ɯ̃ 秧
ãĩ 愛
õĩ 閑
	im 音
am 庵	iam 淹
	iŋ 因	uŋ 溫
aŋ 按	iaŋ 央	uaŋ 汪
oŋ 翁	ioŋ 雍
eŋ 英
ɤŋ 恩
	iʔ 裂
aʔ 鴨	iaʔ 益	uaʔ 呴
oʔ 學	ioʔ 約
eʔ 厄
oiʔ 狹	iuʔ
	ip̚ 邑
ap̚ 盒	iap̚ 壓	uap̚ 法
	ik̚ 乙	uk̚ 熨
ak̚ 惡	iak̚ 躍	uak̚ 獲
ok̚ 屋	iok̚ 育
ek̚ 液
m̩ 唔

Tones

No.	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Tones	dark level 陰平	dark rising 陰上	dark departing 陰去	dark entering 陰入	light level 陽平	light rising 陽上	light departing 陽去	light entering 陽入
Tone contour	˧ (33)	˥˧ (53)	˨˩˧ (213)	˨ (2)	˥ (55)	˧˥ (35)	˩ (11)	˥ (5)
Example Hanzi	詩	死	四	薛	時	是	示	蝕

Tone sandhi

Shantou dialect has extremely extensive tone sandhi rules: in an utterance, only the last syllable pronounced is not affected by the rules. The two-syllable tonal sandhi rules are shown in the table below:

Tone sandhi of first syllable
Original citation tone	Tone sandhi
dark level 33	23
light level 55	21
dark rising 53	35
light rising 35	21
dark departing 213	55
light departing 11	12
dark entering 2	5
light entering 5	2

Notes

↑ Min is believed to have split from Old Chinese, rather than Middle Chinese like other varieties of Chinese.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Related Research Articles

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The Longyan dialect, also known as Longyan Minnan or Liong¹¹l¹¹³³⁴, is a dialect of Hokkien spoken in the urban city area of Eastern Longyan in the province of Fujian, China, while Hakka is spoken in rural villages of Western Longyan. The Longyan Min people had settled in the region from southern Fujian Province as early as the Tang dynasty (618–907). Due to its close proximity to rural Hakka villages, Longyan Min has some influence from Hakka albeit to a limited extent. The Longyan dialect has a limited degree of intelligibility with other Southern Min dialects. Today, Longyan Minnan is predominantly spoken in Longyan's urban district Xinluo District while Zhangzhou Minnan is spoken in Zhangping City excluding Chishui and Shuangyang towns where Longyan Minnan is spoken. Hakka on the other hand is spoken in the non-urban rest of the rural areas of Longyan prefecture: Changting County, Liancheng County, Shanghang County, Wuping County, and Yongding District.

The Quanzhou dialects, also rendered Chin-chew or Choanchew, are a collection of Hokkien dialects spoken in southern Fujian, in the area centered on the city of Quanzhou. Due to migration, various Quanzhou dialects are spoken outside of Quanzhou, notably in Taiwan and many Southeast Asian countries, including mainly the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

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The Fuqing dialect, or Hokchia, is an Eastern Min dialect. It is spoken in the county-level city of Fuqing, China, situated within the prefecture-level city of Fuzhou. It is not completely mutually intelligible with the Fuzhou dialect, although the level of understanding is high enough to be considered so.

Jianyang (Kienyang) is a dialect of Northern Min Chinese spoken in Jianyang in the north of Fujian province.

The Fu'an dialect (福安話) is a dialect of Eastern Min, which is a branch of Min Chinese spoken mainly in the eastern part of Fujian Province, China.

The Putian dialect is a dialect of Pu-Xian Min Chinese spoken in urban area of Putian, which is a prefecture-level city in the southeast coast of Fujian province.

The Xianyou dialect is a dialect of Pu-Xian Min Chinese spoken in Xianyou, Putian in the southeast coast of Fujian province, China.

The Sanming dialect is a dialect of Central Min spoken in urban areas of Sanming, a prefecture-level city in Western Fujian Province, China.

The Yong'an dialect is a Central Min dialect spoken in Yong'an, Sanming in Western Fujian Province, China.

Shaxian dialect is a dialect of Central Min Chinese spoken in Sha County, Sanming in Western Fujian Province of China.

The Gutian dialect is a dialect of Eastern Min spoken in Gutian, Ningde in northeastern Fujian province, China.

The Ningde dialect is a dialect of Eastern Min Chinese spoken in urban areas of Ningde, China, which is a prefecture-level city in the northeastern coast of Fujian province.

The Xiapu dialect is a dialect of Eastern Min Chinese spoken in Xiapu, Ningde in northeastern Fujian province of China.

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The Matsu dialect is the local dialect of Matsu Islands, Taiwan. Native speakers also call it Bàng-huâ (平話), meaning the language spoken in everyday life. It is recognised as one of the statutory languages for public transport announcements in Lienchiang County, Taiwan.

Teochew Romanization, also known as Swatow Church Romanization, or locally as Pe̍h-ūe-jī, is an orthography similar to Pe̍h-ōe-jī used to write the Chaoshan language. It was introduced by John Campbell Gibson and William Duffus, two British missionaries, to Swatow in 1875.

References

↑ Mei, Tsu-lin (1970), "Tones and prosody in Middle Chinese and the origin of the rising tone", Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 30: 86–110, doi:10.2307/2718766, JSTOR 2718766
↑ Pulleyblank, Edwin G. (1984), Middle Chinese: A study in Historical Phonology, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, p. 3, ISBN 978-0-7748-0192-8
↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (2023-07-10). "Glottolog 4.8 - Min". Glottolog . Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.7398962 . Archived from the original on 2023-10-13. Retrieved 2023-10-13.
↑ Shantou Dialect entry in Glossika

Office of Chorography of Shantou City 汕头市地方志办公室 (1999). Shan tou shi zhi 汕头市志 ["Chorography of Shantou City"]. Vol. 72. Beijing: Xinhua chubanshe 新华出版社 ["Xinhua Publishing House"]. ISBN 9787501143870.

External links

Media related to Shantou dialect at Wikimedia Commons

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[minClassification-4] Min is believed to have split from Old Chinese, rather than Middle Chinese like other varieties of Chinese.^[1]^[2]^[3]

[1] Mei, Tsu-lin (1970), "Tones and prosody in Middle Chinese and the origin of the rising tone", Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 30: 86–110, doi:10.2307/2718766, JSTOR 2718766

[2] Pulleyblank, Edwin G. (1984), Middle Chinese: A study in Historical Phonology, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, p. 3, ISBN 978-0-7748-0192-8

[glottoMin-3] Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (2023-07-10). "Glottolog 4.8 - Min". Glottolog . Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.7398962 . Archived from the original on 2023-10-13. Retrieved 2023-10-13.

[5] Shantou Dialect entry in Glossika

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