The Longdu dialect is a variety of
Southern Min
Southern Min (), Minnan ( Mandarin pronunciation: ) or Banlam (), is a group of linguistically similar and historically related Sinitic languages that form a branch of Min Chinese spoken in Fujian (especially the Minnan region), most of Taiwa ...
Chinese language originating from the towns of
Dachong
Dachong () is a town under the direct administration of the prefecture-level city of Zhongshan, in the Pearl River Delta region of Guangdong province, China.
Location
It is situated at the southwest periphery of the city of Zhongshan and the eas ...
and
Shaxi in
Zhongshan in the
Pearl River Delta of
Guangdong
Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020 ...
. The two regions Shaxi and Dachong are together informally known as the Longdu region to locals and those overseas. There are more than 40 villages in the region and are held together by their shared dialect, which may be classified as endangered due to its deterioration in status and rapidly decreasing popularity even within the Longdu region. Despite its close proximity, the Longdu dialect is not very closely related to the surrounding dialects in the region, which belong to the
Yue group. As such, Longdu forms a "dialect island" of Min speakers. It is one of three enclaves of
Min in Zhongshan, the others being
Sanxiang
Sanxiang (; Cantonese: ''Sāamhēung Jan'') is a town situated at the southern periphery of the city of Zhongshan, Guangdong province. The population of Sanxiang is permanent residents and an estimated temporary residents. The total area of the ...
and
Nanlang. Its native speakers generally understand
Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding a ...
, but not vice versa. "A lot of children do not speak the language in their daily lives. The population of speakers is diminishing."
According to Søren Egerod, who published an extensive study of the dialect based on fieldwork conducted in 1949, the vocabulary consists of three layers:
* a pre-
Tang
Tang or TANG most often refers to:
* Tang dynasty
* Tang (drink mix)
Tang or TANG may also refer to:
Chinese states and dynasties
* Jin (Chinese state) (11th century – 376 BC), a state during the Spring and Autumn period, called Tang (唐) ...
colloquial layer, which seems to be related to the
Fuzhou dialect,
* a Tang-period colloquial layer, which seems to be related to various
Southern Min
Southern Min (), Minnan ( Mandarin pronunciation: ) or Banlam (), is a group of linguistically similar and historically related Sinitic languages that form a branch of Min Chinese spoken in Fujian (especially the Minnan region), most of Taiwa ...
varieties, and
* a layer of literary readings based on the
Shiqi dialect, the local Yue variety.
The Longdu dialect is a mother tongue of many overseas Chinese and is slowly disappearing due to the emigration of people from the Longdu region to other countries, and due to the lack of inter-generational knowledge sharing. Parents and grandparents teach the children only Cantonese given that the Longdu region is within Zhongshan, Guangdong. At school, only Mandarin is taught to children because Mandarin is the official national language, and Cantonese is generally viewed as the official language of the Guangdong province.
See also
*
List of Chinese dialects
References
External links
Phonology at Glossika
{{Southern Min Languages
Zhongshan
Southern Min