Shaxian dialect (Central Min: 沙縣事, Mandarin Chinese: 沙縣話) is a dialect of Central Min Chinese spoken in Sha County, Sanming in Western Fujian Province of China.

Shaxian dialect
沙縣事
Pronunciation[sa˦˦ sɪ̃˦˦ sai˨˦]
Native toSouthern China
RegionSha County, Sanming, Fujian
Early forms
Language codes
ISO 639-3
GlottologNone
Linguasphere79-AAA-hba
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Phonology

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Shaxian dialect has 17 initials, 36 rimes and 6 tones.

Initials

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Bilabial Alveolar Postalveolar Velar
Voiceless Voiced Voiceless Voiced Voiceless Voiced Voiceless Voiced
Nasal (m)
罵慢
(n)
鈴南
(ŋ)
雅眼
Stop Tenuis p
布婆
b
母毛
t
東大
k
哥間
g
蟻額
Aspirated
普抱

通頭

溪欠
Affricate Tenuis ʦ
酒曹
ʧ
朱足
Aspirated ʦʰ
秋春
ʧʰ
出穿
Fricative s
心沙
ʃ
水船
x
好興
Lateral l
納力
Zero consonant zero consonant
影黃

Notes:

  1. //, /tʃʰ/, /ʃ/ only connected with round mouth rimes (撮口呼韻母);
  2. /b/, /l/, /g/ cannot be connected with nasal vowel rimes;
  3. /m/, /n/, /ŋ/ only connected with nasal vowel rimes.

Rimes

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ɯ / ɤ
資 / 子
i / e
西 / 死
u / o
故 / 古
y / ø
居 / 舉
iu / io
抽 / 丑
ui / ue
追 / 嘴
/
威 / 偉
o / ɔ
波 / 保
io /
腰 / 約
e / ɛ
排/八
ye /
吹 / 血
a
ia
ua
ya
ai
uai
au
iau
ŋ̍

uaŋ
ɛiŋ
iɛiŋ
yɛiŋ
ɔuŋ
œyŋ

ĩ /
仙 / 險
/ uẽ
翻/粉
/ yẽ
根 / 卷
ɔ̃
iɔ̃
ɔ̃i

Some rimes come in pairs in the above table, and they are closely related with the tones: the one to the left only exist in dark level (陰平), light level (陽平), light rising (陽上) and departing (去聲); while the other only exist in dark rising (陰上) and entering (入聲). It can be compared with close and open rimes of Fuzhou dialect, Eastern Min.

Tones

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No. 1 2 3 4 5 6
Tone name dark level
陰平
light level
陽平
dark rising
陰上
light rising
陽上
departing
去聲
entering
入聲
Tone contour ˧ 33 ˧˩ 31 ˨˩˨ 21 ˥˧ 53 ˨˦ 24 ˨˩˨ 212
Example Hanzi

The entering tones in Sanming dialect don't have any entering tone coda (入聲韻尾) such as /-ʔ/, /-p̚/, /-t̚/ and /-k̚/. It's quite different from many other Chinese dialects.

Tone sandhi

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Shaxian dialect has extremely extensive tone sandhi rules: in an utterance, only the last syllable pronounced is not affected by the rules.

The two-syllable tonal sandhi rules are shown in the table below (the rows give the first syllable's original citation tone, while the columns give the citation tone of the second syllable):

dark level
33
light level
31
dark rising
21
light rising
53
departing
24
entering
212
dark level
33
44
light level
31
33
dark rising
21
55
light rising
53
dark rising (21)
departing
24
dark rising (21) 44 dark rising (21)
entering
212
4

Some rimes may change their pronunciation because they are closely related with the tones (see above).

Notes

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  1. ^ Min is believed to have split from Old Chinese, rather than Middle Chinese like other varieties of Chinese.[1][2][3]

References

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  1. ^ Mei, Tsu-lin (1970), "Tones and prosody in Middle Chinese and the origin of the rising tone", Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 30: 86–110, doi:10.2307/2718766, JSTOR 2718766
  2. ^ Pulleyblank, Edwin G. (1984), Middle Chinese: A study in Historical Phonology, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, p. 3, ISBN 978-0-7748-0192-8
  3. ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (2023-07-10). "Glottolog 4.8 - Min". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. doi:10.5281/zenodo.7398962. Archived from the original on 2023-10-13. Retrieved 2023-10-13.