Hui'an dialect

The Hui'an dialect (simplified Chinese: 惠安话; traditional Chinese: 惠安話; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Hūi-oaⁿ-ōe), is a variety of Chinese mostly spoken in Hui'an in South Fujian Province, China. It belongs to the Hokkien subgroup of Southern Min.[1]

Hui'an dialect
惠安话 / 惠安話
Native to	China
Region	Mainly in Hui'an and parts of Quangang District (formerly part of Hui'an), South Fujian province.
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Min Coastal Min Southern Min Hokkien Hui'an dialect
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None
Linguasphere	79-AAA-jda

Phonology

The Hui'an dialect has 14 phonemic initials and over 80 finals.[2][3]

Consonants

		bilabial	alveolar	velar	glottal
plosive	voiced	/b/ 马 / 馬		/ɡ/ 鹅 / 鵝
	voiceless unaspirated	/p/ 布	/t/ 大	/k/ 歌	/ʔ/ 乌 / 烏
	voiceless aspirated	/pʰ/ 坡	/tʰ/ 兔	/kʰ/ 去
affricate	voiceless unaspirated		/ts/ 左
	voiceless aspirated		/tsʰ/ 菜
fricative	voiceless		/s/ 苏 / 蘇		/h/ 鱼 / 魚
approximant			/l/ 旅

The three voiced phonemes /b/, /l/ and /ɡ/ are realized as the nasal stops [m], [n] and [ŋ], respectively, before nasalized finals.[4][3]

The phoneme /l/ may be treated as a plosive, i.e. /d/.[5]

The alveolar phonemes /ts/, /tsʰ/ and /s/ are palatalized to [tɕ], [tɕʰ] and [ɕ], respectively, before /i/.[5]

Finals

/i/

/ĩ/

/iʔ/

/ĩʔ/

/u/

/uʔ/

/un/

/ut/

/a/

/ã/

/au/

/aʔ/

/ãʔ/

/auʔ/

/ãuʔ/

/am/

/an/

/aŋ/

/ap/

/at/

/ak/

/ai/

/ãi/

/ãiʔ/

/e/

/ẽ/

/eʔ/

/ẽʔ/

/em/

/en/

/eŋ/

/ep/

/et/

/o/

/oʔ/

/ɔ/

/ɔ̃/

/ɔ̃ʔ/

/ɔŋ/

/ɔk/

/ɯ/

/ɯʔ/

/ə/

/əʔ/

/ən/

/ət/

/iu/

/iũ/

/iuʔ/

/iũʔ/

/ia/

/iã/

/iau/

/iãu/

/iaʔ/

/iãʔ/

/iauʔ/

/iãuʔ/

/iaŋ/

/iak/

/io/

/ioʔ/

/iɔŋ/

/iɔk/

/ui/

/uĩ/

/uiʔ/

/uĩʔ/

/ua/

/uã/

/uai/

/uãi/

/uaʔ/

/uãiʔ/

/uan/

/uaŋ/

/uat/

/ue/

/ueʔ/

/m̩ʔ/

/m̩/

/ŋ̍ʔ/

/ŋ̍/

Grammar

The demonstrative system has five pairs of pronouns with a two-way distinction:[6][7]

Proximal	Distal	Translation
这 / 這 tsit^7 (+ number) + numerative	彼 hit^7 (+ number) + numerative	this/that; these/those; this/that kind of
这 / 這 tsat^8	彼 hat^8	this/that
这 / 這 tse^2	彼 hə^2	this/that kind of (generic)
遮 tsuai^2	徊 huai^2	these/those; this/that
种个 / 種個 tsiɔŋ^3-2 e^2	响个 / 響個 hiɔŋ^3-2 e^2	this/that kind of

Comparison with other varieties of Hokkien

Compared with the Quanzhou dialect (spoken in the central urban area of Quanzhou city), the greatest differences are present in the rimes:[8][9]

Hui'an	Quanzhou	Example
		Hui'an	Quanzhou
/em/	/iam/	粘
		/lem˨˦/	/liam˨˦/
	/im/	林
		/lem˨˦/	/lim˨˦/
/ep/	/iap/	接
		/tsep˥/	/tsiap˥/
	/ip/	执 / 執
		/tsep˥/	/tsip˥/
/en/	/ian/	烟 / 煙
		/en˧/	/ian˧/
	/in/	因
		/en˧/	/in˧/
/et/	/iat/	浙
		/tset˥/	/tsiat˥/
	/it/	质 / 質
		/tset˥/	/tsit˥/
/eŋ/	/iŋ/	兵
		/peŋ˧/	/piŋ˧/
/ən/	/un/	银 / 銀
		/gən˨˦/	/gun˨˦/
/ət/	/ut/	核
		/hət˨˧/	/hut˨˦/

Notes

1. Chen 2008, p. 568.
2. Chen 2011, pp. 17–22.
3. Hui'an County Local Chronicles Editorial Board 1998, ch. 1, sec. 1.
4. Chen 2011, p. 18.
5. Chen 2011, p. 19.
6. Chen 2008, pp. 569–570.
7. Chen 2011, pp. 96.
8. Zhou 2006, pp. 1138–1139.
9. Hui'an County Local Chronicles Editorial Board 1998.

References

• Chen, Weirong (2008). "Relative Clauses in Hui'an Dialect" (PDF). In Chan, Marjorie K.M.; Kang, Hana (eds.). Proceedings of the 20th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL-20). Columbus, Ohio: The Ohio State University. pp. 567–582.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Chen, Weirong (2011). The Southern Min Dialect of Hui'an: Morphosyntax and Grammaticalization (PhD). University of Hong Kong. doi:10.5353/th_b4642142.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Hui'an County Local Chronicles Editorial Board, ed. (1998). 惠安县志 (in Chinese). Volume 35: 方言. Beijing: China Local Records Publishing. ISBN 7-80122-352-7.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Zhou, Changji, ed. (2006). 闽南方言大词典 (in Chinese). Fuzhou: Fujian People's Publishing House. ISBN 7-211-03896-9.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)