What does the word "Purple Lady" mean in Chaoshan dialect?

Chaozhou dialect is the mother tongue of Chaoshan people and one of the remains of ancient Chinese in China. It can be traced back to the pre-Qin period before the Tang Dynasty, and it is also one of the oldest official languages in China. Chaozhou dialect retains many elements of ancient Chinese. The word "Chaozhou dialect" has existed since ancient times and has been widely recognized by chaozhou people at home and abroad.

Chaozhou dialect is distributed in Chaoshan area (Chaozhou, Jieyang, Shantou and Shanwei) on the eastern coast of Guangdong Province, Fengshun County of Meizhou City, [1] and chaozhou people, mainly in overseas Southeast Asia, Western Europe and Australia. [1] Chaozhou dialect has a population of more than 25 million at home and abroad.

According to relevant historical records, Chaozhou dialect originated in Qin and Han Dynasties, formed in Tang and Song Dynasties, and formed its own independent language system in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. Chaozhou dialect has its own dictionary, Chaozhou dialect dictionary and monographs in other local languages, such as Fifteen Tones of Chaozhou Dialect. A complete text reading system of Chaozhou dialect has been gradually integrated with modern Chinese.

Chaozhou dialect mainly comes from Putian dialect, an ancient Minnan dialect, and a small number of She and Miao dialects are slightly different from Zhangzhou dialect. There are similarities between ancient Putian dialect and Zhang Quan dialect, so Chaozhou dialect is very similar to Zhangzhou dialect. Because Chaozhou is adjacent to Zhangzhou, it is influenced by Zhangzhou dialect. Although a large number of Putian people immigrated to Hainan, Guangdong Province, a large number of Putian people still stayed in Putian, and the Putian dialect of Putian people who stayed in Putian continued to be influenced by Fuzhou dialect (Mindong dialect), which was somewhat different from Chaozhou dialect. Chaozhou has long been far away from Putian, Fujian, not adjacent to Fuzhou, but adjacent to Zhangzhou, which is easily influenced by Zhangzhou dialect and other dialects. However, Chaozhou dialect is a Min dialect based on Putian dialect and influenced by Zhangzhou dialect. Because Fuzhou is the provincial capital, there are many exchanges between Putian and the provincial capital, but Putian is not adjacent to Zhangzhou, so Putian dialect is more influenced by Fuzhou dialect than Quanzhou dialect and Fuzhou dialect, and Putian is 200 kilometers away from Zhangzhou, so it is difficult for Putian dialect to be influenced by Zhangzhou dialect.

Putian is the earliest and longest place where the contradiction between man and land occurred in Fujian. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, Putian was overpopulated and became a place of population export, and Putian began to export a large number of people. Some Putian people immigrated to other places hundreds of years after they immigrated to Quanzhou and Zhangzhou, and their Putian dialect has been assimilated into Quanzhou dialect or Zhangzhou dialect. Because a large part of Putian people immigrate to Quanzhou and Zhangzhou every year, ranging from a few hundred to thousands, and from 10,000 to more. Compared with Quanzhou and Zhangzhou, they are a minority, so they are easily assimilated by Quanzhou and Zhangzhou. Moreover, some Putian immigrants have been assimilated by Zhangzhou people in Quanzhou for hundreds to thousands of years. Judging from the ancient language phenomenon, Chaozhou dialect should be the language of ancient Xinghua (now Putian), just like Putian dialect today. Because of the existence of a large number of ancient sounds, many people think that Xinghua dialect is "easier said than written" and cannot be written. In fact, most of Xinghua dialect can be written in words, and most of the words have their origins.