The Weitou dialect or Wai Tau dialect
() is a dialect of
Yue Chinese
Yue () is a branch of the Sinitic languages primarily spoken in Northern and southern China, Southern China, particularly in the provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi (collectively known as Liangguang).
The term Cantonese is often used to refer ...
. It forms part of the Guan–Bao (Kuan-pao; ,
Tungkuan–
Paoan) branch of
Yuehai. It is spoken by older generations in
Lo-hu and
Fu-tʻien districts in
Shenzhen
Shenzhen is a prefecture-level city in the province of Guangdong, China. A Special economic zones of China, special economic zone, it is located on the east bank of the Pearl River (China), Pearl River estuary on the central coast of Guangdong ...
, and by those in the
New Territories
The New Territories (N.T., Traditional Chinese characters, Chinese: ) is one of the three areas of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of H ...
,
Hong Kong
Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
.
The Weitou dialect can be heard in
Hong Kong TV dramas and movies, and is usually used to depict characters who come from
walled villages. For example, in the 1992 movie ''
Now You See Love, Now You Don't'', the chief character, played by
Chow Yun-fat who himself grew up in
Lamma Island, consistently speaks the Weitou dialect.
In a more general sense, ''Wei-tou-hua'' can refer to any
variety of Chinese spoken in the villages of Hong Kong, including
Hakka and rural Yue dialects. In contrast, most Hong Kong residents speak standard Cantonese, while most Shenzhen residents speak Mandarin.
Phonology
Zhang & Zhuang (2003:21-4) records the phonological systems of three varieties of the Weitou dialect spoken in Hong Kong. Following is Fan Tin's (),
San Tin (in
IPA).
There are four
tone contours, when the "
entering tones" (stopped syllables) are ignored:
References
*
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weitou Dialect
Cantonese language
Languages of Hong Kong
New Territories