Raoping Hakka (;

Taiwanese Hakka Romanization System The Taiwanese Hakka Romanization System () is a romanization system for Taiwanese Hakka. It was published by the Ministry of Education, Taiwan, in 2012. See also * Languages of Taiwan * Taiwanese Hakka Taiwanese Hakka is a language group co ...

: ngiau pin kagˋ gaˇ faˋ), also known as Shangrao 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 ...

spoken in Raoping,

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 ...

, as well as

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 ...

Distribution

In Raoping County, Hakka is spoken in the north, including the towns of Shangshan, Shangrao, Raoyang, Jiucun, Jianrao, and Xinfeng, as well as some villages in Hanjiang Forest Farm. As of 2005, there are 190,000 Hakka speakers in Raoping County (19% of the county's population). The distribution of Raoping Hakka in Taiwan is scattered. It is mainly spoken in

Taoyuan City Taoyuan () is a special municipality (Taiwan), special municipality of the Taiwan, Republic of China (Taiwan) located in northwestern Taiwan, neighboring New Taipei City to the north-east, Yilan County, Taiwan, Yilan County to the south-e ...

( Zhongli, Pingzhen, Xinwu,

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 ...

, Bade),

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 ...

(

Zhubei Zhubei ( Wade-Giles: ''Chupei''; Hakka PFS: ''Chuk-pet''; Hokkien POJ: ''Tek-pak'') is a city in the nation of Taiwan. It is one of the fastest-growing settlements in Taiwan, with a population gain of 51,000 between 2010 and 2019, the highest ...

, Qionglin), Miaoli County (

Zhuolan Zhuolan Township is an urban township in Miaoli County, Taiwan. History Formerly called ''Talan'' (). Geography In January 2017, Zhuolan's population was estimated at 17,569. The township occupies an area of . It receives approximately of ra ...

), and Taichung City ( Dongshi). In 2013, only 1.6% of Hakka people in Taiwan were reported to be able to communicate in the Raoping dialect.

Contact with surrounding varieties

Raoping Hakka has some phonological and lexical features that appear to come from contact with Teochew. Some nasalized vowels come from Teochew, such as 'nose' (Teochew ), 'to like' (Teochew ). Some characters that were pronounced with a initial () in

Middle Chinese Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the ''Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The ...

but with or in the Meixian dialect are pronounced with , just like in Teochew, such as 'bitter' (Meixian , Teochew ), 'to go' (Meixian , Teochew ). There is also many shared lexical items with Teochew: In Taiwan, Raoping Hakka is in contact with other varieties of Hakka, notably Sixian and Hailu dialects. There are some phonological and morphological features that appear to originate in these surrounding varieties. For example, in Taoyuan near Sixian-speaking areas, the diminutive suffix is pronounced as it is pronounced in Sixian, while in Hailu-dominant Hsinchu, the suffix is pronounced as the Hailu .

Notes

References

* * * * * Hakka Chinese Languages of Taiwan {{SinoTibetan-lang-stub