Characteristics of Hakka dialect

Hakka is one of the seven major dialects of Chinese. It is widely used in southern mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao and overseas Chinese communities. Hakka has a long history, but it was only named Hakka in the 19th century. Linguistically, the representative Hakka language is Meixian dialect in Guangdong. In recent years, Taiwanese Si-xian dialect and Guangdong Huiyang dialect are also quite strong.

Attributes and Distribution

Hakka is the mother tongue of the Han ethnic group and one of the seven major dialects of Chinese. It is the second largest distribution area of ??the seven major Chinese dialects after Mandarin. dialect. At the same time, because the Hakka area in mainland China is administratively divided into eight provinces, Hakka is far less well-known in northern China than other Chinese dialects (such as Cantonese and Min).

Representative pronunciation of Hakka: The more typical and highly recognized standard Hakka is Meixian dialect in Guangdong.

Interoperability between Hakka dialects: There are similarities within Hakka dialects, but there are also huge differences. 75% (based on the population) of Hakka dialects including Meixian dialect, Huiyang dialect, Sixian dialect, etc. can be spoken.

Other dialects of Hakka:

Due to the strong local characteristics of Hakka, Meixian is surrounded by Pingyuan, Dabu, Jiaoling, Xingning, Wuhua and Fengshun Hakka in almost every county has its own characteristics and can be regarded as an independent dialect.

The fragmentation of Hakka is not uniform in mainland China, Taiwan, and overseas. According to the principle of "name follows the master", Hakka is divided according to administrative agencies, and the Hakka of each administrative agency adopts the authoritative classification method of its language department.

The classification of Hakka in Taiwan is based on the language and place of origin of the Hakka who immigrated to Taiwan during the Qing Dynasty.

Four County accent:

Immigrants from Mei County in Jiaying Prefecture of Guangdong Province and the four nearby counties of Changle County, Xingning County, Zhenping County and Pingyuan County are It is the most popular sub-dialect of Hakka in Taiwan and is also the standard used in public broadcasting places (such as stations). Meixian accent is slightly different from Sixian accent. It is distributed in Taoyuan County, Hsinchu County, Miaoli County and the southern Liudui area (located in Kaohsiung and Pingtung). The accents in the north and south are slightly different.

Hailu accent:

Immigrants from Haifeng County and Lufeng County, Huizhou Prefecture, Guangdong Province have the second largest number of Hakka speakers in Taiwan; the Sixian accent and the Hailu accent account for most of Taiwan's Hakka population The vast majority of the population speaks Hakka. The distribution areas are Xinwu Township, Guanyin Township, Taoyuan County and Hsinchu County. The tones of Hailu accent are almost opposite to those of Sixian accent and are similar to Cantonese.

Dabu accent:

Immigrants from Dabu County, Chaozhou Prefecture, Guangdong Province. The distribution areas are Dongshi Township, Shigang Township, and Xinshe Township in Taichung County.

Raoping accent:

Immigrants from Raoping County, Huilai County, Puning County, Jieyang County, Haiyang County and Chaoyang County in Chaozhou Prefecture, Guangdong Province. The distribution areas are mainly in Zhuolan Town of Miaoli County, Yuanlin Town of Changhua County, Yongjing Township, Tianwei Township and Hsinchu County. The system is closer to Tai Po accent.

Zhao'an accent:

Immigrants from Zhao'an County, Nanjing County, Pinghe County and Yunxiao County in Zhangzhou Prefecture, Fujian Province. It is greatly influenced by the Hokkien language. The distribution areas are located in Lunbei Township and Xiluo Town in Yunlin County and Bade City, Daxi Town and Longtan Township in Taoyuan County. The tones of Zhao'an accent are almost opposite to those of Zhangzhou accent and Hokkien.

Others: Yongding accent, Tingzhou accent, Fengshun accent