Swatow dialect

Swatow dialect
Swatow dialect
Shantou
汕頭話ばなし Suan¹tao⁵ uê⁷
Native to	China
Region	Mainly in Shantou, southeastern Guangdong province.
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Min Coastal Min Southern Min Chaoshan Min Swatow dialect; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Early forms	Proto-Sino-Tibetan Old Chinese Proto-Min ; ;
Writing system	Peng'im
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	shan1244
Linguasphere	79-AAA-jif
	Shantou dialect

The Swatow dialect, or in Mandarin the Shantou dialect, is a Chinese dialect mostly spoken in Shantou in Guangdong, China. It is a dialect of Chaoshan Min language.^[4] It is similar to and largely mutually intelligible with the Teochew dialect.

Phonology

Shantou dialect has 18 initials, 61 rimes and 8 tones.

Initials

		Bilabial	Alveolar		Velar	Glottal
		Bilabial	plain	sibilant	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		/m/ 毛もう	/n/ 腦のう		/ŋ/ 俄にわか
Plosive/ Affricate	tenuis	/p/ 波なみ	/t/ 刀かたな	/ts/ 之これ	/k/ 哥	/ʔ/ 烏がらす
	aspirated	/pʰ/ 抱だき	/tʰ/ 天てん	/tsʰ/ 此	/kʰ/ 戈ほこ
	voiced	/b/ 無む			/g/ 鵝
Continuant	voiceless			/s/ 思おもえ
Continuant	voiced		/l/ 羅ら	/z/ 入いれ		/h/ 何なに

Rimes

	i 衣ころも	u 污
a 亞あ	ia 呀	ua 娃
o 窩	io 腰こし
e 啞		ue 鍋なべ
ɯ 余よ
ai 哀あい		uai 歪ひずみ
oi 鞋		ui 威い
au 歐おう	iau 夭
ou 烏がらす	iu 憂う
	ĩ 丸まる
ã 噯	ĩã 營	uã 鞍くら
	ĩõ 羊ひつじ
ẽ 楹
ɯ̃ 秧
ãĩ 愛あい
õĩ 閑
	im 音おと
am 庵あん	iam 淹
	iŋ 因いん	uŋ 溫ぬる
aŋ 按	iaŋ 央ひさし	uaŋ 汪ひろし
oŋ 翁おう	ioŋ 雍
eŋ 英えい
ɤŋ 恩おん
	iʔ 裂きれ
aʔ 鴨かも	iaʔ 益えき	uaʔ 呴
oʔ 學がく	ioʔ 約やく
eʔ 厄やく
oiʔ 狹せま	iuʔ
	ip̚ 邑
ap̚ 盒	iap̚ 壓あつ	uap̚ 法ほう
	ik̚ 乙おつ	uk̚ 熨のし
ak̚ 惡あく	iak̚ 躍おど	uak̚ 獲え
ok̚ 屋や	iok̚ 育いく
ek̚ 液えき
m̩ 唔

Tones

No.	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Tones	dark level 陰平かげひら	dark rising 陰かげ上じょう	dark departing 陰かげ去さ	dark entering 陰かげ入いれ	light level 陽平ようへい	light rising 陽ひ上じょう	light departing 陽ひ去さ	light entering 陽ひ入いれ
Tone contour	˧ (33)	˥˧ (53)	˨˩˧ (213)	˨ (2)	˥ (55)	˧˥ (35)	˩ (11)	˥ (5)
Example Hanzi	詩し	死し	四よん	薛	時とき	是これ	示しめせ	蝕

Tone sandhi

Shantou dialect has extremely extensive tone sandhi rules: in an utterance, only the last syllable pronounced is not affected by the rules. The two-syllable tonal sandhi rules are shown in the table below:

Tone sandhi of first syllable
Original citation tone	Tone sandhi
dark level 33	23
light level 55	21
dark rising 53	35
light rising 35	21
dark departing 213	55
light departing 11	12
dark entering 2	5
light entering 5	2

Notes

^ Min is believed to have split from Old Chinese, rather than Middle Chinese like other varieties of Chinese.^[1]^[2]^[3]

References

^ Mei, Tsu-lin (1970), "Tones and prosody in Middle Chinese and the origin of the rising tone", Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 30: 86–110, doi:10.2307/2718766, JSTOR 2718766
^ Pulleyblank, Edwin G. (1984), Middle Chinese: A study in Historical Phonology, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, p. 3, ISBN 978-0-7748-0192-8
^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (2023-07-10). "Glottolog 4.8 - Min". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. doi:10.5281/zenodo.7398962. Archived from the original on 2023-10-13. Retrieved 2023-10-13.
^ Shantou Dialect entry in Glossika

Office of Chorography of Shantou City 汕头市し地方ちほう志こころざし办公室しつ (1999). Shan tou shi zhi 汕头市し志しむら ["Chorography of Shantou City"]. Vol. 72. Beijing: Xinhua chubanshe 新しん华出版しゅっぱん社しゃ ["Xinhua Publishing House"]. ISBN 9787501143870.

External links

Media related to Shantou dialect at Wikimedia Commons

[minClassification-4] Min is believed to have split from Old Chinese, rather than Middle Chinese like other varieties of Chinese.^[1]^[2]^[3]

[1] Mei, Tsu-lin (1970), "Tones and prosody in Middle Chinese and the origin of the rising tone", Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 30: 86–110, doi:10.2307/2718766, JSTOR 2718766

[2] Pulleyblank, Edwin G. (1984), Middle Chinese: A study in Historical Phonology, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, p. 3, ISBN 978-0-7748-0192-8

[glottoMin-3] Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (2023-07-10). "Glottolog 4.8 - Min". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. doi:10.5281/zenodo.7398962. Archived from the original on 2023-10-13. Retrieved 2023-10-13.

[5] Shantou Dialect entry in Glossika

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