Hainanese Language

Hainanese (Hainan Romanised: ''Hái-nâm-oe'', Hainanese Pinyin: ''Hhai3 nam2 ue1'', ), also known as Qiongwen (), Qiongyu () or Hainan Min () is a group of Min Chinese varieties spoken in the far southern Chinese island province of Hainan and regional overseas Chinese communities such as in Singapore and Thailand.

In the classification of Yuan Jiahua, it was included in the Southern Min group, being mutually unintelligible with other Southern Min varieties such as Hokkien– Taiwanese and Teochew. In the classification of Li Rong, used by the ''Language Atlas of China'', it was treated as a separate Min subgroup. Hou Jingyi combined it with Leizhou Min, spoken on the neighboring mainland Leizhou Peninsula, in a Qiong–Lei group. "Hainanese" is also used for the language of the Li people living in Hainan, but generally refers to Min varieties spoken in Hainan.

Phonology

The phonologies of the different varieties of Hainanese are highly divergent, with the Wenchang dialect being the prestige dialect, and often used as a reference."" From

Consonants

Below is a table for the consonants of Hainanese across the dialects of Wenchang, Haikou and the dialect of Banqiao Town, in Dongfang. For more information on a specific variety, please consult the relevant article.

Many of the most widely spoken varieties of Hainanese notably have a series of implosive consonants, and , which were acquired through contact with surrounding languages, probably Hlai. However, more conservative varieties of Hainanese such as Banqiao remain closer to Teochew and other varieties of Southern Min, lack them.

The consonant system of Hainanese corresponds well with that of Hokkien, but it has had some restructuring. In particular:
* Etymological ''plain'' stops have undergone implosivization (*p > , *t > ) in the more innovative varieties such as Wenchang and Haikou.
* Etymological ''aspirated'' stops have spirantized (*pʰ > , *tʰ > , *tsʰ > , *kʰ > ) in more innovative varieties.
* The lenition of an historic *b into in Banqiao and Haikou, though not in Wenchang.
* Former *s has hardened into a stop (*s > ), although in the more conservative Banqiao dialect some instances have only undergone fortition to (*s > ), and others have remained .
* Former *h has become in Wenchang.

Additionally, is an allophone of .

These changes also make Hainanese fairly close to Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary.

Vowels

Hainanese has seven phonemic vowels.

Tones

Romanization

Hainanese Pinyin

Hainanese Pinyin () is a phonetic system announced by the Education Administration Department of Guangdong Province in September 1960. It marks tones with numbers.

Initials

Finals

Grammar

Hainanese is known for having ''post-verbal'' locative prepositional phrases, as opposed to having such phrases in the pre-verbal position, as is common in most other varieties of Chinese. For example:

This has been attributed to contact with the Kra–Dai languages of Hainan, such as Hlai and Be.

See also

*Hainanese culture
*Hainanese people

Notes

References

Further reading

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* Miyake, Marc. 2008
Hainanese articles

* Miyake, Marc. 2008
Hainanese -om and -op

* includes a description of the phonology of the Ding'an dialect.
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* describes Wenchang dialect.
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External links

Learn hainanese

{{Chinese language

Hainan Min