What are the characteristics of Hakka dialect?

Hakka dialect is one of the seven major dialects in Chinese. Widely used in southern Chinese mainland, Taiwan Province, Hong Kong, Macao and overseas Chinese communities. Hakka dialect has a long history, but it was named Hakka dialect in the 19th century. Linguistically, the representative language of Hakka dialect is Meixian dialect in Guangdong, and in recent years, Sixian dialect in Taiwan Province and Huiyang dialect in Guangdong are also quite strong.

attribute and distribution

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

representative pronunciation of Hakka dialect: the typical and highly recognized standard Hakka dialect is Meixian dialect in Guangdong.

Interoperability among Hakka dialects: There are similarities and great differences in Hakka dialects. Including Meixian dialect, Huiyang dialect and Sixian dialect, 75% (in terms of population) of Hakka dialect can be used.

Other dialects of Hakka:

Due to the strong local characteristics of Hakka, there are counties such as Pingyuan, Tai Po, Jiaoling, Xingning, Wuhua and Fengshun around Meixian, and almost every county's Hakka has its own characteristics, which can be regarded as an independent dialect.

The segmentation of Hakka dialect is not unified in mainland China, Taiwan Province and overseas. According to the principle of "the name follows the owner", Hakka dialect is divided into administrative organizations, and the Hakka dialect of each administrative organization adopts the authoritative division method of its language department.

Hakka dialects in Taiwan Province are divided according to the dialects and native places of Hakka immigrants to Taiwan Province in the Qing Dynasty.

Four-County Dialect:

Immigrants from Meixian County, the capital of Jiaying Prefecture, Guangdong Province, and four nearby counties, such as Changle County, Xingning County, zhenping county County and Pingyuan County, are the most populous branch of Taiwan Province Hakka sub-dialect, and are also the standard used in public broadcasting occasions (such as stations). Meixian dialect is slightly different from Sixian dialect. It is distributed in Taoyuan County, Hsinchu County, Miaoli County and Liudui (located in Kaohsiung and Pingtung) in the south, with a slight difference in accent between the north and the south.

Sea-land accent:

Immigrants from Haifeng County and Lu Fengxian, Huizhou Prefecture, Guangdong Province, have the second largest Hakka population in Taiwan Province; Sixian dialect and Hailu dialect account for the vast majority of the Hakka population in Taiwan Province. The distribution areas are Xinwu Township, Guanyin Township and Hsinchu County in Taoyuan County. The tones of Hailu dialect are almost opposite to Sixian dialect and similar to Cantonese.

Tai Po accent:

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

Raoping dialect:

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 close to Tai Po cavity.

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 Minnan dialect. It is located in Lunbei Township, Xiluo Town, Yunlin County, Bade City, Daxi Town and Longtan Township, Taoyuan County. The tone values of Zhao 'an dialect are almost opposite to those of Minnan dialect in Zhangzhou dialect.

others: Yongding, Tingzhou and Fengshun.