Meixian dialect
Encyclopedia
Meixian dialect also known as Meizhou (梅州話) is the prestige dialect
of Hakka Chinese and the primary form of Hakka on Taiwan
. Ethnologue calls it Yue-Tai, and it also goes by the name Raoping.
* When the initials /ts/ ⟨z⟩, /tsʰ/ ⟨c⟩, /s/ ⟨s⟩, and /ŋ/ ⟨ng⟩ are followed by a palatal
medial /j/ ⟨i⟩, they become [tɕ] ⟨j⟩, [tɕʰ] ⟨q⟩, [ɕ] ⟨x⟩, and [ɲ] ⟨ng⟩, respectively.
Moreover, Hakka rime
s exhibits the final consonants found in Middle Chinese, namely [m, n, ŋ, p, t, k] which are romanised as m, n, ng, b, d, and g respectively in the official Moiyen romanisation.
fully voiced initial characters became aspirated voiceless initial characters in Hakka. Before that happened, the four Middle Chinese 'tones', ping, shang, qu, ru, underwent a voicing split in the case of ping and ru, giving the dialect six tones in traditional accounts.
These so called yin-yang tonal splittings developed mainly as a consequence of the type of initial a Chinese character had during the Middle Chinese
stage in the development of Chinese languages, with voiceless initial characters [p- t- k-] tending to become of the yin type, and the voiced initial characters [b- d- ɡ-] developing into the yang type. In modern Moiyen Hakka however, part of the Yin Ping tone characters have sonorant initials [m n ŋ l] originally from the Middle Chinese Shang tone characters and fully voiced Middle Chinese Qu tone characters, so the voiced/voiceless distinction should be taken only as a rule of thumb.
Hakka tone contours differs more as one moves away from Moiyen. For example the Yin Ping contour is ˧ (33) in Changting
(長汀) and ˨˦ (24) in Sixian (四縣), Taiwan
.
Entering tone
Hakka preserves all of the entering tones of Middle Chinese and it is split into two registers. Meixian has the following:
Middle Chinese entering tone syllables ending in [k] whose vowel clusters have become front high vowels like [i] and [ɛ] shifts to syllables with [t] finals in modern Hakka as seen in the following table.
when the following character has a lower pitch. The pitch of the yin ping tone changes from ˦ (44) to ˧˥ (35) when sandhi occurs. Similarly, the qu tone changes from ˥˧ (53) to ˦ (55) under sandhi. These are shown in red in the following table.
The neutral tone occurs in some postfixes. It has a mid pitch.
Prestige dialect
In sociolinguistics, prestige describes the level of respect accorded to a language or dialect as compared to that of other languages or dialects in a speech community. The concept of prestige in sociolinguistics is closely related to that of prestige or class within a society...
of Hakka Chinese and the primary form of Hakka on Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
. Ethnologue calls it Yue-Tai, and it also goes by the name Raoping.
Initials
There are two series of stops and affricates in Hakka, both voiceless: tenuis /p t ts k/ and aspirated /pʰ tʰ tsʰ kʰ/.| Labial Labial consonant Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals... |
Dental | Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
/m/ ⟨m⟩ | /n/ ⟨n⟩ | [ɲ] ⟨ng(i)⟩ ~ /ŋ/ ⟨ng⟩* | |||
| Plosive | plain Tenuis consonant In linguistics, a tenuis consonant is a stop or affricate which is unvoiced, unaspirated, and unglottalized. That is, it has a "plain" phonation like , with a voice onset time close to zero, as in Spanish p, t, ch, k, or as in English p, t, k after s .In transcription, tenuis consonants are not... |
/p/ ⟨b⟩ | /t/ ⟨d⟩ | /k/ ⟨g⟩ | (ʔ) | |
| aspirated Aspiration (phonetics) In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ... |
/pʰ/ ⟨p⟩ | /tʰ/ ⟨t⟩ | /kʰ/ ⟨k⟩ | |||
| Affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :... |
plain | /ts/ ⟨z⟩ ~ [tɕ] ⟨j(i)⟩* | ||||
| aspirated | /tsʰ/ ⟨c⟩ ~ [tɕʰ] ⟨q(i)⟩* | |||||
| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
/f/ ⟨f⟩ | /s/ ~ [ɕ] ⟨x(i)⟩* | /h/ ⟨h⟩ | |||
| Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
/ʋ/ ⟨v⟩ | /l/ ⟨l⟩ | /j/ ⟨y⟩ | |||
Palatal approximant
The palatal approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is '...
medial /j/ ⟨i⟩, they become [tɕ] ⟨j⟩, [tɕʰ] ⟨q⟩, [ɕ] ⟨x⟩, and [ɲ] ⟨ng⟩, respectively.
Rimes
Moiyen Hakka has seven vowels, [i ɨ ɛ a ə ɔ u], that are romanised as i, ê, a, e, o and u, respectively. The palatisation medial ([j]) is represented by i and the labialisation medial ([w]) is represented as u.Moreover, Hakka rime
Syllable rime
In the study of phonology in linguistics, the rime or rhyme of a syllable consists of a nucleus and an optional coda. It is the part of the syllable used in poetic rhyme, and the part that is lengthened or stressed when a person elongates or stresses a word in speech.The rime is usually the...
s exhibits the final consonants found in Middle Chinese, namely [m, n, ŋ, p, t, k] which are romanised as m, n, ng, b, d, and g respectively in the official Moiyen romanisation.
| vowel | medial + vowel | -i | -u | -m | -n | -ŋ | -p | -t | -k | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Syllabics | m | ŋ | ||||||||
| a | ai | au | am | an | aŋ | ap | at | ak | ||
| ia | iai | iau | iam | ian | iaŋ | iap | iat | iak | ||
| ua | uai | uan | uaŋ | uat | uak | |||||
| ɛ | ɛu | ɛm | ɛn | ɛp | ɛt | |||||
| iɛ | iɛn | iɛt | ||||||||
| uɛ | uɛn | uɛt | ||||||||
| i | iu | im | in | ip | it | |||||
| ɔ | ɔi | ɔn | ɔŋ | ɔt | ɔk | |||||
| iɔ | iɔn | iɔŋ | iɔk | |||||||
| uɔ | uɔn | uɔŋ | uɔk | |||||||
| u | ui | un | uŋ | ut | uk | |||||
| iui | iun | iuŋ | iut | iuk | ||||||
| ɨ | əm | ən | əp | ət |
Tone
Moiyen has four tones, which are reduced to two before a final stop consonant. The Middle ChineseMiddle Chinese
Middle Chinese , also called Ancient Chinese by the linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese language spoken during Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties...
fully voiced initial characters became aspirated voiceless initial characters in Hakka. Before that happened, the four Middle Chinese 'tones', ping, shang, qu, ru, underwent a voicing split in the case of ping and ru, giving the dialect six tones in traditional accounts.
| Tone number | Tone name Tone name In the Chinese and Vietnamese languages, tone names are the names given to the tones these languages use.*In Chinese, tone names are given in terms of the four tones, namely level , rising , departing , and entering , as well as dark and light , and high and low .* Standard Vietnamese has six... |
Hanzi | Tone letter Tone letter Tone letters are letters that represent the tones of a language, most commonly in languages with contour tones.-Chao tone letters :A series of iconic tone letters based on a musical staff was invented by Yuen Ren Chao and adopted into the International Phonetic Alphabet.Combinations of these tone... s |
number | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | yin ping | 陰平 | ˦ | 44 | high |
| 2 | yang ping | 陽平 | ˩ | 11 | low |
| 3 | shang | 上 | ˧˩ | 31 | low falling |
| 4 | qu | 去 | ˥˧ | 53 | high falling |
| 5 | yin ru | 陰入 | ˩ʔ | 1 | low checked |
| 6 | yang ru | 陽入 | ˥ʔ | 5 | high checked |
These so called yin-yang tonal splittings developed mainly as a consequence of the type of initial a Chinese character had during the Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese , also called Ancient Chinese by the linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese language spoken during Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties...
stage in the development of Chinese languages, with voiceless initial characters [p- t- k-] tending to become of the yin type, and the voiced initial characters [b- d- ɡ-] developing into the yang type. In modern Moiyen Hakka however, part of the Yin Ping tone characters have sonorant initials [m n ŋ l] originally from the Middle Chinese Shang tone characters and fully voiced Middle Chinese Qu tone characters, so the voiced/voiceless distinction should be taken only as a rule of thumb.
Hakka tone contours differs more as one moves away from Moiyen. For example the Yin Ping contour is ˧ (33) in Changting
Changting
Changting may refer to the following locations in China:*Changting County , of Longyan, Fujian**Changting Prefecture , a territorial unit in the first half of the 20th century*Changting, Hailin , town in Heilongjiang...
(長汀) and ˨˦ (24) in Sixian (四縣), Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
.
Entering tone
Hakka preserves all of the entering tones of Middle Chinese and it is split into two registers. Meixian has the following:
- 陰入 [ ˩ ] a low pitched checked tone
- 陽入 [ ˥ ] a high pitched checked tone
Middle Chinese entering tone syllables ending in [k] whose vowel clusters have become front high vowels like [i] and [ɛ] shifts to syllables with [t] finals in modern Hakka as seen in the following table.
| Character | Guangyun Guangyun The Guangyun is a Chinese rime dictionary that was compiled from 1007 to 1008 under the auspices of Emperor Zhenzong of Song. Chen Pengnian and Qiu Yong were the chief editors.... Fanqie Fanqiè In Chinese phonology, fanqie is a method to indicate the pronunciation of a character by using two other characters.-The Origin:... |
Middle Chinese Middle Chinese Middle Chinese , also called Ancient Chinese by the linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese language spoken during Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties... reconstruction |
Hakka | Main meaning in English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 職 | 之翼切 | tɕĭək | tsit˩ | vocation, profession |
| 力 | 林直切 | lĭək | lit˥ | strength, power |
| 食 | 乗力切 | dʑʰĭək | sit˥ | eat, consume |
| 色 | 所力切 | ʃĭək | sɛt˩ | colour, hue |
| 德 | 多則切 | tək | tɛt˩ | virtue |
| 刻 | 苦得切 | kʰək | kʰɛt˩ | carve, engrave, a moment |
| 北 | 博墨切 | pək | pɛt˩ | north |
| 國 | 古或切 | kuək | kʷɛt˩ | country, state |
Tone sandhi
For Moiyen Hakka, the yin ping and qu tone characters exhibit sandhiSandhi
Sandhi is a cover term for a wide variety of phonological processes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries . Examples include the fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of sounds due to neighboring sounds or due to the grammatical function of adjacent words...
when the following character has a lower pitch. The pitch of the yin ping tone changes from ˦ (44) to ˧˥ (35) when sandhi occurs. Similarly, the qu tone changes from ˥˧ (53) to ˦ (55) under sandhi. These are shown in red in the following table.
| + ˦ Yin Ping | + ˩ Yang Ping | + ˧˩ Shang | + ˥˧ Qu | + ˩ʔ Yin Ru | + ˥ʔ YangRu | + Neutral | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ˦ Yin Ping + | ˦.˦ | ˧˥.˩ | ˧˥.˧˩ | ˧˥.˥˧ | ˧˥.˩ʔ | ˦.˥ʔ | ˧˥.˧ |
| ˥˧ Qu + | ˥˧.˦ | ˥.˩ | ˥.˧˩ | ˥.˥˧ | ˥.˩ʔ | ˥˧.˥ʔ | ˥.˧ |
The neutral tone occurs in some postfixes. It has a mid pitch.