The Hailu dialect (; Hailu Hakka Romanization System: hoi´ liug` kiong`), also known as the Hoiluk dialect or Hailu Hakka (), is a dialect 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 around th ...

that originated in

Shanwei Shanwei (), or Swabue is a prefecture-level city in eastern Guangdong province, People's Republic of China. It borders Jieyang to the east, Meizhou and Heyuan to the north, Huizhou to the west, and looks out to the South China Sea to the south. I ...

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 ...

. It is also the second most common dialect of Hakka spoken in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northe ...

Classification

The first edition of the ''

Language Atlas of China The ''Language Atlas of China'' (), published in two parts in 1987 and 1989, maps the distribution of both the varieties of Chinese and minority languages of China. It was a collaborative effort by the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the ...

'' places the Hakka dialects spoken in Haifeng and LufengIncluding Luhe, which was carved out of Lufeng in 1988. into the Xin–Hui cluster () of the Yue–Tai subgroup () of

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hun ...

. In the second edition, it is given its own subgroup known as the Hai–Lu subgroup () separate from the Yue–Tai subgroup. Chang Song-hing and Zhuang Chusheng propose that it should be grouped as the Hai–Lu cluster () of the Mei–Shao subgroup ().

Distribution

In China, the Hailu dialect is spoken in

, particularly in Haifeng, Lufeng, and Luhe. As of 2012, there are around 1.18 million speakers of the dialect in these three areas. In

, it is spoken in

Hsinchu County Hsinchu County ( Wade–Giles: ''Hsin¹-chu²'') is a county in north-western Taiwan. The population of the county is mainly Hakka; with a Taiwanese aboriginal minority in the southeastern part of the county. Zhubei is the county capital, wh ...

( Xinfeng, Xinpu,

Hukou ''Hukou'' () is a system of household registration used in mainland China. The system itself is more properly called "''huji''" (), and has origins in ancient China; ''hukou'' is the registration of an individual in the system (''kou'' li ...

, Qionglin, Hengshan,

Guanxi ''Guanxi'' () is a term used in Chinese culture to describe an individual's social network of mutually beneficial personal and business relationships. The character ''guan'', 关, means “closed” while the character ''xi'' 系 means “system ...

, Beipu, Baoshan,

Emei Mount Emei (; ), alternately Mount Omei, is a mountain in Sichuan Province, China, and is the highest of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China. Mount Emei sits at the western rim of the Sichuan Basin. The mountains west of it are k ...

, and Zhudong), Hsinchu City ( Xiangshan and Xinfeng), Taoyuan (mostly in

Guanyin Guanyin () is a Bodhisattva associated with compassion. She is the East Asian representation of Avalokiteśvara ( sa, अवलोकितेश्वर) and has been adopted by other Eastern religions, including Chinese folk religion. Sh ...

, Xinwu, and Yangmei; also pockets in Pingzhen, Zhongli, and Longtan),

Hualien County Hualien County (Mandarin Wade–Giles: Hua¹-lien² Hsien⁴; Pīnyīn: ''Huālián Xiàn''; Hokkien POJ: ''Hoa-lian-koān'' or ''Hoa-liân-koān''; Hakka PFS: ''Fâ-lièn-yen''; Amis: ''Kalingko'') is a county on the east coast of Taiwan ...

(

Ji'an Ji'an () is a prefecture-level city situated in the central region of Jiangxi province of the People's Republic of China while bordering Hunan province to the west. It has an area of and as of the 2020 census, had a population of 4,469,176, of ...

, Shoufeng, Guangfu, Yuli,

Ruisui Ruisui Township is a rural township located in southern Hualien County, Taiwan, and has a population of 12,107 inhabitants in 11 villages. The population is composed of Hoklo, Hakka, and Taiwanese aborigines, most of whom are Amis. Agr ...

, and Fenglin), and Miaoli County ( Toufen,

Sanwan Sanwan Township is a rural township in northern Miaoli County, Taiwan. It lies between the Taiwan Strait on the west and mountains on the east. Geography * Area: * Population: 6,864 (January 2017) Administrative divisions The township comp ...

, Nanzhuang, Xihu, Houlong, Zaoqiao, Tongxiao, and Tongluo). In 2013, 41.5% of Hakka people in Taiwan were reported to be able to communicate in the Hailu dialect. In

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, it is widely spoken in northern

West Kalimantan West Kalimantan ( id, Kalimantan Barat) is a province of Indonesia. It is one of five Indonesian provinces comprising Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo. Its capital city is Pontianak. The province has an area of 147,307& ...

, including Singkawang, Sambas, and Pemangkat.

Phonology

Tones

The Hailu dialect has seven lexical tones:

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * {{Chinese language Hakka Chinese Shanwei