What are the languages of different places divided according to?

The division of Chinese dialects has always been controversial among linguists in China. Some people divide Chinese into seven dialects, some into five dialects, some into six dialects, eight dialects and even nine dialects. However, everyone agrees that no matter which division method is adopted, users of these "big dialects" sometimes can't understand each other. In different dialect areas, people's language awareness is also different.

However, western scholars believe that from a linguistic point of view, everything that can't talk to each other should be classified into different languages. So they don't recognize the division of Chinese dialects by China scholars. At least Cantonese, Minnan dialect, Hakka dialect and Putonghua based on Northern Mandarin cannot communicate with each other and should be classified as different languages.

Chinese dialects can also be divided into many sub-dialects, and sub-dialects can be subdivided into several dialects.

Some major dialects

Official terminology

Mandarin, or Mandarin dialect, refers to the mother tongue dialect used in North China, Northeast China, Northwest China, most of Hubei, Sichuan, Chongqing, Yunnan, Guizhou, northern Hunan, Jiangxi along the Yangtze River, north-central Anhui and north-central Jiangsu. Putonghua can be roughly divided into Northeast-Beijing Mandarin, Northern Mandarin, Central Plains Mandarin, Lanyin Mandarin, Southwest Mandarin and Jianghuai Mandarin. Northeast and North Mandarin are distributed in the eastern part of the north, represented by Beijing Mandarin, while Central Plains Mandarin is distributed in Guanzhong and Central Plains, represented by Xi 'an Mandarin and Zhengzhou Mandarin. The foreign Donggan Mandarin is actually a kind of Central Plains Mandarin. Lanyin Mandarin is distributed in the northwest, represented by Lanzhou dialect, southwest Mandarin is distributed in the south and west, represented by Chengdu dialect, and Jianghuai Mandarin is distributed in the south and east, represented by Yangzhou dialect. The elegant sounds of the Central Plains in ancient Chinese gradually evolved into middle ancient Chinese during the Sui and Tang Dynasties after the Five Rebellions and Guan Yi's southward crossing. After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Mandarin dialects came into being, and at the same time, they were more and more different from other dialects in the south. With the development of history, Mandarin dialects are also divided into southern Mandarin and northern Mandarin. Northeast-Beijing Mandarin is the basis of modern standard Chinese today (Chinese mainland is called Mandarin, Taiwan Province Province is called Mandarin, and Singapore and Malaysia are called Mandarin). The native speakers of Putonghua dialect account for about 70% of the total population in China.

The obvious features of Putonghua include: most vowels of medieval consonants have been lost. There are only "-p, -t, -k, -m, -n, -ng" left in Middle Chinese. Most Putonghua dialects have no entering tone. At the same time, compared with other dialects, Mandarin has fewer tones. This is because most Putonghua dialects only have a flat voice to distinguish between yin and yang. Therefore, Mandarin contains a large number of homophones and corresponding compound words. This is rare in other dialects.

Wu dialect

Wu dialect, or Wu dialect, Jiangnan dialect and Jiangsu and Zhejiang dialect, is mainly used in southern Jiangsu, most of Zhejiang, the whole city of Shanghai and parts of southern Anhui. It is also distributed in Hongkong, Taiwan Province Province and parts of Australia, and the number of users accounts for about 8.4% of the total population of China. Wu dialect is divided into Taihu Lake (generally called northern Wu dialect, which is distributed in southern Jiangsu Province except Nanjing and Zhenjiang, and Haimen, Qidong and Tongzhou in central Jiangsu Province except Nantong, Taizhou, Shanghai, Huzhou, Jingjiang, Jiaxing, Hangzhou, Shaoxing and Ningbo in Zhejiang Province, represented by Suzhou dialect or Shanghai dialect) and southern Wu dialect is divided into Taizhou dialect and Wuzhou dialect (Jinhua, Zhejiang Province). Among them, southern Zhejiang Wu dialect retains more ancient words. The main phonetic features of Wu dialect 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 ancient nasal vowels are combined into one (usually -ng) and three entering vowels are also combined into one (-? 0? 3)。

Pronunciation is mostly monosyllabic, and many nasal rhymes become nasal vowels, or even no nasal sounds.

Tones can be divided into yin and yang according to their clarity. Generally, there are seven to eight tones, and the number of tones varies from four tones (Cixi), five tones (Shanghai) to eleven tones (Wujiang).

There is a relatively developed tone sandhi system, and lexical units in sentences appear as independent tone sandhi groups.

There are rich literary and colloquial readings, which are second only to Min dialect in Chinese dialects.

Hakka

Hakka dialect, or Hakka dialect, Hakka dialect and Hakka dialect, is widely used in southern China, mainly including eastern Guangdong, northern Guangdong, western Fujian, southwestern and northwestern Jiangxi, southeastern Guangxi, Taiwan Province Province and Sichuan, with Meixian dialect as the representative. As the current southern dialect, Hakka dialect was formed in the Tang and Song Dynasties under the influence of northern immigrants going south, so Hakka dialect retains more medieval characteristics. The entering rhyme in Hakka dialects in different places also retains the stop and nasal rhyme in medieval Chinese to varying degrees. Hakka dialect is not only used by Han people, but also widely used by She people in Fujian and Zhejiang. Hakka dialect is also one of the most widely used Chinese dialects in overseas Chinese communities. The population using Hakka dialect accounts for about 5% of the total population in China.

Fujian dialect

Fujian dialect is spoken in Fujian, Taiwan Province Province, eastern and southwestern Guangdong, Hainan, southeastern Guangxi, southeastern Zhejiang and some countries in Southeast Asia. Due to great internal differences, Fujian dialects are 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; Chaoshan dialect, Leizhou dialect and Hainan dialect belong to Minnan 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 dialect in Min dialect is Minnan dialect, with "-p, -t, -k,-? 0? Three, -n, -m, -ng "ends with seven consonants. The main phonetic features of Min dialect include: the initial consonants of ancient voiced sounds are often pronounced in unvoiced tones; The initial "Zhi" group reads the same as the "Duan" group; Some "box" vowels are pronounced with "group" vowels; There is no difference between lips (no initials such as f- and v-); Tone sandhi is relatively developed, and there are other tone sandhi phenomena in some areas; Literary reading is very rich, and there are systematic differences between literary reading and white reading. In different periods in history, Min dialect has repeatedly overlapped with ancient Chinese phonology. Among them, Minnan dialect is considered by academic circles to be the modern Chinese dialect closest to ancient Chinese. The population using Minnan dialect accounts for about 4.5% of the total population in China.

Guangzhou people

Cantonese, or Cantonese dialect, Cantonese, vernacular and Guangfu dialect, represented by Guangzhou dialect, is mainly used in major Chinese communities such as central and western Guangdong Province, southwestern Guangxi, Hong Kong and Macao, Southeast Asia and North America. The tone of Cantonese is very complicated. There are nine tones in Guangzhou dialect, and the first six are commonly used. Only when the stops are [-p], [-t] and [-k] will the seventh, eighth and ninth tones be used, and these three tones must also have these three entering vowels. At the same time, it is also one of the dialects with relatively complete features in Middle Chinese, including [-p], [-t], [-k], [-m], [-n] and [-ng]. Compared with the rhyme books of Middle Chinese in Sui and Tang Dynasties, its phonological system is the most consistent. Contrary to many people's common misconceptions, Cantonese is quite different, but there is only a slight difference between Guangzhou dialect and Hong Kong dialect, mainly the mutual conversion of initials L and N. A major branch of Cantonese is the dialect used in Wuyi area (Xinhui, Taishan, Kaiping, Enping and Heshan). People who only know Guangzhou dialect can generally understand only half of Wuyi dialect. In addition, the biggest difference between Cantonese and other Cantonese sub-dialects is "Goulou Cantonese" in southeast Guangxi, which has ten tones and [? 0? 9]、[? 0? 3] With two voiced initials, it is difficult to communicate with other Cantonese dialects. The population whose mother tongue is Cantonese accounts for about 5% of the total population in China.

hunanese

Xiang dialect, or Xiang dialect, Hunan dialect and Laohuguang dialect, is mainly used in Hunan, but also distributed in Guangxi and Sichuan. It is usually divided into old Xiang dialect and new Xiang dialect, and new Xiang dialect is closer to southwest mandarin. Hunan dialect is represented by Changsha (New) and Shuangfeng (Old), and its users account for about 5% of the total population in China. The new Xiang dialect is centered on Changsha dialect and spreads around. The phonetic features of Xiang dialect are as follows: the ancient voiced initials are not aspirated and unvoiced, there is no difference between flat tongue and nasal sound, and there is no difference between n-/l-, hu-/f-, ch-/q- and ong/eng. Changsha dialect, Yueyang dialect, Yiyang dialect, Zhuzhou dialect and Xiangtan dialect all belong to the new Hunan dialect. Old Xiang dialect includes Hengyang dialect, Xiangxiang dialect and Shaoyang dialect, among which Xiangxiang dialect is distributed in Xiangxiang, Shuangfeng, Loudi and Lianyuan, and its pronunciation is basically the same.

Gan dialect

Gan dialect, represented by Nanchang dialect, is mainly used in north-central Jiangxi, western and southern Anhui, southeastern Hubei, long and narrow areas near Jiangxi in eastern Hunan (such as Liuyang, Pingjiang and Chaling) and parts of western Hunan. The number of users accounts for about 2.4% of the total population of China. Gan dialect mainly includes 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. Other dialects in Jiangxi include Hakka, Mandarin, Wu, Hui and so on. , does not belong to Gan dialect. Most of the ancient voiced initials in Gan dialect are aspirated and unvoiced, which is similar to Hakka dialect. Some scholars believe that Hakka dialect and Gan dialect should be collectively referred to as "Gan Hakka dialect".

Other dialects

Other major dialect areas (controversial)

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

Jin dialect: It is used in most areas of Shanxi, northwestern Shaanxi, western and southern Hebei, northern Henan and central and western Inner Mongolia, with Taiyuan dialect as the representative. Its white reading system is completely different from typical Mandarin. Before and now, many scholars classified it as Mandarin.

Pinghua: It is used in some areas of Guangxi. In the past and now, scholars have attributed their southern dialect (Guinanping dialect) to Cantonese, while the northern dialect (Guibeiping dialect) exists as an isolated dialect.

Hui language: used in southern Anhui and some adjacent areas of Jiangxi and Zhejiang. Scholars have advocated that it should be attributed to Wu dialect or Gan dialect before and now.

China dialect has not been returned.

Waxiang dialect (part of northwest Hunan)

Dialect in southern Hunan

Northern Guangdong dialect

Danzhou dialect (also known as Lingao dialect in some parts of Hainan)

Military dialect