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In the development of Han society, there have been different degrees of differentiation and unification, which gradually led to the emergence of Chinese dialects.

There are various dialects in modern Chinese, which are widely distributed. The differences between modern Chinese dialects are manifested in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar, especially in pronunciation. But these dialects and homophones are not independent languages, because they have certain corresponding rules in pronunciation and have many similarities in vocabulary and grammar. According to the characteristics of dialects, the history of their formation and development, and the results of the current dialect survey, dialects of modern Chinese can be divided. At present, Chinese linguists have different opinions on the division of modern Chinese dialects. Most people think that there are seven dialects in modern Chinese:

Northern Dialect Northern Dialect is the basic dialect of modern Han nationality, represented by Beijing dialect, with strong internal consistency. It is the most widely distributed dialect in Chinese, and its users account for about 73% of the total population of Han nationality.

Northern dialects can be divided into four sub-dialects: (1) North China dialect and Northeast dialect, which are distributed in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang and parts of Inner Mongolia. (2) Northwest dialect, distributed in Shaanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu and other provinces and parts of Qinghai, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia. The language used by the Han nationality in Xinjiang also belongs to the northwest dialect. (3) Southwest dialect, distributed in Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou and other provinces and most of Hubei (except Xianning in the southeast corner), northwestern Guangxi and northwestern Hunan. (4) Jianghuai dialect, distributed in Anhui Province, Jiangsu Province, north of the Yangtze River (except Xuzhou and Bengbu dialects belonging to North China and Northeast China), and along the south bank of the Yangtze River to the west of Zhenjiang and east of Jiujiang.

Hakka dialect

Represented by Meixian dialect in Guangdong. Hakka people are distributed in Guangdong, Fujian, Taiwan Province, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Hunan, Sichuan and other provinces, mainly in eastern and northern Guangdong, western Fujian, southwestern Jiangxi and southeastern Guangxi. Hakka people migrated from the Central Plains to the south. Although they were scattered all over the country, Hakka dialect still had its own system, with little internal difference. Hakka people in Sichuan and Guangdong can talk to each other across Qian Shan. The user population accounts for about 3.6% of the total population of Han nationality.

Xiangfangyan

Also known as Xiang dialect or Hunan dialect, it is one of the seven major dialects of Chinese, with a small geographical area. There are many different dialects in Hunan province, and Xiang dialect is the most influential one.

Hunan dialect is popular in Yueyang, Nanxian, Miluo, Xiangyin, Yuanjiang, Yiyang, Taojiang, Anhua, Ningxiang, Changsha, Wangcheng, Zhuzhou, Xiangtan, Xiangxiang, Shuangfeng, Lianyuan, Loudi, Xinhua, Lengshuijiang, Xupu, Chenxi, Shaoyang, Shaodong and Xinshao. In addition, counties such as Quanzhou, Guanyang, Ziyuan and Xing 'an in northern Guangxi also speak Hunan dialect. The estimated population is over 25 million.

Due to social, historical, geographical, political system reform and other factors, the south, north and west of ancient Xiang dialect have long been surrounded by Mandarin dialects, and the east is influenced by Hakka and Jiangxi dialects, which leads to the continuous change of phonetic system, and gradually forms a special situation in which the new Xiang dialect and the old Xiang dialect are obviously different but coexist. Geographically, the new and old Xiang dialects are only distributed in the north and south. Therefore, some people call it North Xiang dialect and South Xiang dialect, which are two dialects of Xiang dialect. The difference between the new Xiang dialect and the old Xiang dialect is mainly manifested in the phonetic system. The old Hunan dialect in the south is relatively conservative, and the ancient voiced initials are still mainly read; Influenced by the dialect of Mandarin, the northern Xinxiang dialect tends to be closer to Mandarin gradually, and the prominent phonetic performance is from complex to simple, and the ancient voiced initials have been generally pronounced as voiced initials. China Northern New Xiang Dialect is mainly used in northern and central Hunan, such as Changsha, Zhuzhou and Yiyang. The old Xiang dialect in the south of China is widely used in central Hunan, southeastern Shui Yuan, Xiangshui and western Zishui Valley, such as Xiangxiang, Shuangfeng, Shaoyang and Wugang.

Wu fangyan

Traditionally, it is called Wu dialect, also known as Jiangsu and Zhejiang dialect or Jiangnan dialect. "Wu" is a continuation of ancient regional names.

Wu dialect is spoken in southern Jiangsu, Shanghai, Zhejiang, northeastern Jiangxi, northwestern Fujian and parts of southern Anhui. There are about 1 10 counties and cities with a population of about 70 million. Details are as follows:

There are 2/kloc-0 counties and cities in Jiangsu Province that belong to or are dominated by Wu dialect: Danyang, Jintan, Gaochun, Liyang, Yixing, Wujin, Changzhou, Jiangyin, Shazhou, Jingjiang, Nantong, Haimen, Qidong, Changshu, Wuxi, Wuxi, Suzhou, Wuxian, Wujiang, Taicang and Kunshan. Kongzhen, Xinqiao and Baima in the south of Lishui County also belong to Wuyu District. Shanghai and its 10 counties: Shanghai, Songjiang, Qingpu, Jinshan, Fengxian, Chongming, Nanhui, Chuansha, Baoshan and Jiading all speak Wu dialect. Except for Chun 'an (including Old Sui 'an) and Jiande (including Old Shou Chang) in the west, Zhejiang Province is basically within the scope of Wu dialect, but Dongtou, Yuhuan, Pingyang, Cangnan, Taishun and Qingyuan in the south of Zhejiang Province are the staggered distribution areas of Wu dialect and Min dialect. Xiabao and Gantan in the north of Jiande County and the towns and villages in the east, and Tangcun, Liye and Dadiankou in the south still belong to Wuyu District. Yushan, Guangfeng, Shangrao and Shangrao in the northeast of Jiangxi Province are also Wu dialect areas. In addition, Pucheng County and its northern towns in the northwest corner of Fujian Province, Meizhu and Gangnan in the north of Langxi County in southern Anhui Province, Si Xia and Lucun in Guangde County also speak Wu dialect.

According to its linguistic features, Wu dialect can be divided into five types: Taihu dialect, Taizhou dialect, Dongou dialect, Wuzhou dialect and Liqu dialect.

Taihu Lake film is a northern Wu dialect film, including 265,438+0 counties and cities in Jiangsu Wu dialect, Shanghai and its subordinate counties, three old houses in Hangzhou, Jiaxing and Huzhou in Zhejiang, and two old houses in Ningbo and Shaoxing in eastern Zhejiang, represented by Shanghai dialect or Suzhou dialect. This area has the widest distribution area and the largest population, which can be further divided into six small areas: ① Changzhou small area, including Shazhou, Jiangyin, Wujin, Yixing and other counties and cities in southern Jiangsu in the west, some villages in langxi and Guangde in Anhui Province, Lao 'an dialect in Jingjiang and Jiangbei, and Tongdong dialect in eastern Nantong, Haimen and northern Qidong also belong to this small area. (2) Jiangsu film, including Shanghai stock market and its counties, Changshu and Wuxi, as well as southern Jiangsu to the east of Wu dialect, Jiaxing, Pinghu, Jiashan, Haiyan, Tongxiang and Haining in Zhejiang, Nantong and Haimen to the north of the Yangtze River and Qihai dialect to the south of Qidong, all belong to this film. ③ Small pieces of Huzhou, including Huzhou, Changxing, Anji, Deqing and Yuhang. (4) Hangzhou small piece, namely the urban area of Hangzhou and its suburbs. ⑤ Shaolin plot, including Lin 'an, Fuyang, Tonglu, Xiaoshan, Shaoxing, Shangyu, Zhuji, Xinchang, Yuyao, Cixi, Xiabao and towns east of Gantan in Jiande County. ⑥ Mingzhou small piece, including Ningbo, Yinxian, Zhenhai, Fenghua, Xiangshan, Ninghai, Dinghai, Putuo and Daishan.

Taizhou includes Tiantai, Sanmen, Linhai, Xianju, Huangyan, Jiaojiang, Wenling and Yuhuan. Taizhou dialect is also spoken in the area south of Tea Road in Ninghai County and north of Qingjiang River in Yueqing County. This piece is represented by Linhai dialect.

Dongou film is a Wenzhou film. Wenzhou dialect used to be called Ou dialect, which is popular in Wenzhou, Ouhai, Yongjia, Yueqing, Ruian, Pingyang, Wencheng, Dongtou, Cangnan and Qingtian. This piece is represented by Wenzhou dialect.

Wuzhou film includes Jinhua city, Lanxi, Pujiang, Yiwu, Dongyang, Wuyi, Yongkang and Pan 'an in Jinhua area of central Zhejiang, represented by Jinhua dialect.

Liqiu tablets include Chuzhou tablets and Longqu tablets: ① Chuzhou tablets include Jinyun, Lishui, Yunhe and Qingtian counties and Jingning She Autonomous County. Southern Wuyi County, Old Yiping County, Nantian District of wencheng county, northern Taishun County and northeastern Qingyuan County also belong to this small piece. ② Small pieces of Longqu, including Longquan, Qingyuan, Songyang, Suichang, Jiangshan, Changshan, Hua Kai, Quzhou and Longyou. The northern part of Pucheng County in Fujian Province, and Yushan, Guangfeng, Shangrao and Shangrao cities in Jiangxi Province also belong to this small piece. This piece is represented by Lishui dialect.

Cantonese

Also known as Cantonese, commonly known as Cantonese and Guangfu dialect, and called vernacular by local people, it is a dialect with complicated language phenomena, more ancient sounds and characters and less internal differences among the seven major Chinese dialects.

Guangzhou dialect is popular in Guangdong and Guangxi, centering on Guangzhou dialect. The user population is around 40 million. The visit area is roughly as follows:

There are 47 counties and cities in Guangdong Province that are pure Cantonese dialect or mainly Cantonese dialect, accounting for more than 1/3 of the total area of the province, namely Guangzhou, Foshan, Zhaoqing, Jiangmen, Shenzhen, Maoming, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Nanhai, Panyu, Dongguan, Shunde, Longmen, Fogang, Zengcheng, Conghua, Huaxian, Qingyuan, Lianxian and Yangxian. In addition, Cantonese is also spoken in Huizhou, Shaoguan, Zhanjiang, Haifeng, Boluo, Huiyang, Huidong, Renhua, Lechang, Yingde, Baoan, Dianbai, Suixi, Haikang, Xuwen and Lianjiang 16 counties and cities.

There are 23 counties and cities in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region that speak Cantonese, namely Nanning, Hengxian, Guixian, Guiping, Pingnan, tengxian, Wuzhou, Yulin, Beiliu, Rongxian, Bobai, Luchuan, Qinzhou, Hepu, Pubei, Lingshan, Beihai, Cangwu, Cenxi, Zhaoping, Mengshan, Hexian and Zhongshan. In addition, there are many overseas Chinese whose mother tongue is Cantonese, who are mainly distributed in Southeast Asia, North and South America, Australia, New Zealand and other countries. Almost more than 90% of overseas Chinese and Chinese Americans come from Cantonese dialect areas.

According to its linguistic features and geographical distribution, Cantonese can be divided into four parts: ① Cantonese is mainly distributed in the Pearl River Delta, central Guangdong, southwest Guangdong and parts of northern Guangdong Province, which is the most populous and widely used part of Cantonese, represented by Cantonese, and has great representation and influence in Cantonese. ② Siyi tablets, mainly distributed in Taishan, Kaiping, Enping, Xinhui, Doumen and other counties, represented by Taishan dialect. (3) Levin, mainly distributed in Zhanjiang and Maoming counties, and Yangjiang and Yangchun counties in Jiangmen, represented by Yangjiang dialect. ④ South Guangxi is mainly distributed in Nanning, Hengxian, Guixian, Guiping, Pingnan, tengxian and Wuzhou along Yongjiang, Yujiang and Jiang Xun in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Yulin, Beiliu, Rongxian, Bobai and Luchuan counties in Yulin region, and Qinzhou, Hepu, Pubei, Lingshan, Beihai and Wuzhou regions in Qinzhou region. Its pronunciation is consistent, but there are some differences. According to their internal similarities and differences, southern Guangxi can be divided into four dialects: Guangfu dialect, Yongxun dialect, Goulou dialect and Qinlian dialect.

Minfangyan

Also known as Min dialect, commonly known as "Fulao dialect", it is a dialect with the most complicated language phenomenon and the biggest internal difference among the seven major dialects in Chinese.

The popular areas of Min dialect are mainly in Fujian, Guangdong, Taiwan Province, southern Zhejiang and parts of Jiangxi, Guangxi and Jiangsu. The user population is around 40 million. The specific locations are as follows: 54 counties and cities in Fujian Province: Fuzhou, Minhou, Changle, Fuqing, Pingtan, Lianjiang, Luoyuan, Minqing, Yongtai, Gutian, Pingnan, Ningde, Xiapu, Zhouning, Shouning, Fuan, Zherong, Fuding, Putian, Xianyou, Xiamen, Jinmen, Quanzhou and Jinjiang. The above areas account for about 3/4 of the province's area.

12 counties and cities in eastern Guangdong: Shantou, Chaozhou, Chenghai, Raoping, South Australia, Jieyang, Jiexi, Puning, Huilai, Chaoyang, Lufeng, Haifeng, Huidong, Fengshun, Tai Po and some other counties; 14 counties and cities in Hainan Island: Haikou, Qiongshan, Wenchang, Qionghai, Wanning, Lingshui, Sanya, Yaxian, Qiongzhong, Tunchang, Ding 'an, Chengmai, Changjiang and Dongfang (except for ethnic minority areas); Five counties and cities in Leizhou Peninsula: Zhanjiang, Suixi, Lianjiang, Haikang and Xuwen. In addition, some districts and townships in Zhongshan, Yangjiang and Dianbai, which are mainly Cantonese, also speak Min dialect. The above area accounts for about 1/3 of the whole province.

In 2 1 counties and cities in Taiwan Province Province, except for Gaoshan ethnic minority areas, which account for about 2% of the population, and Zhongli, Zhudong, Miaoli and Hsinchu areas between Taipei and Changhua, as well as Pingtung and Kaohsiung counties and cities in the south, and parts of Hualien and Taitung in the east, the rest Han residents speak Hakka dialect, accounting for more than 3/4 of the total population. Most areas in Taishun, Cangnan, Dongtou and Yuhuan counties in southern Zhejiang, a few areas in western Pingyang county, and some areas in Putuo and Shengsi counties in Zhoushan Islands also speak Min dialect.

A total of 120 counties and cities use Min dialect. In addition, Fujian dialect is also spoken in a few places in Yushan, Qianshan, Shangrao and Guangfeng counties in the northeast corner of Jiangxi Province, Guiping and Beiliu counties in the south-central part of Guangxi Province, and Yixing and Liyang counties in Jiangsu Province. Among the overseas Chinese living in Nanyang Islands and Indo-China Peninsula, millions of people have used Min dialect as their "mother tongue" for generations. In Chinese communities in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar and China, Min dialect is also one of the main social communication languages.

According to its linguistic features, Fujian dialect can be roughly divided into five dialects: Minnan dialect, Mindong dialect, Minbei dialect, Minzhong dialect and Puxian dialect. Minnan dialect is one of the most populous and extensive dialects in Fujian. Including 24 counties and cities in Fujian Province centered on Xiamen, Zhangzhou and Quanzhou. Fujian dialect, which is popular outside Fujian province, basically belongs to Minnan dialect. Minnan dialect is represented by Xiamen dialect, while Chaozhou dialect and Wenchang dialect also have great influence in eastern Guangdong and Hainan Island respectively.

Fujian Oriental dialect is popular in the eastern part of Fujian Province, including the lower reaches of the Minjiang River with Fuzhou as the center and the mountainous areas with Fu 'an as the center. *** 18 counties and cities are represented by Fuzhou dialect.

Northern Fujian dialect is popular in Jian 'ou, Jianyang, Nanping (township), Chong 'an, Songxi, Zhenghe and Pucheng (south) in northern Fujian, with Jian 'ou dialect as the representative.

Minzhong dialect is popular in Yong 'an, Sanming and Shaxian areas in central Fujian, represented by Yong 'an dialect. Puxian dialect is popular in Putian and Xianyou along the eastern coast of Fujian, with Putian dialect as the representative.

Main linguistic features: ① Initial consonants: The initial consonants of Min dialects in different places are relatively consistent, only 15, which is called the "fifteen-tone" system. Many initials retain the characteristics of ancient Chinese:

A. no initials f for lips and teeth. In ancient times, some spoken words without initials were pronounced as p- and pronounced as h- (or x-), which was called "light lips return to heavy lips".

B. Know the initials in ancient times clearly and read t- more, which is the so-called "tongue to tongue".

C. The ancient voiced initials are also separated from Cheng Qun's words into unvoiced sounds and unvoiced sounds, and a few of them are pronounced aspirated.

D. The oral pronunciation of the ancient box initials in Fujian dialect is k- or zero initials.

E. The initials of Guzhao film are mixed with those of Gu Jing film.

② Vowels: There are great differences in vowels in different areas of Min dialect, mainly as follows:

A. The vowels of Min dialect retain the nasal and stop sounds in the ancient sound to varying degrees. Among them, Minnan dialect is relatively complete, Mindong dialect and Puxian dialect are less preserved, and there are almost no stops in Minbei dialect and Minzhong dialect, only nasal vowels.

B. There are different pronunciations of Chinese and Bai in Min dialect to varying degrees, especially in Min dialect, and almost both Chinese and Bai pronunciations are systematic.

C. Many areas of Min dialect (especially Minnan dialect) have rich nasal rhymes.

D. There are no vowels in many areas of Min dialect. For example, Xiamen, Chaozhou and Taipei in Minnan dialect have no Y rhyme.

E. There is a phenomenon of "double rhyme endings" in some areas of Min dialect, which is mainly manifested in three dialect areas: eastern Fujian, northern Fujian and central Fujian.

③ Tone: There are entering tones in all parts of Min dialect, and the number of tones is 6-8, with 7 being the most common. Chaozhou dialect in Minnan dialect has eight tones of flat, rising, qu and entering tone, which are divided into yin and yang; Jian 'ou dialect in northern Fujian and Yong 'an dialect in central Fujian have only six tones: northern Fujian is flat, but there is no distinction between yin and yang; In Fujian, it is flat, divided into yin and yang, regardless of yin and yang. In places with seven tones, Minnan dialect is spread all over Xiamen, Taipei, Hainan and southern Zhejiang, Puxian dialect is spread all over Putian and Xianyou, and Mindong dialect is spread all over Fuzhou and Fu 'an. There are also complex phonetic changes in Min dialect, in which the tone sandhi rules of Minnan dialect and Minzhong dialect are quite neat, and the phonetic changes of Mindong dialect and Puxian dialect involve the changes of initials and finals. Take the tone sandhi of Chaozhou dialect as an example.

In terms of vocabulary, there are a large number of dialect words that are common in this dialect area but rare in other dialect areas. These dialect words have two characteristics: first, they inherit many ancient words, and second, they have many monosyllabic words. For example, "eggs" (eggs). "Mu" (mesh), "dirt" (dirt), "exposure" (sun exposure) and "beating" (beating) can all be found in ancient books, and they are also monosyllabic words. In addition, some Fujian dialect words are borrowed from foreign languages. Most of these loanwords are borrowed from Indonesian-Malay, which has formed a unique color in Fujian dialect vocabulary. For example, in Xiamen dialect, "Wen Xue" (soap) comes from sabon, "Dao Lang" (help) comes from tolong, "Dongge" (cane) comes from tongkat, and "pour" comes from chium. There are also some dialect words whose origins are difficult to identify, such as "Yang" (flogging).

In the five films of Min dialect, each film has many dialect words, but there are also many dialect words that only exist in some places. Generally speaking, among the five Fujian dialect films, the three coastal films of eastern Fujian, southern Fujian and Puxian are similar in vocabulary, while the two films of northern Fujian and central Fujian are different from those of eastern Fujian, southern Fujian and Puxian in many terms.

Grammatical aspect

(1) The use of noun additional components.

② The use of singular and plural personal pronouns.

③ Omit the numeral "one" and the demonstratives "this" and "that". The numeral "one" or demonstrative pronouns "this" and "that" before quantifiers in Fujian dialect can often be omitted, and quantifiers are directly combined with nouns. For example, in Chaozhou dialect, "Zhang Hua is absolutely elegant" (this painting is very beautiful) and "A chicken is fat to death" (this chicken is very fat). Related to this, demonstrative pronouns "this" and "that" cannot directly modify nouns, such as "this person is very good" in Putonghua is "only one person is very good" in Min dialect, but not "only one person is very good"; Similarly, "this book" can only be said to be "a book", not "a book".

④ The structure of "adjective-quantifier-noun" is common in all parts of Min dialect, but there are not many adjectives that can be directly combined with quantifiers, and the most commonly used ones are "big" and "small". For example, "Daniel" and "bubble lamp" in Xiamen dialect.

⑤ Special usage of the verb "you". The verb "you" in Min language has many uses, one of which is put in front of the verb to indicate the perfect tense. For example, Fuzhou dialect "I received your approval" (I received your letter), Xiamen dialect "I have food but I have no food" (he ate but I didn't eat), Taipei dialect "I bought it" (I bought it) and Chaozhou dialect "Do you have a movie?" Have you seen this movie?

6. Advanced objects are common. For example, the saying "apples buy two pounds" (buy two pounds of apples) is very common. In the "subject-verb-object" sentence pattern of Putonghua, a preposition "* * *" (or "A") is often added, and the object is placed in front of the verb, such as "I * * * you say" (I'll tell you).

⑦ The verb "qu" is often used as a complement, indicating that the action has become a result, which means "already", such as "flying away" (already flying), "dead" (already dead) and "broken bowl" (already broken bowl).

⑧ Special way of comparison. Comparative sentences in Min dialect have a special structure. Min dialect in Fujian, Taiwan and Fujian is often represented by "A Jiao-adjective -B", such as "It is more important than me" in Xiamen dialect and "Kaohsiung is greater than Hsinchu" in Taipei dialect. There is a simpler expression: "A- adjective -B", such as "Yi Xuan (Gao) I" in Fuzhou dialect. The contrast between Fujian dialects in Guangdong Province (Chaozhou dialect and Hainan dialect) is slightly different: "A- adjective-Guo -B", such as Chaozhou dialect: "Cows are bigger than pigs". In the equation comparison of Min dialect, the adjective "Ping" is often used to mean "the same", such as "I * * * Yi Pingxuan" (I am as tall as him).

The expression of "ba" sentence. The expression of "ba" sentence in Min dialect is to bring the object in front and add a "ba it" after it, that is, "object-plus-verb", which is widely used in Min dialect.

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Also known as Gan dialect, it is a dialect with the smallest area and population among the seven major dialect areas in Chinese. Gan dialect is not "Jiangxi dialect". In addition to Gan dialect, there are Hakka dialect, Wu dialect and Jianghuai mandarin in Jiangxi province, and there are also Gan dialects in the surrounding provinces of Jiangxi. Because Gan dialect and Hakka dialect have many common features, some linguists think that they can be merged into a large dialect area called Hakka dialect.

Jiangxi dialect is popular in central and northern Jiangxi province, eastern Hunan and northwestern Fujian. Dialects popular in some counties and cities in southeastern Hubei and southwestern Anhui are similar to Gan dialect in characteristics, and some scholars believe that they can also be classified as Gan dialect.

More than 60 counties and cities in Jiangxi Province speak Gan dialect. Including Nanchang, Jingdezhen (urban area), Pingxiang, Yichun, Fuzhou and Jinggangshan: Nanchang, Xinjian, Anyi, Jing 'an, Fengxin, Gao 'an, Yifeng, Tonggu (some people think Hakka is popular), Shanggao, Wanzai, Fenyi, Xinyu, Qingjiang, Fengcheng, Jinxian, Dongxiang and Linchuan. Most counties and cities in Ganzhou are Boyang, Yugan, Wannian, yingtan, Guixi, yujiang county, Yiyang, Hengfeng, Lead Mountain, Leping, Yongxiu, De 'an, Xing Zi, Duchang, Pengze, Wuning, Xiushui and Guangping. In addition, there are 13 counties in the eastern border of Hunan Province: Linxiang, Pingjiang, Liuyang, Liling, Youxian, Chaling, Lingxian, Guidong, Rucheng, Changning, Zixing and Anren. Some people think that Yueyang and Yongxing also belong to the Gan dialect area. Four counties and cities in northwest Fujian: Shaowu, Guangze, Jianning and Taining; Eight counties bordering Jiangxi in southeastern Hubei: Tongcheng, Puyin, Chongyang, Tongshan, Yangxin, Xianning, Jiayu and Daye; According to the preliminary understanding, the dialects of Wangjiang, Dongzhi, Susong, Huaining, Taihu Lake, Buried Hill, Yuexi, Tongcheng and other counties in Anqing, southwest Anhui Province are similar to Gan dialect, but their attribution is uncertain at present, and they may also be classified as Gan dialect. The user population is around 30 million.

Zheng Zhangshangfang, a researcher at the Institute of Linguistics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, called for urgent efforts to save endangered dialects in Zhejiang like endangered animals. Experts point out that dialect is a huge wealth and an important aspect in the chain of social life. Colorful dialects reflect the colorful world, and the changes of dialects reflect the changes of society, which is worth studying. Endangered dialects need to be rescued, which is also valuable.

Endangered Chinese Dialect (Cao Zhiyun)

1. 1 What is an endangered dialect?

Are there any endangered dialects in Chinese dialects? Everyone's views on this issue seem unclear or inconsistent. To answer this question, we need to find out what an endangered dialect is and how to judge it.

"Endangered" means "close to a dangerous situation" (modern Chinese dictionary), which is endangered for languages or dialects. According to this understanding, there are undoubtedly some endangered phenomena in Chinese dialects.

Judging from the change and extinction of language, there are two main types of Chinese dialects: mutation and gradual change. Mutation refers to the strong impact of the weak dialect, and finally completely abandon the weak dialect and use the strong dialect. Mutation and extinction often take several generations to complete, and there will generally be a transitional stage in which weak dialects and strong dialects coexist and both languages are used together. The variation of Chinese dialects we can see today is usually like this: the elderly only use weak dialects; Young and middle-aged people use both weak dialects and strong dialects, among which middle-aged people mainly use weak dialects and young people mainly use strong dialects; Children basically only use strong dialects. Gradual change means that under the influence and impact of the strong dialect, the weak dialect gradually wears away and loses some original special components while absorbing the strong dialect components, making its language system develop and evolve in the direction of the strong dialect.

The endangered Chinese dialects we are talking about here mainly refer to dialects in the process of variation. But in fact, it is entirely possible for progressive dialects to become endangered dialects, but this process is very long and generally not easy to observe.

1.2 endangered dialects and endangered languages

In some people's view, the phenomenon of language endangerment only occurs in some minority languages with a very small population, while the population of Chinese dialects is hundreds of millions, so it is impossible to be endangered. Or think that some Chinese dialects are endangered, and the rapid integration and convergence of Chinese dialects are only natural phenomena in the process of internal language adjustment and standardization of Chinese, which can not be compared with the endangered minority languages, so there is no need to make a fuss.

For the first view, we believe that the factor directly related to whether a language is endangered is not the number of users, but the strength of users-although there is a close relationship between the two. Endangered languages are associated with vulnerable groups. Chinese dialect is a very huge concept, and how to divide it internally and to what extent it is regarded as "dialect" is still inconclusive. If Chinese dialects are regarded as a whole, or even if they are divided into 10 dialects according to the current method, it can be predicted that Chinese dialects will not be in danger of "endangered" for a long historical period. However, the great differences between Chinese dialects, especially the southeast dialects, are obvious to all. The so-called "Wu dialect" and "Min dialect" can only be regarded as "a dialect area" but not as "a dialect". If we can regard the dialects in Wu dialect area as "multiple dialects", we can immediately see that these dialects have different populations, different forces and different vitality, and some of them are in an endangered state or on the verge of extinction. Of course, we also admit that in practice, it is much more difficult to identify endangered dialects than endangered languages.

Regarding the second view, we believe that dialect is a communication tool and thinking tool for people in a certain area, which is related to the regional culture of a certain area. Therefore, just like a national language, the disappearance of a dialect means the permanent loss of communication and thinking tools handed down from generation to generation by local people, the permanent loss of carriers and important components of local unique regional culture, and the serious destruction of human language and cultural diversity. Therefore, the phenomenon of dialect endangerment is also a serious problem before us, which deserves our great attention. Of course, people who switch to other Chinese dialects or Putonghua will not lose their national culture because of the differences and unity of Han culture. In this respect, endangered dialects are different from endangered languages.

1.3 Why are there endangered dialects?

People everywhere will never stop talking. On the other hand, local dialects have rich and perfect expression systems. The root cause of dialect extinction is that its "usefulness" and "function" are getting less and less. In short, it is because it is "useless". In today's Chinese dialects, the phenomenon of "useless" dialects is becoming more and more common and serious, and more and more "useless" dialects appear. In fact, compared with the languages of the disadvantaged ethnic groups in the same situation, the situation of the disadvantaged Chinese dialects is more difficult, mainly for the following reasons:

(1) Dialects are not clearly defined in the language policy, and the language status is low.

(2) The application scope is extremely limited. For example, at present, dialects are generally not allowed to be used in schools, public affairs, media and other formal occasions, and even the use of dialects is decreasing in many families.

(3) There are no words, no written language and no written documents (except Cantonese).

Two Endangered Chinese Dialects

2. 1 As mentioned above, because the internal division of Chinese dialects is far from concrete, it is still very difficult to identify which dialects belong to endangered dialects. At present, we can say that "a certain dialect" or "a certain dialect" is an endangered dialect. However, the specific number, distribution and endangered degree of endangered Chinese dialects can not be described yet. Here we can only roughly summarize the types of endangered Chinese dialects and give a few examples.

2.2 At present, the most conspicuous endangered dialects are weak dialect islands with a small population and surrounded by strong dialects, such as Yujia dialect with nine surnames in Zhejiang and some She dialect islands.

Fishermen with nine surnames were a pariah in old China. They are centered in Meicheng Town, jiande city (formerly under the jurisdiction of Yanzhou government) at the intersection of three rivers in western Zhejiang, and mainly distributed in Xin 'anjiang, Lanjiang and Fuchunjiang (Qili Hajime Taki section), namely Jiande, Lanxi and Tonglu.

Traditional fishermen with nine surnames use boat dialect at home and communicate with locals in local dialect. Nowadays, only people in their seventies and eighties can speak authentic ship language. Middle-aged people are greatly influenced by local dialects, and often unconsciously mix the components of local dialects into the dialects on board. Teenagers' main life activities are in non-nine-surname fishermen's society. They can't speak the boat dialect well and have less and less opportunities to use it. It is estimated that in another ten years, the words on the ship will basically disappear.

Most She people use a Chinese dialect close to Hakka dialect-She dialect. She people live, study and work in the sea of Wang Yang, where Han people live, study and work, so they must learn to use strong local dialects. According to the author's observation, there are fewer and fewer opportunities for young She people in Jinhua, Suichang, Yunhe and other counties in Zhejiang to use the She dialect. In some She villages, young people no longer learn to use She dialects (such as Dakeng Village in Jinhua County), and in some She villages, no one can speak She dialects (such as Geuta Village in Jinhua County). If this development continues, it is expected that the islands of She dialect in these areas will gradually die out.

2.3 In the border area between two dialects, if the strength of the two dialects is not equal, the following situations will generally occur: (1) The strong dialect affects and impacts the weak dialect, and the weak dialect moves closer to the strong dialect; (2) The use and territory of weak dialects are shrinking and gradually eroded by strong dialects; (3) The users of weak dialects become bilingual users of weak dialects and strong dialects, and in some cases will gradually become monolingual users of strong dialects. This phenomenon can often be seen in the border area between Mandarin dialect and other dialects. For example, some areas in the northern part of the original Wu dialect (such as Nanjing) have been transformed into Jianghuai Mandarin. At the junction of Xiang dialect and Mandarin today, some Xiang dialects are in the process of "Southwest Mandarin", such as the northwest of Xiang dialect.