Jian'ou dialect

The Jian'ou dialect (Northern Min: Gṳ̿ing-é-dī / 建甌事; Chinese: simplified Chinese: 建瓯话; traditional Chinese: 建甌話; pinyin: Jiàn'ōuhuà), also known as Kienow dialect, is a local dialect of Northern Min Chinese spoken in Jian'ou in northern Fujian province. It is regarded as the standard common language in Jian'ou.

Jian'ou
Gṳ̿ing-é-dī / 建甌事
Pronunciation[kuiŋ˧ ɪ˥˦ ti˦]
Native toSouthern China
RegionJian'ou, Fujian province
Chinese character, Kienning Colloquial Romanized
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
Glottologjian1240
Jian'ou dialect
Traditional Chinese建甌話
Simplified Chinese建瓯话
Alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese建甌事
Simplified Chinese建瓯事
Bible in Jian'ou Romanised (Genesis), published by the British and Foreign Bible Society.

Phonetics and phonology

According to The Eight Tones of Kien-chou (建州八音), a rime dictionary published in 1795, the Jian'ou dialect had 15 initials, 34 rimes and 7 tones in the 18th century, however there are only 6 tones in the modern dialect as the "light level" (陽平) tone has disappeared.

Initials
Initials of the Jian'ou dialect
  Bilabial Alveolar Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ŋ  
Plosive voiceless unaspirated p t k ʔ
voiceless aspirated pʰ tʰ kʰ  
Affricate voiceless unaspirated   ts    
voiceless aspirated   tsʰ    
Fricative   s x  
Approximant   l    

Rimes
Rimes of the Jian'ou dialect
Open syllable Nasal coda
Open mouth a ɪ ɛ œ ʊ ɔ ai au aŋ aiŋ eiŋ œyŋ ɔŋ [1]
Even mouth i ia iɛ iɔ iau iu iŋ iaŋ ieiŋ[2] iɔŋ
Closed mouth u ua uɛ [3] uai uiŋ [4] uaŋ uaiŋ uɔŋ
Round mouth y yɛ [3] yiŋ [4]

Tones

Jian'ou has four tones, which are reduced to two in checked syllables.

Tone chart of the Jian'ou dialect
Tone numberTone nameTone contour
1 level (平聲)˥˦ (54) or ˥ (5)
2 rising (上聲)˨˩ (21) or ˩ (1)
3 dark departing (陰去)˨ (2)
4 light departing (陽去)˦ (4)
5 dark entering (陰入)˨˦ (24)
6 light entering (陽入)˦˨ (42)

The entering tones in the Jian'ou dialect do not have any entering tone coda (入聲韻尾) such as /-ʔ/, /-p̚/, /-t̚/ and /-k̚/ which makes it distinct from many other Chinese varieties.

Footnotes
  1. /oŋ/ which is mentioned in Kienning Colloquial Romanized has merged into /ɔŋ/ in the modern dialect.
  2. /ieiŋ/ is not mentioned in Kienning Colloquial Romanized as it diverged from /iŋ/ after the romanization system was established.
  3. /yɛ/ tends to merge into /uɛ/.
  4. /yiŋ/ tends to merge into /uiŋ/.

References
  • Beijing daxue Zhongguo yuyan wenxue xi yuyanxue jiaoyanshi 北京大學中國語言文學系語言學教研室 (1989). Hànyǔ fāngyīn zìhuì 漢語方音字匯 (in Chinese). Beijing: Wenzi gaige chubanshe.
  • Yuan, Jiahua 袁家驊 (1989). Hànyǔ fāngyán gàiyào 漢語方言概要 [An Introduction to Chinese Dialects] (in Chinese). Beijing: Wenzi gaige chubanshe.
  • Jianou Xian difangzhi bianzuan weiyuanhui 建瓯县地方志编纂委员会 (1994). Jiànōu xiànzhì 建瓯县志 [Chorography of Jian'ou County]. Vol. 36. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju. ISBN 7-101-01283-3.
  • Lien, Chinfa (1990). "Competing Final Systems in the Jian'ou Dialect" (PDF). Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies. 20 (1): 1–53.
  • Norman, Jerry (2002) [1988]. Chinese. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-29653-6.
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