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 Teochew Min Swatow dialect
Early forms	Proto-Sino-Tibetan Old Chinese[a] Proto-Min
Writing system	Peng'im
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	shan1244
Linguasphere	79-AAA-jif
Swatow dialect

The Swatow dialect, also known as the Shantou dialect, is a variety of Chinese mostly spoken in Shantou in Guangdong, China. It is typically classified in the Teochew group of dialects^[3], and is regarded as the representative dialect of Teochew Min.^[4]

History

Although numerous Romanized materials labeled as "Swatow dialect" were produced from the nineteenth to the early twentieth century, their phonological systems actually reflected the dialect of the prefectural city of Chaochowfoo.^[5] The modern Swatow dialect did not take shape until the 1940s. As a modern emerging city, Swatow's residents were mainly immigrants from various parts of the Chaoshan region and their descendants. Between the establishment of Swatow as a city in 1921 and 1934, a large influx of immigrants increased the population from 60,000 to 193,000, with an average annual growth of 10,000. Thereafter, population growth slowed, and the various dialects began to merge, gradually developing into a stable phonological system. By around 1946, the present-day phonological system of the Swatow dialect had already taken shape and come to be regarded as the norm.^[6]

Phonology

Swatow dialect has 18 initials, 91 rimes, and 8 tones.^[7]

Initials

		Bilabial	Alveolar		Velar	Glottal
			plain	sibilant
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
	voiced		/l/ 羅	/z/ 入		/h/ 何

Rimes

Swatow dialect has at least the following rimes:

Nucleus		-a-			-ɛ̝-		-o̞-		-ɯ-	-i-	-u-	-ai-		-au-		-oi-	-ou-	-ui-	-iu-	∅-
Medial		∅-	i-	u-	∅-	u-	∅-	i-	∅-	∅-	∅-	∅-	u-	∅-	i-	∅-	∅-	∅-	∅-
Coda	-∅	a 亞	ia 呀	ua 娃	e 啞	ue 鍋	o 窩	io 腰	ɯ 余	i 衣	u 污	ai 哀	uai 歪	au 歐	iau 夭	oi 鞋	ou 烏	ui 威	iu 憂
	-◌̃	ã 噯	ĩã 營	ũã 鞍	ẽ 楹	ũẽ 橫		ĩõ 羊	ɯ̃ 秧	ĩ 丸		ãĩ 愛	ũãĩ 檨			õĩ 閑			ĩũ 幼
	-ʔ	aʔ 鴨	iaʔ 益	uaʔ 呴	eʔ 厄	ueʔ 襪	oʔ 學	ioʔ 約		iʔ 裂	uʔ 呴					oiʔ 狹
	-m	am 庵	iam 淹	uam 犯						im 音										m̩ 唔
	-ŋ	aŋ 按	iaŋ 央	uaŋ 汪	eŋ 英		oŋ 翁	ioŋ 雍	ɯŋ 恩	iŋ 因	uŋ 溫									ŋ̩ 䘼
	-p	ap 盒	iap 壓	uap 法						ip 邑
	-k	ak 惡	iak 躍	uak 獲	ek 液		ok 屋	iok 育		ik 乙	uk 熨

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)	˧˩ (31)	˥ (5)
Example Hanzi	詩	死	四	薛	時	是	示	蝕

Tone sandhi

Swatow 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	33
light level 55	31(22)[i]
dark rising 53	24
light rising 35	31
dark departing 213	55
light departing 31	31
dark entering 2	5
light entering 5	2

1. In the newer variety, the light level tone has the same sandhi as the light rising and departing tone. In the older variety, however, its sandhi is 22.

Notes

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

References

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
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.
4. Li, Xinkui (1994). guang dong de fang yan: 岭南文库. 广州: 广东人民出版社. p. 266-267. ISBN 9787218009605.
5. Xu, Yuhang (July 2013). "The Phonological System of the Chaozhou Dialect in the Nineteenth Century". Journal of Chinese Studies. 57: 223–244.
6. Shi, Qisheng (1988). "从口音的年龄差异看汕头音系及其形成". 中山大学学报. 3: 102–107.
7. Shi, Qisheng (1997). Shantouhua Yindang. 上海: 上海教育出版社. ISBN 7532053075.

• 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.

Further reading

• Fielde, Adele M. (1883). A pronouncing and defining dictionary of the Swatow dialect, arranged according to syllables and tones. Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press. Retrieved 2015-04-01.
• Fielde, Adele M. (1878). First Lessons in the Swatow Dialect. Swatow: Swatow Printing Office Company. Retrieved 2015-04-01.
• Lechler, Rudolf, Samuel Wells Williams, William Duffus (1883). English-Chinese Vocabulary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Swatow. Swatow: English Presbyterian Mission Press. Retrieved 2015-04-01.
• Hsiung-chʻêng, Lin (1886). A handbook of the Swatow vernacular. Singapore: Koh Yew Hean Press. Retrieved 2015-04-01.

External links

• Media related to Shantou dialect at Wikimedia Commons