Classification of Chinese Dialects in China

Classification of modern Chinese dialects

The following two methods of dialect classification in modern Chinese are common.

A Classification Method of Chinese Dialects

Chinese dialects can now be divided into seven regions, and their distribution is roughly as follows:

1. Northern dialects include four sub-dialects: (1) North China and Northeast China dialects, which are distributed in parts of Beijing, Tianjin, Henan, Hebei, Shandong, Northeast China and Inner Mongolia. (2) Northwest dialects, which are distributed in areas where the Han people live in concentrated communities in northwest provinces, including Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia and Xinjiang. Three provinces in Guizhou and most parts of Hubei, as well as a small area in the northwest corner of Guangxi and Hunan. (4) Jianghuai dialect is distributed in the north of the Yangtze River and the south of Huaihe River in Anhui and Jiangsu provinces (Xuzhou and Bengbu belong to North China and Northeast China dialects, not included). In addition, the areas along the Yangtze River west of Zhenjiang and east of Jiujiang (such as Nanjing and Zhenjiang) also belong to Jianghuai dialect.

Northern dialect, represented by Beijing dialect, is the basic dialect of Putonghua, which is the most widely distributed among Chinese dialects and has the largest population, accounting for about 73% of the total population of Han nationality.

2. The distribution of Wu dialect includes some areas south of the Yangtze River and east of Zhenjiang (excluding Zhenjiang) and most areas of Zhejiang Province, also known as Jiangsu and Zhejiang dialects. As a representative of Suzhou dialect or Shanghai dialect, Wu dialect has a population of more than 80 million, accounting for 7.2% of the Han population, and is the second largest dialect after the northern dialect in terms of population.

3. Hunan dialect is distributed in most areas of Hunan Province (except the northwest corner), represented by Changsha dialect, with a population of more than 46 million, accounting for 3.2% of the Han population. Because Hunan dialect is surrounded by Gan dialect, Southwest dialect and Hakka dialect, there are great internal differences, and some areas are closer to Gan dialect and Southwest dialect.

4. Gan dialect is mainly distributed in most areas of Jiangxi province, and a small part of southeastern Hubei also belongs to Gan dialect area. Historically, people in the Central Plains of the Yellow River Basin have moved south several times on a large scale because of the war. Jiangxi is the only way to the south, which has a great influence on the formation of Gan dialect. Coupled with the long-term acceptance of surrounding dialects, the characteristics of Gan dialect are not very prominent.

Gan dialect, represented by Nanchang dialect, has a population of more than 20 million, accounting for about 3.3% of the Han population.

5. Hakka dialects are mainly distributed in the marginal areas of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi provinces, namely, northeast Guangdong, west and north Fujian and south Jiangxi. In addition, there are small areas of Hakka dialect in Sichuan, Hunan and Taiwan Province provinces. Hakkas were originally residents of the Central Plains. Due to reasons such as avoiding war, there have been several major migrations in history, mainly settled in the marginal areas of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi provinces, and some settled in the Central Plains.

Hakka dialect is represented by Meixian dialect in eastern Guangdong. The number of people who use Hakka dialect is 37 million more than that of Gan dialect, accounting for about 3.6% of the Han population.

6. Min dialect is mainly distributed in Fujian Province, Chaoshan area of Guangdong Province, most parts of Hainan Province and parts of southern Zhejiang Province.

Min dialect is a big dialect with the biggest internal differences and the most complicated phonetic phenomena among Chinese dialects. Generally, it is divided into two branches: Minnan dialect and northern Fujian dialect. According to the research in recent years, it should be subdivided into at least three sub-dialects: 1) Minnan dialect, represented by Xiamen dialect, including Xiamen, Zhangzhou, Quanzhou, Jinjiang and Longxi in southern Fujian; Longyan and other areas, as well as the Chaoshan area in eastern Guangdong, most of Hainan Island and some counties in southern Zhejiang. In addition, most Han people in Taiwan Province Province also speak Minnan. (2) Mindong dialect, represented by Fuzhou dialect, includes the lower reaches of Minjiang River with Fuzhou as the center and mountainous counties with Fu 'an as the center. (3) Northern Fujian dialect, represented by Jian 'ou dialect, is distributed in Jian 'ou, Jian 'an and Jianyang in northern Fujian mountainous areas. Songxi and Pucheng counties. In addition to the above areas, millions of overseas Chinese scattered in Nanyang Islands also use Min dialect as their mother tongue. There are more than 40 million people who use Min dialect, accounting for 5.7% of the Han population.

7. Guangzhou dialect, also known as Cantonese, is represented by Guangzhou dialect, which is distributed in central and southwestern Guangdong Province, southeastern Guangxi Province and Hong Kong and Macao. Millions of overseas Chinese also speak Cantonese as their mother tongue. The number of people who use Cantonese exceeds 50 million, accounting for about 4% of the Han population.

As far as the difference from Putonghua is concerned, among the above major dialects, Fujian-Guangdong dialect is the farthest from Putonghua, followed by Wu dialect, and Hunan, Jiangxi and Hakka dialects are relatively small.

Classification method of Chinese dialects II

First, the largest dialect in China is Mandarin, which accounts for 70% of the national population. It is represented by Beijing dialect and is divided into four parts.

1, North China Mandarin: Beijing, Northeast China, Shandong and Henan are part of it, or northern dialects. Others divide Northeast dialect into a sub-dialect area.

Beijing has been a place where nomadic people and Han people live together since ancient times. An Lushan, the general of the Tang Dynasty, set out from Beijing and was ceded to the Khitans after five dynasties. During the Liao, Jin and Yuan Dynasties, Beijing dialect was mixed with the languages of nomadic people such as Chinese, Manchu and Mongolian, and changed rapidly. Influenced by southern Chinese in Ming Dynasty, it was relatively stable. After the Qing army entered the customs, the initial consonant "suspected ng, slightly V" disappeared, and the entering tone disappeared. It is the most different dialect from ancient Chinese. The Yongzheng dynasty of the Qing Dynasty began to spread to the whole country, which was called Mandarin. As the authoritative dialect of our multi-ethnic country, it has its rationality. But as some netizens said, authority is also a dialect, and the northern dialect is not a more advanced language than other dialects. Other dialects also have cultural functions that Mandarin cannot replace. Mandarin is not a perfect language, so that's why Zhao Yuanren tried his best to design something to incorporate into phonetic Mandarin.

Its linguistic features are: the biggest feature is that it does not retain the tone; There are other voiced sounds, which are divided into voiced sounds and nasal sounds, but there is no labial nasal sound "m" (mixed with nasal sounds), so the pronunciation cannot be deduced from the phonological book of ancient Chinese, which is very different from the phonological system of southern Chinese.

2. Northwest Mandarin: It is distributed in the northwest.

3. Southwest Mandarin: distributed in the southwest. Its linguistic feature is that there is little difference between flat tongue and nasal sound. Originally, there were initials "suspected ng", and there were even "N, L", "F, H", "Z, C, S" and "J, Q, X" in the southern region.

4. Jianghuai Mandarin: It is distributed in Yangzhou, Nanjing, Yancheng and Zhenjiang. Yangzhou city was massacred and looted no less than seven times in history. In modern times, it was mostly done by Manchu and Mongolian troops, which is generally the case in other Jianghuai dialect areas. So this area used to be a Wu dialect area, but now the language has changed and it has become a Jianghuai sub-dialect area. Jianghuai sub-dialect was once the official language of the Ming Dynasty.

Its linguistic feature is that "n, l" is difficult to distinguish, and entering tone, flat tongue and nasal sound are not necessarily difficult to distinguish.

Secondly, Wu dialect, or Jiangnan dialect, is the second largest dialect in China, which is distributed in southern Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai.

Wuyue area has always been the introduction place of nobles in the Northern Han Dynasty and literati from all over the country. There were two large-scale northern migration waves in the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty. In addition, Fan Zhongyan, Wang Anshi, Wang Xizhi, Su Dongpo, Bai Juyi and other cultural celebrities have lived here for a long time or settled in their later years. The Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Southern Dynasties and the Southern Song Dynasty were the official languages of the Southern Han regime (Nanjing was also a Wu dialect area in history). In the past thousand years, the culture of Wu and Yue has developed, and both Kunqu and Tanci are based on Wu dialect. Therefore, its phonetic features retain those of ancient Chinese, and it has made the greatest contribution to China literature. However, after liberation, Wu dialect was restricted by policies, and its cultural discrimination was greater than that of Min-Yue dialect, and the proportion of its users declined rapidly, so it is possible that the number of users will soon fall behind that of Min-Yue dialect.

Its linguistic feature is that it retains all voiced sounds and entering sounds, regardless of flat tongue and nasal sounds. Phonetics can be derived from phonological books of ancient Chinese.

Thirdly, Cantonese, or Cantonese, the third largest dialect of Chinese, was originally distributed in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. After liberation, the government attached great importance to it. In addition, Hong Kong was not under the control of the central government at that time, so it was well preserved and its population was steadily increasing. There are also differences in Cantonese and the history of Dongguan dialect. But now it is mainly in Guangzhou dialect, which is also being promoted in the province.

Its language feature is full-voiced unvoiced sound, but the general yang tone is not mixed with unvoiced sound; Keep three kinds of "P, T, K" for entering tone and three kinds of "M, N, ng" for nasal tone. The initials "n, l", "f, h" and "z, c, s" are indistinguishable from "j, q, x". Can infer pronunciation from ancient Chinese phonological books.

Fourthly, the population of Fujian dialect is similar to that of Cantonese, which is divided into two parts: north and south, and some of them are divided into two major dialect areas. The northern part of Min dialect is mainly in Fuzhou, while the southern part of Min dialect is widely distributed, including Xiamen, Chaozhou, Taiwan Province and Hainan, and is also widely used by expatriates in Southeast Asia. And the internal differences are also the biggest.

Its language features are: full-voiced unvoiced sound, and yang tone is not mixed with unvoiced sound; Part of the sub-voiced sounds become three voiced initials of "[b][g][dz]"; Have "p, t, k,?" There are four kinds of promoting sounds, and nasal sounds have four endings of "m, n, ng and nasal sounds". The initials "f, h" are hard to distinguish. Can infer pronunciation from ancient Chinese phonological books.

Hunan dialect is distributed in Hunan, and the original old Xiang dialect also has full voiced sound, which is basically clear after popularization. Retain the entering tone, regardless of the nasal sound before and after, without warping, and the initials "n, l" or even "f, h"

Sixthly, Gan dialect is distributed in Jiangxi Province, with pure voiced sound, but it belongs to Yang sound, and it is not mixed with unvoiced sound. Keep your tone, regardless of nasal sounds. The initials "n, l" are sometimes difficult to distinguish.

Hakka dialect is the language of the descendants of early northern immigrants, with more characteristics of northern dialects before Tang Dynasty. Originally, unvoiced sounds were unvoiced, but all of them were converted into unvoiced sounds, and Yang tones were not mixed with unvoiced sounds; Keep entering the voice; There is no "f" initial; Don't stick out your tongue.

8. Jin dialect: a dialect in Shanxi, which is not equal to Shanxi dialect. It is different from the surrounding northern dialects, and retains the entering tone. After popularization, Rusheng tends to disappear.

9. Pinghua: distributed in Guangxi, it is one of the newly recognized dialect areas.