The History and General Situation of Zigong Dialect

Zigong is an immigrant city, which is in the transitional zone between Mandarin and southern Chinese dialects. Zigong dialect in the true sense was gradually formed after the Qing Dynasty. Two thousand years of salt civilization shaped the city's mood for love, and hundreds of years of immigration "salt gathering" shaped the city's unique dialect. Therefore, Zigong dialect has formed a dialect island, which is obviously different from Chengdu-Chongqing dialect (Huguang dialect) and Minjiang dialect (Lu Nan dialect) in the surrounding areas.

The source of Zigong dialect is Yahua Nanjing dialect in Ming Dynasty more than 600 years ago, and it is also the homology of Shangjiang Mandarin and Xiajiang Mandarin. After Ming Xia, immigrants were organized to enter the basin. Because there are many immigrants in Zigong, they need to communicate, so the homophonic Jinling Yayan of the Han nationality at that time was used as the basis of communication. With the development of history, the entering tone, the pronunciations on the tip of the tongue and the sharp group sounds in Chengdu-Chongqing area have all disappeared, forming a unique Chengdu-Chongqing dialect. There are many Chinese dialects before Yuan Dynasty preserved in Minjiang area. Zigong retains the oldest Nanjing dialect, forming a dialect island surrounded by Chengdu-Chongqing dialect and Minjiang dialect.

Most of the residents who immigrated to Zigong in the early days used their local dialects. It has formed a language pattern in which Southwest Mandarin and Hakka are the main languages, while Aboriginal languages and other dialects coexist. Zigong dialect is one of the few dialects in the basin that can still distinguish the pre-pointed sound from the post-pointed sound (flat tongue sound). There are Hakka settlements in Zigong history, and Hakka dialects are widely distributed in Guangdong and Taiwan Province. The Jianghuai Mandarin brought by Xiajiang immigrants determines the regularity of the flat tones in Zigong dialect, so the flat tones in Zigong dialect are consistent with the old Nanjing dialect. At the same time, Zigong has developed salt industry since ancient times, so there have been many salt merchants from other provinces in Zigong. With the industrial production of well salt and the development of the city, Zigong has been accepting people from all directions with a peaceful and open mind, so the grandfathers of "Wang Sanwei Hall" came from Hubei, "Li Siyou Hall" came from Henan, "Hu Shenyi Hall" and "Li Taoshu Hall" came from Jiangxi and "Yan Guixin Hall" came from Guangdong. Driven by the huge profits of ancient salt industry, businessmen from Qian Shang and Fujian in Shaanxi also poured in. Over time, with the integration and exchange of various ethnic groups, a new generation of Zigong people has formed. In the modern sense, Zigong dialect is based on people, Nanjing dialect and Southwest Mandarin, and is formed by combining southern accent and northern accent.

Most people in Zigong are not native Sichuanese, and the immigrant culture has been integrated and sublimated in Zigong. The migration tide has made Zigong an era of dialect gathering, with southern and northern accents everywhere. Take addressing your father as an example. Some people are called "Dad", some are called "Dad", some are called "Grandpa", some are called "Da", some are called "Uncle", some are called "Dad", some are called "Old Man", and some even call "Old Bazi". This has formed a very interesting phenomenon: it can be said that Zigong is the place with the richest title of "father", which is very different from the surrounding areas in the basin and often confuses immigrants with different backgrounds. In addition to ethnic differences caused by immigrant origin, there are also great differences in words and sentences between cities and villages, and between intellectuals and ordinary citizens. The diversity of dialects is the best embodiment of Zigong's cultural diversity.

The formation of Zigong dialect has had a great influence on other dialects in Zigong. Take Hakka dialect as an example. According to an article by Liu Guangdi (one of the six gentlemen in the Reform Movement of 1898), who was born in Xianfeng for nine years (1859), he met Xie Youqiao, a scholar in Wuping, Fujian, when he was in his twenties. "You are happy to hear about his hometown (that is, Hakka dialect), and the effect is to give him what he wants." Because he "listened to his grandmother when he was a child, and then my family couldn't speak Wuping dialect." Liu Guangdi lives in Zhao Hua Town (now Fushun County, Zigong City), where there are many Hakkas from Fujian. He said that not many Hakkas can speak "Hakka" in his hometown since his grandmother. It can be seen that a century and a half ago, Zigong Hakka dialect was already facing a crisis. (See Liu Haisheng's article "Zigong Hakka")

Nowadays, Zigong dialect has become the main language in Zigong City (except for most areas in Rongxian County).

In addition to the urban area of Zigong, the places where Zigong dialect is used also include the whole territory of Fushun County and some towns and villages in the eastern part of Rong County under its jurisdiction. In linguistics, it is completely wrong to take artificial administrative divisions as the standard for dividing dialects. In fact, the dialects of Weiyuan county and other places adjacent to Zigong city are also completely consistent with Zigong dialect, and should also be counted as the category of Zigong dialect. Zigong dialect is not equal to Renfu sketches, because Neijiang dialect and Rongxian dialect, both of which belong to Renfu sketches, have different pronunciations compared with Zigong dialect.

There are about 3.5 million users of Zigong dialect.