Chawan Dialect

Chawan dialect ( zh, t=詔安話, s=诏安话, poj=Chiàu-an-ōɛ) is a variety of Southern Min spoken in the Chawan (Zhao'an) County in Fujian province, China. It is usually considered a divergent dialect of Hokkien exhibiting some Teochew influence.

Geography and classification

Chawan dialect is spoken in the southern half of the Chawan (Zhao'an) county. The northern part of the county, with roughly one-third of its population, is mainly Hakka-speaking, and the border between the Chawan-speaking and the Hakka-speaking parts of county lies within the Hongxing township () and Taiping town ().

The dialect spoken in Sidu (), Meizhou () and Jinxing (), three localities in the eastern part of the Chawan county, is closer to the Yunxiao Hokkien. The Yunxiao dialect bears some affinity to Chawan, however, it lacks some of its notable characteristicts, such as vowels /ɯ/ and /ə/.

A related dialect is spoken in some parts of the Dongshan island, particularly the Qianlou town ().

The speech of the Nanzhao town is taken as representative for Chawan dialect. There are some internal differences, but the subdialects of Chawan are yet poorly described. E.g.:
* The dialect of the Tingyang village () in Baiyang Township (), almost at the Fujian-Guangdong border, shows some Teochew specific traits, such as lack of denasalization and the merger of /in, an/ with /iŋ, aŋ/ (e.g. it distinguishes ''ma̍k'' and ''ba̍k'', while general Chawan has both as ''ba̍k''; it distinguishes initials, but not finals in ''nâng'' and ''lâng'', while general Chawan has ''lâng'' and ''lân'').
* The dialect of the Wenshan village () in the Taiping Town () has the rime /oi/ in words like ''bói'', unlike general Chawan ''bóe''. It also has the rime /-uou/ instead of /-ou/ (e.g. it reads ''thó͘'' as ʰuou³⁵ unlike general Chawan ʰou⁵³, which is a trait found in some Hokkien dialects around Zhangpu.

Chawan is usually classified as a dialect of Hokkien. However, it also shares some traits with Teochew, particularly in its vocabulary, e.g.:
* ''théiⁿ'' "to see" (cf. Teochew ''thóiⁿ'', Hokkien ''khòaⁿ'')
* ''tàⁿ-ōɛ'' "to talk" (cf. Teochew ''tàⁿ-ōe'', Hokkien ''kóng-ōa'')
* ''nńg'' "woman" (cf. Teochew ''nṳ́ng'', Hokkien ''lí'')

Phonology

Consonants

In terms of consonants, Chawan does not differ much from other dialects of Hokkien. It has as total of 15 initials. Denasalization is extensive, which is typical for Hokkien, but not for Teochew.

Rimes

The most notable feature of Chawan is the presence of the vowels /ɯ/ and /ə/, which are absent in the general Zhangzhou dialects.

Chawan is also notable for distinguishing /ue/ and /uɛ/. While the former rime is common across Hokkien dialects, the latter is usually merged with /ue/ (in Quanzhou Hokkien) or /ua/ (in Zhanghzou Hokkien). To a lesser extent, Yunxiao Hokkien also distinguishes /ue/ and /uɛ/.

Chawan dialect does not dissimilate the rimes /uam/ and /uap/ (in ''hoâm'', ''hoām'', ''hoap''), similarly to Teochew. Most other Hokkien dialects have /uan/ and /uat/ instead.

Tones

Chawan has 7 citation tones, which are mostly similar to general Zhangzhou Hokkien tones.

Notes

References

{{Chinese language

Hokkien-language dialects
Fujian
Zhangzhou
Zhao'an County