Why are there so many dialects in China?

1 language

Dialect is a variant of language. Dialects can be divided into regional dialects and social dialects according to their nature. Regional dialect is a variant of language due to regional differences, a branch of national language in different regions, and a reflection of the unbalanced development of language in different regions. Social dialects are different social variants formed by social members in the same area due to social differences in occupation, class, age, gender and cultural upbringing.

The similarities and differences between regional dialects and social dialects can be investigated from the following aspects.

The similarities between the two are as follows: first, they are both the result of language differentiation and the embodiment of unbalanced language development; Second, there is no national characteristics. Social dialects are popular in a certain class and regional dialects are popular in a certain area. Of course, as far as the region is concerned, regional dialects have a certain nationality within a certain range. Third, they should be made of materials in the national language.

chinese dialects

In the development of Han society, there have been different degrees of differentiation and unification, which gradually led to the emergence of Chinese dialects.

There are various dialects in modern Chinese, which are widely distributed. The differences between modern Chinese dialects are manifested in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar, especially in pronunciation. But these dialects and homophones are not independent languages, because they have certain corresponding rules in pronunciation and have many similarities in vocabulary and grammar. According to the characteristics of dialects, the history of their formation and development, and the results of the current dialect survey, dialects of modern Chinese can be divided. At present, Chinese linguists have different opinions on the division of modern Chinese dialects. Most people think that there are seven dialects in modern Chinese:

Northern Dialect Northern Dialect is the basic dialect of modern Han nationality, represented by Beijing dialect, with strong internal consistency. It is the most widely distributed dialect in Chinese, and its users account for about 73% of the total population of Han nationality.

Northern dialects can be divided into four sub-dialects: (1) North China dialect and Northeast dialect, which are distributed in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang and parts of Inner Mongolia. (2) Northwest dialect, which is distributed in Shaanxi and Gansu provinces and parts of Qinghai, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia. The language used by the Han nationality in Xinjiang also belongs to the northwest dialect. (3) Southwest dialect, distributed in Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou and other provinces and most of Hubei (except Xianning in the southeast corner), northwestern Guangxi and northwestern Hunan. (4) Jianghuai dialect, distributed in Anhui Province, Jiangsu Province, north of the Yangtze River (except Xuzhou and Bengbu dialects belonging to North China and Northeast China), and along the south bank of the Yangtze River to the west of Zhenjiang and east of Jiujiang.

People who use this dialect account for about 70% of the population in China.

The obvious features of northern dialects include: most vowels of medieval consonants have been lost. "-p, -t, -k, -m, -n, -ng" is the only word in Middle Chinese. At the same time, compared with other dialects, northern dialects have fewer tones. This is because the northern dialect only has a flat voice to distinguish yin and yang. Therefore, the northern dialect contains a large number of homophones and corresponding compound words. This is rare in other dialects.

Wu dialect

It is used in southern Jiangsu, most of Zhejiang, Shanghai and parts of southern Anhui, and the number of users accounts for about 8.4% of the total population. Wu dialect is divided into Taihu dialect (northern Wu dialect, including southern Jiangsu, Shanghai and Zhejiang Huzhou, Jiaxing, Hangzhou, Shaoxing and Ningbo, represented by Shanghai dialect, Suzhou dialect or Shaoxing dialect), Taizhou dialect (Taizhou area of Zhejiang), Wuzhou dialect (Jinhua area of Zhejiang), Chuqu dialect (Quzhou and Lishui area of Zhejiang) and Oujiang dialect (Wenzhou area of Zhejiang). Among them, southwestern Anhui and western Zhejiang are influenced by Gan dialect, while southern Zhejiang retains many features of ancient Baiyue dialect, so that Taihu Wu dialect cannot be regarded as a typical Wu dialect. Its main features are:

There are three initial consonants: Guquanqing, Suqing and Quanzhuo, among which Quanzhuo initial consonants are generally pronounced as voiced, such as /t/, /th/ and /d/ in most places.

In most places, three nasal vowels are combined into one (usually -ng) and three entering vowels are also combined into one (-? )。

In diphthongs, many vowels are monosyllabic, and many nasal rhymes become nasalized vowels, even without nasalization.

There are two groups of tones, usually seven to eight, and only five in Shanghai.

Hakka dialect

It is widely used by Hakkas in southern China, mainly including eastern Guangdong, northern Guangdong, western Fujian, southwestern Jiangxi, southeastern Guangxi, Taiwan Province Province and Sichuan, with Meixian dialect as the representative. Although it is a southern dialect, Hakka dialect was formed under the influence of northern immigrants going south, so Hakka dialect retains some characteristics of medieval Zhongyuan dialect. Hakka dialect is not only used by Hakkas of Han nationality, but also widely used by She nationality. The population using Hakka dialect accounts for about 4% of the total population.

Fujian dialect

It is used in Fujian, Taiwan Province Province, Hainan, the Philippines and some countries in Southeast Asia. Due to great internal differences, Min dialect is usually divided into northern Fujian dialect, eastern Fujian dialect (represented by Fuzhou dialect), Puxian dialect, central Fujian dialect and southern Fujian dialect (represented by Xiamen dialect or Taiwan dialect). Min dialect is the only dialect in all dialects that does not completely correspond to the rhyme book of middle ancient Chinese. The most influential language family in Fujian is Minnan, with "-p, -t, -k,-"? , -n, -m and -ng "; It retains the characteristics of yin and yang in the tones of Middle Chinese. The population using Minnan dialect accounts for about 4.5% of the total population

Guangzhou people

Represented by Cantonese, it is mainly used in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao and overseas Chinese. Cantonese tones are very complicated, and Guangzhou dialect has nine tones. At the same time, it is also one of the dialects that retains the characteristics of Middle Chinese, including the endings of six consonants: P, T, K, M, N and ng. There is little difference within Cantonese. The population using Cantonese accounts for about 5% of the total population of Han nationality.

Hunan dialect

Used in Hunan. Usually divided into two categories: old and new. The new Xiang dialect is closer to the northern dialect. Hunan dialect is represented by Changsha dialect (new) and Loushao dialect (old), and its users account for about 5% of the total population. The new Xiang dialect spreads around with Changsha dialect as the center, which is characterized by dialect tongue sound and the disappearance of nasal sound, and there is no distinction between ch/q, h/f, sh/x and ong/eng. Including Changsha dialect, Yueyang dialect, Yiyang dialect, Zhuzhou dialect and Xiangtan dialect. Old Xiang dialect includes Hengyang dialect, Xiangxiang dialect and Shaoyang dialect. For example, Xiangxiang dialect is distributed in Xiangxiang, Shuangfeng, Loudi and Lianyuan, and the overall pronunciation is basically the same.

Gan dialect

Nanchang dialect, as the representative, is mainly used in most areas of Jiangxi and parts of Hunan near Jiangxi, such as Liuyang Pingjiang Chaling. The number of users is about 2.4%. There are mainly Nanchang dialect in the north, yingtan dialect in the east, Fuzhou dialect in the middle, Yichun dialect in the west and Ji 'an dialect in the southwest. Some other areas in Jiangxi are Hakka dialect, not Gan dialect.

Other dialects

Whether the following dialects constitute an independent large dialect area is still controversial.

Jin dialect: It is used in most parts of Shanxi, as well as in northwestern Shaanxi, western Hebei, northwestern Henan and Hetao, Inner Mongolia, with Taiyuan dialect as the representative. It is usually considered as a northern dialect.

Pinghua: It is used in some areas of Guangxi. It is generally considered to belong to Cantonese dialect.

Hui language: also known as Huizhou dialect, or considered to belong to Wu language.