The Historical Evolution of Fuzhou Dialect

Fuzhou dialect is one of the eight major dialects in Chinese, which was stereotyped in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties and occupies an important position in Fujian dialect.

Fuzhou dialect is the lingua franca of the old Fuzhou mansion in the lower reaches of Minjiang River, and the whole eastern Fujian region is designated as the representative dialect.

It is popular in five districts, two cities and six counties in Fuzhou today, and can be understood by two cities and five counties under Ningde today.

Some towns and villages in Taishun County, Pingyang County and Cangnan County, Zhejiang Province, outside the eastern Fujian dialect area, also have access to Fuzhou dialect.

As for northern Fujian, such as Youxi, Jian 'ou, Shaxian, Shunchang and Jiangle. Fuzhou dialect is the second dialect, and overseas Chinese who went out from the eastern Fujian dialect area spread Fuzhou dialect all over the world.

Fuzhou dialect has many sources.

Its bottom layer should be the language of the ancient Min and Yue nationalities.

Early immigrants before Wei and Jin Dynasties brought ancient Wu dialect and ancient Chu dialect, and ancient Chinese and middle Chinese also obviously remained in Fuzhou dialect. The neologisms in modern Mandarin have even entered Fuzhou dialect in large numbers, and even foreign languages such as Japanese and English have also entered Fuzhou dialect, and together * * * constitutes this dialect.

In the past 300 years, great changes have taken place in the vowels, phonetic changes and vocabulary of Fuzhou dialect.

But this change is extremely slow.

Because of this, Fuzhou dialect has its own characteristics.

In terms of phonology, there are often many pronunciations of words with the same phonology in Fuzhou dialect in ancient times, and these different pronunciations often reflect the phonetic characteristics of different times.

In terms of pronunciation, it is very common to have several pronunciations of a word in Fuzhou dialect, some of which belong to literal pronunciation, some of which are pronounced at different levels because of word formation in different times, and some of which are changed to distinguish the meaning.

From the perspective of language structure, due to the constraints of the phonetic system itself and vocabulary grammar, the pronunciation of Fuzhou dialect contains a series of phonetic changes, including tone sandhi, rhyme, tone sandhi and light tone.

This chapter collects some common words, proverbs, common sayings, two-part allegorical sayings and ballads in Fuzhou dialect. Readers please read carefully in Fuzhou dialect, and you will find the special charm in Fuzhou dialect full of fun.