The She language (Mandarin: 畲語, ''Shēyǔ'', Hakka 山客話, ''san ha ue'', ), autonym Ho Ne, or Ho Nte, is a critically endangered Hmong–Mien language spoken by the

She people The She people (; Shehua: ; Cantonese: , Fuzhou: ) are an ethnic group in China. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. The She are the largest ethnic minority in Fujian, Zhejiang, and J ...

. Most of the over 709,000 She people today speak ''

Shehua Shehua (, ''Shēhuà'', meaning 'She speech') is an unclassified Sinitic language spoken by the She people of Southeastern China. It is also called Shanha, San-hak () or Shanhahua (). Shehua speakers are located mainly in Fujian and Zhejiang pro ...

'' (probably a variety of

Hakka Chinese Hakka (, , ) forms a language group of varieties of Chinese, spoken natively by the Hakka people throughout Southern China and Taiwan and throughout the diaspora areas of East Asia, Southeast Asia and in overseas Chinese communities aroun ...

). Those who speak Sheyu—approximately 1,200 individuals in

Guangdong Province 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) ...

—call themselves ''Ho Ne'', " mountain people" ().

Dialects

There are two main dialects of She, both of which are highly endangered. They are spoken in two small pockets to the west and east of

Huizhou City Huizhou ( zh, c= ) is a city in central-east Guangdong Province, China, forty-three miles north of Hong Kong. Huizhou borders the provincial capital of Guangzhou to the west, Shenzhen and Dongguan to the southwest, Shaoguan to the north, Heyua ...

, Guangdong. *Luofu 罗浮 (Western She dialect), spoken in Luofu Mountain District 罗浮山区, Boluo County and in

Zengcheng District Zengcheng District ( alternately romanized as Tsengshing) is one of 11 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province, China. History was established under the Qin following their conquest of ...

. 580 speakers according to ''Ethnologue''. *Lianhua 莲花 (Eastern She dialect), spoken in Lianhua Mountain District 莲花山区,

Haifeng County Haifeng County ( postal: Hoifung; ) is a county under the administration of Shanwei, in the southeast of Guangdong Province, China. History Hakka peasants from nearby villages of Chengxiang county (modern-day Meixian) immigrated to Haifeng, f ...

. 390 speakers according to ''Ethnologue''.

External relationships

She has been difficult to classify due to the heavy influence of Chinese on the language. Matisoff (2001), for example, left it unclassified within the Hmongic languages, and some have considered that much to be doubtful, leaving it unclassified within (and potentially a third branch of) the Hmong–Mien languages. She has monosyllabic roots, but has mainly compound words. However, due to the similar components of She, Mao & Li (2002) and Ratliff (2010) consider She to be most closely related to Jiongnai. Not to be confused with Shēyǔ (畲语) is '' Shēhuà'' (, meaning 'She dialect' or 'She speech'), an unclassified Sinitic language spoken by the She people of

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its ...

and

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Ji ...

provinces. Shehua and Sheyu speakers have separate histories and identities, although both are officially classified by the Chinese government as

. The Dongjia of

Majiang County Majiang County () is a county of southeast-central Guizhou province, China. It is the westernmost county-level division of the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture (; Hmu language: ''Qe ...

Guizhou Guizhou (; Postal romanization, formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in the Southwest China, southwest region of the China, People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the pr ...

are also officially classified as

, but speak a Western Hmongic language closely related to Chong'anjiang Miao (重安江苗语).

Phonology

Consonants

Glottal stop is not distinct from

zero 0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. In place-value notation such as the Hindu–Arabic numeral system, 0 also serves as a placeholder numerical digit, which works by Multiplication, multiplying digits to the left of 0 by th ...

(a vowel-initial syllable). There are consonant mutation effects. For instance, ''pǐ + kiáu'' becomes ''pi̋’iáu'', and ''kóu + tȁi'' becomes ''kóulȁi''.

Vowels

The vowels of She are . It has the finals , with only in Hakka loans, though is never followed by a final, and the only stops which follow the front vowels are .

Tones

She has six tones, reduced to two (high and low) in

checked syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological ...

s (Hakka loans only). There is quite a lot of dialectical variability; two of the reported inventories (not necessarily in corresponding order) are: : that is, /5 4 3 2 1 35/, or (on ), : that is, /53 42 3 2 31 35/

Vocabulary

Old Chinese loanwords

As with the Southern Chinese languages, She has various loanwords from Old Chinese. *走 to run *行 to walk *烏 black *赤 red *寮 house *禾 rice (plant) *鑊 wok *奉 to give *其 he/she/it *着 to wear *睇 to look *戮 to kill *齧 to bite *使 to use

References

Citations

Sources

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:She Language Hmongic languages Languages of China Critically endangered languages She people