History of Gan Chinese

The history of Gan Chinese, a variety of Chinese spoken in modern-day China, stretches back to the beginning of the Qin dynasty. This long stretch of time is divided into Old Gan, late Old Gan, and Middle Gan periods.

Old Gan

Old Gan (上古じょうこ贛語, Song-gu Gon-ngi) or Proto-Gan (原始げんし贛語, Ngien-si Gon-ngi) was spoken between the beginning of the Qin dynasty to the latter part of the Han dynasty.

In the year of 221 BC, General Tu Sui (屠ほふ睢) was sent on behalf of the Qin dynasty to the south of China in order to conquer the territory of Baiyue. 500,000 soldiers then settled down at Yugan, Nankang and three other places. This formed the initial Chinese population in Jiangxi. In 202 BC, Yuzhang Prefecture (Chinese: 豫よ章あきら郡ぐん) was set up by the Han dynasty. Following this, the local population increased rapidly.

Late Old Gan

Late Old Gan (中古ちゅうこ贛語, Zung-gu Gon-ngi) was spoken between the 3rd and 6th centuries. It was largely sinicized by new settlers from the Central Plain. Some scholars consider late Old Gan, together with Hakka Chinese and the Tongtai dialect of Jianghuai Mandarin to have been the lingua franca of the Southern Dynasties.

However, late Old Gan was still distinctly different from the official language. History of Southern Dynasties records that

Hu Xiezhi (胡えびす諧之) of Nanchang, the Emperor wants to bestow a noble marriage on him. He sends several persons of the Palace in order to teach his children the [official] language. Two years later, the Emperor asks him if the language has been standardized in his family, and Hu answers that his family hasn't acquired the official language while those imperial envoys have already been Ganized.

Middle Gan

Middle Gan (中世ちゅうせい贛語, Zung-si Gon-ngi) is the variety of Gan spoken between the Tang and Song dynasties (from the 6th to the 13th century). The last time of large-scale settlement in Jiangxi by people from the Central Plain took place as a result of the An Lushan Rebellion. Gan also became stabilized following this period.

Research on the rhyming system of Jiangxi poets of this period has been made in order to reconstruct the linguistic form of Middle Gan. Scholars have found that modern Gan still keeps many linguistic characteristics of this historical layer. For example,

• rime 尤ゆう侯こう corresponds to rime 蕭しょう豪つよし;
• rime 支ささえ微ほろ corresponds to rime 魚ぎょ模も;
• rime 魚ぎょ模も corresponds to rime 家か麻あさ;
• rime 皆みな來らい corresponds to rime 支ささえ微ほろ;
• rime 監かん廉れん corresponds to rime 寒かん先さき;
• rime 庚かのえ青あお corresponds to rime 江陽こうよう.

Late Middle Gan

Late Middle Gan (近世きんせい贛語, Qin-si Gon-ngi) was the form of Gan spoken between the Yuan and Ming dynasties (from the 13th to the 17th century). Some linguistic characteristics of late Middle Gan are:

• Semi-coronal [l] differentiates from alveolar stops [n]
• Muddy consonants are merged with aspirated consonants
• Syllable coda [-m] merges into [-n]

Early Modern Gan

Early Modern Gan (近代きんだい贛語, Qin-tai Gon-ngi) was the form of Gan spoken from the Qing dynasty (17th century) up to the beginning of modern times.

The textbook Lei Zi Meng Qiu (類字るいじ蒙こうむ求もとむ) published in the middle of the 19th century has been used to understand the linguistic form of Nanchang dialect; scholars have found that Gan has stayed relatively stable from this time. For example, the nasal ending [-m] merged into [-n], and 7 tones were used.

Westerners also began to study Gan during this period. British diplomatic official Edward Harper Parker was the first westerner to recorded Gan speech. He noticed his friend Wen-yuan of Fuzhou merged muddy consonants with aspirate consonants.

Bibles in some Gan dialects were also published at this time.

See also

• Gan Swadesh list

Further reading

• Chen Changyi (陳ちん昌あきら儀ぎ), Summary of Gan's dialects (贛方言ほうげん概要がいよう)
• Li Jun (李り軍ぐん) and Chen Changfang (陳ちん昌あきら芳かおる), Characteristics of the rhyming, tonal system of Nanchang dialect of the middle 19th century (19世紀せいき中葉ちゅうよう南みなみ昌あきら話ばなし韻いん母はは與あずか聲調せいちょう系統けいとう的てき特とく點てん)
• Li Shali (李り莎莉), On the rhyming system of Jiangxi poets of Ming dynasty (明代あきよ江西えにし詩人しじん用よう韻いん研究けんきゅう)
• Liu Lunxin (劉りゅう綸鑫), On the history of Gan-Hakka (客きゃく贛方言ほうげん史し簡論)
• Laurent Sagart, Les dialectes Gan
• Sagart, Laurent. 2002. Gan, Hakka and the Formation of Chinese Dialects. Dialect Variations in Chinese, 129–153. Papers from the Third International Conference on Sinology, Linguistics Section.
• Shao Baiming (邵百鳴な) and Ge Lili (葛かずら力りょく力りょく), The formation of Gan's dialects (略りゃく論ろん贛方言ほうげん的てき形成けいせい)
• Tian Yezheng (田た業ぎょう政せい), On the rhyming system of Jiangxi poets of Yuan dynasty (元もと代だい江西えにし詩人しじん古體こたい詩し用よう韻いん研究けんきゅう)
• You Rujie (游ゆう汝なんじ傑すぐる), 西洋せいよう傳でん教きょう士し漢語かんご方言ほうげん學がく著作ちょさく書目しょもく考こう述じゅつ