Lower Yangtze Mandarin

Dialect of Mandarin

Lower Yangtze Mandarin

Jianghuai Mandarin, Huai Chinese
Region| Between the Huai and Yangtze Rivers, primarily in central Anhui, Jiangsu, and eastern Hubei
Ethnicity| Jianghuai people
Subei people
Speakers| 86.05 million (2012)[1]

Language family

Sino-Tibetan

* Sinitic
* Chinese
* Mandarin
* Lower Yangtze Mandarin

Writing system

| Written vernacular Chinese
Language codes
ISO 639-3| None (`mis`)
ISO 639-6| `juai`
Glottolog| `jing1262`
Linguasphere| `79-AAA-bi`

[image reference needed]

Huang–Xiao

Western Hongchao

Eastern Hongchao

Tong-Tai / Tai–Ru

Lower Yangtze Mandarin (traditional Chinese: 下江官話; simplified Chinese: 下江官话; pinyin: Xiàjiāng Guānhuà) is one of the most divergent and least mutually-intelligible of the Mandarin language varieties, as it neighbours the Wu, Hui, and Gan groups of Sinitic languages. It is also known as Jiang–Huai Mandarin (traditional Chinese: 江淮官話; simplified Chinese: 江淮官话; pinyin: Jiānghuái Guānhuà), named after the Yangtze (Jiang) and Huai Rivers. Lower Yangtze is distinguished from most other Mandarin varieties by the retention of a final glottal stop in words that ended in a stop consonant in Middle Chinese.

During the Ming dynasty and early Qing dynasty, the lingua franca of administration was based on Lower Yangtze Mandarin. In the 19th century the base shifted to the Beijing dialect.

## Geographic distribution

[edit]

Lower Yangtze Mandarin is spoken in central Anhui, eastern Hubei, most of Jiangsu north of the Yangtze, as well as the area around Nanjing.[2] The number of speakers was estimated in 1987 at 67 million.[3]

## Subgrouping

[edit]

The Language Atlas of China divides Lower Yangtze Mandarin into three branches:[1][4]

Hongchao dialects
The largest and most widespread branch, mostly concentrated in Jiangsu and Anhui provinces, with smaller areas in Zhejiang province. The best-known variety is Nanjing dialect. Other cities in the area are Hefei in the west and Yangzhou, Zhenjiang and Yancheng in the east.
Tong-Tai / Tai–Ru
Mostly spoken in the eastern Jiangsu prefectures of Taizhou and Nantong (including Rugao).
Huang–Xiao
Mostly spoken in the prefectures of Huanggang and Xiaogan in eastern Hubei province and the area around Jiujiang in northern Jiangxi, with an island in western Hubei around Zhushan, and another in Anhui around Anqing.

There are also small islands of Jianghuai Mandarin (Jūnjiāhuà 軍家話) throughout Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan and Fujian provinces, brought to these areas during the Ming dynasty by soldiers from Jiangsu, Anhui and Henan during the reign of Hongwu Emperor.

The Huizhou dialects, spoken in southern Anhui, share different features with Wu, Gan and Lower Yangtze Mandarin, making them difficult to classify. Earlier scholars had assigned to them one or other of those groups or to a top-level group of their own.[5][6] The Atlas adopted the latter position, but it remains controversial.[7]

### Relations to other groups

[edit]

The relationship of the Lower Yangtze Mandarin varieties to other varieties of Chinese has been an ongoing subject of debate. One quantitative study from the late 20th century by linguist Chin-Chuan Cheng focused on vocabulary lists, yielding the result that Eastern dialects of Jianghuai cluster with the Xiang and Gan varieties, whilst Northern and Southern Mandarin, despite being supposedly "genetically" related, were not in the original 35-word list. In the 100-word list they did cluster, albeit with other varieties.[8]

Some Chinese linguists like Ting have claimed that Jianghuai is mostly Wu containing a superstratum of Mandarin;[9] for example, the frequency and usage of the postposition 阿 as a postverbal aspect marker in the Taixing dialect of Jianghuai Mandarin can be seen as intermediate between Standard Mandarin, which tends to omit postverbal prepositions, and the Wu varieties, which tend towards omission of preverbal prepositions.[10]

When vowels from Jianghuai Mandarin and Wu were compared to dialects from China's southeastern coast, it was concluded "that chain-type shifts in Chinese follow the same general rules as have been revealed by Labov for American and British English dialects."[11]

Dialogue from literature published in Yangzhou, such as the 18th-century novel Qingfengzha (simplified Chinese: 清风闸; traditional Chinese: 清風閘; pinyin: Qīng Fēng Zhá), contains evidence of a Jianghuai dialect being an expression of identity clearly differentiated from that of others: locals spoke the dialect, as opposed to sojourners, who spoke Huizhou dialect or Wu dialects. Large numbers of merchants from Huizhou lived in Yangzhou and effectively were responsible for keeping the town economically afloat.[12]

Professor Richard VanNess Simmons has claimed that the Hangzhou dialect, rather than being Wu as it was classified by Yuen Ren Chao, is a Mandarin dialect closely related to Jianghuai Mandarin. Simmons claimed that, had Chao compared the Hangzhou dialect to the Common Wu syllabary that Chao developed, as well as to Jianghuai Mandarin, he would have found more similarities to Jianghuai than to Wu.[13]

## Phonology

[edit]

A characteristic feature of Lower Yangtze Mandarin is the treatment of Middle Chinese syllable-final stops. Middle Chinese syllables with vocalic or nasal codas had a three-way tonal contrast. Syllables with stop codas (-p, -t and -k) had no phonemic tonal contrast, but were traditionally treated as comprising a fourth category, called the entering tone. In modern Mandarin varieties, the former three-way contrast has been reorganized as four tones that are generally consistent across the group, though the pitch values of the tones vary considerably.[14] In most varieties, including the Beijing dialect on which Standard Chinese is based, the final stops have disappeared, and these syllables have been divided between the tones in different ways in different subgroups.[15] In Lower Yangtze Mandarin, however, the stop codas have merged as a glottal stop, but these syllables remain separate from the four tonal categories shared with other Mandarin varieties.[16] A similar development is also found in the adjacent Wu dialect group, and in the Jin group, which many linguists include within Mandarin.[17][18]

In Lower Yangtze varieties, the initial /n-/ has merged with /l-/. These initials have also merged in Southwestern Mandarin, but as /n-/; most other Mandarin varieties distinguish these initials.[19] The Middle Chinese retroflex initials have merged with affricate initials in non-Mandarin varieties, and also in Southwestern Mandarin and most Lower Yangtze varieties. However, the Nanjing dialect retains the distinction, like northern Mandarin varieties.[20] Most Lower Yangtze varieties retain a /ʐ-/ initial, but in central Jiangsu (including Yangzhou) it has merged with /l-/.[20] The Tai–Ru varieties of eastern-central Jiangsu retain a distinct /ŋ-/ initial, but this has merged with the zero initial in other Mandarin varieties.[20]

It has been claimed that the Jianghuai varieties of Mandarin around Nanjing are an exception to the normal occurrence of the three medials [i], [y] and [u] in Mandarin, along with eastern Shanxi and some Southwestern Mandarin dialects.[21]

## Literary and colloquial readings

[edit]

The existence of literary and colloquial readings is a notable feature of Lower Yangtze Mandarin.[22]

Example | Colloquial reading | Literary reading | Meaning | Standard Mandarin pronunciation

|
|
|
|

斜 | tɕia | tɕiɪ | oblique | ɕiɛ
摘 | tiɪʔ | tsəʔ | pick | tʂai
去 | kʰɪ | tɕʰy | go | tɕʰy
锯 | ka | tɕy | cut | tɕy
下 | xa | ɕia | down | ɕia
横 | xoŋ | xən | across | xəŋ
严 | æ̃ | iɪ̃ | strict | ian [jɛn]
挂 | kʰuɛ | kua | hang | kua
蹲 | sən | tən | crouch | tuən
虹 | kaŋ | xoŋ | rainbow | xoŋ

## History

[edit]

### Early history

[edit]

The original dialect of Nanjing in the Eastern Jin dynasty was a form of Wu Chinese. After the Wu Hu uprising, the Jin Emperor and many northern Chinese fled south, bringing their variety of Chinese with them. The new capital of Eastern Jin was established at Jiankang (Chinese: 建康; pinyin: Jiànkāng), now Nanjing, thus shifting the local speech from a Wu variety to a variety of Mandarin. However, due to its role as capital and events such as Hou Jing's rebellions during the Liang dynasty and the Sui dynasty invasion of the Chen dynasty, Jiankang was destroyed and rebuilt several times.[23]

Immigrants from Northern China during the middle of the Song dynasty brought a superstratum variety, which became the source of literary readings for both Northern Wu and Jianghuai Mandarin.[24]

### Ming dynasty

[edit]

Jianghuai Mandarin was likely the native variety of the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, and also of many of his military and civil officials. Many southerners from below the Yangtze were relocated to Nanjing, which had been designated the capital.[25][23] Thus formed the foundation for the Mandarin (simplified Chinese: 官话; traditional Chinese: 官話; pinyin: Guānhuà), the court dialect or koiné, of the early Ming era.[26]

Western missionaries and Korean Hangul writings of the Ming Guanhua and the Nanjing dialect provide evidence that Guanhua was a koiné and mixture of various dialects, strongly based on Jianghuai. For example, it retained the distinction between final -/n/ and -/ŋ/, which was merged early on in Jianghuai Mandarin, including in Nanjing.[27][28]

Nonetheless, some non-Nanjing characteristics can be clearly discerned in official court Mandarin. Matteo Ricci's Dicionário Português-Chinês in its description of Ming dynasty Mandarin documented a number of words that appear to be derived from Jianghuai Mandarin dialect, such as "pear, jujube, shirt, ax, hoe, joyful, to speak, to bargain, to know, to urinate, to build a house, busy, and not yet."[29] It also provides evidence for some key differences in phonology between court Mandarin and Nanjing Mandarin. For example, the court koine followed eastern and southeastern variants of Jianghuai in using rounded finals in lexemes such as 全 (/tsʰyon/) and 船 (/tʂʰuɔn/), whilst in the Nanjing dialect these are pronounced with unrounded vowels (in this example, /tsʰyɛn/ and /tʂʰuɛn/ respectively).[30]

In the early Ming period, Wu speakers moved into the eastern regions of Jiangsu, giving rise to the Tong-Tai branch, whilst Gan speakers from Jiangxi moved into the regions further west of the Lower Yangtze, giving rise to the Huang–Xiao varieties.[31] Jianghuai speakers also moved into Hui dialect areas.[32]

Even though in 1421 the Ming dynasty moved its political and administrative capital from Nanjing to Beijing, the Jianghuai-based pronunciation centered on Nanjing retained prestige throughout the late Ming.[33] In the late seventeenth century, Francisco Varo advised that to learn Chinese, one must acquire it from "Not just any Chinese, but only those who have the natural gift of speaking the Mandarin language well, such as those natives of the Province of Nan king, and of other provinces where the Mandarin tongue is spoken well."[34]

### Qing dynasty

[edit]

Jianghuai Mandarin, along with Northern Mandarin, formed the standard for Baihua before and during the Qing dynasty. It was only in the mid-1800s that the northern standard based on the Beijing dialect gained dominance in its influence on the Baihua standard.[33] Baihua was used by writers all over China, regardless of the dialect spoken, thus bringing a familiarity with the written norms of Jianghuai Mandarin to readers of vernacular literature across the country. Chinese writers who spoke other dialects had to use the grammar and the vocabulary of Jianghuai and Northern Mandarin for the majority of Chinese people to understand their writing.[35]

The origin of Peking opera is associated with the dialect, with many of the mid to late eighteenth century opera troupes entertaining the Qing court in Beijing coming from the provinces of Anhui and Hubei that spoke various dialects, including varieties of Jianghuai Mandarin.[36] Additionally, Huangmei opera, from Anqing in Anhui Province, makes substantial use of its local dialect.[37]

### Contemporary history

[edit]

Jianghuai Mandarin has been overtaking Wu as the language variety of multiple counties in Jiangsu in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. An example is the former Zaicheng Town (Chinese: 在城镇; pinyin: Zàichéng zhèn), in Lishui County, Nanjing (Chinese: 溧水; pinyin: Lìshuǐ). Both Jianghuai and Wu were spoken in several towns in Lishui, with Wu being spoken by more people in more towns than Jianghuai. Wu is called "old Zaicheng Speech", and Jianghuai dialect is called "new Zaicheng speech", with Wu being limited to a small community of elderly, speaking it to relatives. The Jianghuai dialect was present there for about a century, even though all the surrounding areas around the town are Wu-speaking. Jianghuai was always confined to the urban area itself until the 1960s, but it has now overtaken Wu.[38]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Li (2012), p. 75.
2. ^ Norman (1988), p. 191.
3. ^ Yan (2006), p. 64.
4. ^ Kurpaska (2010), p. 67.
5. ^ Yan (2006), pp. 222–223.
6. ^ Kurpaska (2010), pp. 43–44, 48.
7. ^ Kurpaska (2010), pp. 69, 75–76.
8. ^ Hamed, Mahé Ben (22 May 2005). "Neighbour-nets portray the Chinese dialect continuum and the linguistic legacy of China's demic history". Proc Biol Sci. 272 (1567): 1015–1022\. doi:10.1098/rspb.2004.3015. PMC 1599877. PMID 16024359. "There is much conflict between and within Mandarin and Wu, which do not cluster for the 35 and 100 wordlists (figure 2). For the 35 wordlist, the Eastern Jianghuai Mandarin dialects (Yingshan, Wuhan) cluster with their geographical neighbours Xiang and Gan, but do not cluster with their putative genetic northern and southern Mandarin relatives."
9. ^ Sun-Ah Jun (2005). Sun-Ah Jun (ed.). Prosodic typology: the phonology of intonation and phrasing, Volume 1 (illustrated ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 233\. ISBN 978-0-19-924963-3. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
10. ^ Dan Xu (2008). Dan Xu (ed.). Space in languages of China: cross-linguistic, synchronic and diachronic perspectives (illustrated ed.). Springer. p. 65\. ISBN 978-1-4020-8320-4. Retrieved 14 September 2023. "Examples of such markers include 阿[a/ia/ua/ka/0a] (at, to; perfective and durative marker) in the Taixing dialect, Jianghuai Mandarin (cf. Li R. 1957),倒[ tno] (at, to; durative marker)"
11. ^ École des hautes études en sciences sociales, École pratique des hautes études (France). Section des sciences économiques et sociales (1985). Revue bibliographique de sinologie, Volume 3. Editions de l'Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales. p. 180. Retrieved 23 September 2011. "Diachronic evidence from Wu dialects and Jiang-Huai Mandarin dialects on the one hand and from Southeast China coastal area dialects on the other hand (all dialect material drawn from other authors) show that chain-type shifts in Chinese follow the same general rules as have been revealed by Labov for American and British English dialects, such as: 1. peripheral vowels rise: 2. non-peripheral vowels usually fall: 3. back vowels move to"
12. ^ Lucie B. Olivová; Vibeke Børdahl; Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (2009). Lucie B. Olivová; Vibeke Børdahl (eds.). Lifestyle and entertainment in Yangzhou (illustrated ed.). NIAS Press. p. 184\. ISBN 978-87-7694-035-5. Retrieved 23 September 2011. "Some grammatical features of Yangzhou dialect are shared with Jianghuai Mandarin . Others may be of more limited usage but are used in Dingyuan County (the setting of Qingfengzha), which belongs to the same subgroup of Jianghuai"
13. ^ David Prager Branner (2006). David Prager Branner (ed.). The Chinese rime tables: linguistic philosophy and historical-comparative phonology. Vol. 271 of Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science: Current issues in linguistic theory (illustrated ed.). John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 206\. ISBN 978-90-272-4785-8. Retrieved 23 September 2011. "Had Chao developed a syllabary for the Jiang-Huai Mandarin dialects with a diagnostic power and representativeness comparable to that of his Wu Syllabary, and had he placed Hangzhou in that context, he most surely would have discovered"
14. ^ Norman (1988), pp. 194–195.
15. ^ Yan (2006), p. 61.
16. ^ Ting (1991), p. 190.
17. ^ Kurpaska (2010), p. 74.
18. ^ Yan (2006), p. 236.
19. ^ Ting (1991), p. 193.
20. ^ a b c Ting (1991), p. 192.
21. ^ Norman (1988), p. 193.
22. ^ Coblin (2002), p. 534.
23. ^ a b Kurpaska (2010), p. 161.
24. ^ Coblin (2002), p. 536.
25. ^ Coblin (2007), p. 107.
26. ^ 中央硏究院 (1989). 中央硏究院第2屆國際漢學會議論文集: 中華民國七十五年十二月廿九日至卅一日, Volume 2, Part 1. 中央硏究院. p. 223. Retrieved 23 September 2011. "Therefore, we might interpret the RES ts, ts', s as reflecting a phonological feature of the Southern Mandarin dialect of the Ming dynasty. This feature is also found among the modern Jiang-Huai dialects such as YC. It might also be a reflection of the dialect features of MH and AM."中央硏究院Category:Articles+containing+Chinese-language+text&rft.date=1989&rft.au=中央硏究院Category:Articles+containing+Chinese-language+text&rft_id=https://books.google.com/books?id=91oFAQAAIAAJ&q;=jiang-huai&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Lower+Yangtze+Mandarin" class="Z3988">
27. ^ Coblin (2007), p. 107-108. "But in standard Guanhua of the seventeenth century missionary transcriptions and of fifteenth century Korean Guanhua transcriptions in the Hangul alphabet, the two syllable types are clearly distinguished. Guanhua and Nanjingese were clearly different here. Thus, we may suspect that the early Ming Guanhua koine was in reality a linguistic amalgam of some sort, though it certainly had deep roots in the Jiang-Huai dialects."
28. ^ 何大安 (2002). 第三屆國際漢學會議論文集: 語言組. 南北是非 : 漢語方言的差異與變化. Vol. 7 of 第三屆國際漢學會議論文集: 語言組. Zhong yang yan jiu yuan di san jie guo ji han xue hui yi lun wen ji. Yu yan zu. 中央硏究院語言學硏究所. p. 27\. ISBN 978-957-671-936-3. Retrieved 23 September 2011. "to consider how it may have been influenced by possible relationships and interactions with the Jiang-Huai dialects of the Nanking area. This, in our view, should be done by first undertaking historical studies of these dialects"
29. ^ Michele Ruggieri; Matteo Ricci; John W. Witek (2001). John W. Witek (ed.). Dicionário Português-Chinês. Vol. 3 of Documenta (Instituto Português do Oriente) Volume 3 of Documenta (Biblioteca Nacional Macau). Biblioteca Nacional Portugal. p. 208\. ISBN 978-972-565-298-5. Retrieved 23 September 2011. "Words for pear, jujube, shirt, ax, hoe, jorful, to speak, to bargain, to know, to urinate, to build a house, busy, and not yet are those typical of the Chiang-Huai or Southern dialects, not the Northern Mandarin dialect."
30. ^ Coblin (2007), p. 109-110. "Unrounded finals in words such as these are typical of the central Jiang-Huai dialect group, to which Nanjingese belongs. Rounded finals, on the other hand, are found in the eastern and southeastern Jiang-Huai dialects. The PCD language patterns with dialects of this type here."
31. ^ Coblin (2002), p. 541.
32. ^ Hilary Chappell (2004). Chinese Grammar: Synchronic and Diachronic Perspectives (illustrated, reprint ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 17\. ISBN 978-0-19-927213-6. Retrieved 23 September 2011. "According to Hirata, however, Hui is composed of many layers: its dialects are spoken in an area originally occupied by the Yue i* tribe, suggestive of a possible substrate, later to be overlaid by migrations from Northern China in the Medieval Nanbeichao period and the Tang and Song dynasties. This was followed by the Jiang-Huai Mandarin dialects of the migrants who arrived during the Ming and Qing periods, and more recently by Wu dialects in particular, acquired by peripatetic Hui merchants who have represented an active"
33. ^ a b Coblin (2007), p. 108.
34. ^ 何大安 (2002). 第三屆國際漢學會議論文集: 語言組. 南北是非 : 漢語方言的差異與變化. Vol. 7 of 第三屆國際漢學會議論文集: 語言組. Zhong yang yan jiu yuan di san jie guo ji han xue hui yi lun wen ji. Yu yan zu. 中央硏究院語言學硏究所. p. 27\. ISBN 978-957-671-936-3. Retrieved 23 September 2011. "Reading system definitely possesses features which are not typical of the Jiang-Huai group as a whole (Coblin Ms. 1,3)/ Careful reading of early descriptions tends to confirm this conclusion. For example, Varo's association of his Mandarin phonology with Nankingese was not absolute and unequivocal. We should recall his counsel that Guanhua be learned from "natives of the Province of Nan king, and of other provinces where the Mandarin tongue is spoken well" [emphasis added]. We find a similar view in Morrison's accounts. On the one hand he says in his dictionary (1815:xviii), "The pronunciation in this work, is rather what the Chinese call the Nanking dialect, than the Peking."中央硏究院語言學硏究所Category:Articles+containing+Chinese-language+text&rft.date=2002&rft.isbn=978-957-671-936-3&rft.au=何大安Category:Articles+containing+Chinese-language+text&rft_id=https://books.google.com/books?ei=A7WQTriaH4TY0QGj1tBX&ct;=&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Lower+Yangtze+Mandarin" class="Z3988">
35. ^ Ping Chen (1999). Modern Chinese: history and sociolinguistics (illustrated ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-521-64572-0. Retrieved 23 September 2011. "This is true not only of writers from the Jiang-Huai and Northern Mandarin areas, but also of writers from the other dialect... Speakers of dialects other than Jiang- Huai or Northern Mandarin had to conform to the grammatical and vocabulary norms of the traditional báihuà as much as possible if they intended their writings to reach a readership across dialect barriers."
36. ^ Xu, Chengbei (2012). Peking opera (Updated ed.). Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 4\. ISBN 9780521188210. Retrieved 27 February 2025.
37. ^ Perkins, Dorothy (19 November 2013). Encyclopedia of China: History and Culture. Routledge. p. 367\. ISBN 978-1-135-93562-7. Retrieved 27 February 2025.
38. ^ Journal of Asian Pacific communication, Volume 16, Issues 1-2. Multilingual Matters. 2006. p. 336. Retrieved 23 September 2011. "In Chinese dialectology, Lishui County is divided by the boundary between Jiang-Huai dialect and Wu dialect. In administrative distribution, eleven towns of the county lie in the Wu Dialect area and five in the Jiang-Huai Dialect area. The former includes 72.2% of the county's population; the latter 17.8% (Guo, 1995). The county seat is Zaicheng Town, also called Yongyang Town. The language varieties spoken in areas surrounding the town all belong to Wu dialect. Two varieties are spoken in the town, "the old Zaicheng Speech" and "the new Zaicheng Speech". The former is a variety of Wu Dialect, and the latter a Jiang-Huai Mandarin Dialect. The old dialect is disappearing. Its speakers, a minority of elders, use the variety only among family members. According to some interviewees over sixty years old, the new dialect has been spoken in the town area for about one hundred years. Before the 1960s, the new dialect was used only inside the town, which served as the county seat, therefore, it is called "Town Speech" or "Lishui Speech"."

Works cited

* Coblin, W. South (2000), "A brief history of Mandarin", Journal of the American Oriental Society, 120 (4): 537–552, doi:10.2307/606615, JSTOR 606615.
* ——— (2002), "Migration history and dialect development in the lower Yangtze watershed", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 65 (3): 529–543, doi:10.1017/s0041977x02000320, JSTOR 4146032.
* ——— (2007), "Portuguese-Chinese Dictionary", Ming Studies, 56 (1): 106–111, doi:10.1179/014703707788762382, retrieved 27 February 2025
* Kurpaska, Maria (2010), Chinese Language(s): A Look Through the Prism of "The Great Dictionary of Modern Chinese Dialects", Walter de Gruyter, ISBN 978-3-11-021914-2.
* Norman, Jerry (1988), Chinese, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-29653-3.
* Ting, Pang-Hsin (1991). "Some theoretical issues in the study of Mandarin dialects". In Wang, William S-Y. (ed.). Language and Dialects of China. Journal of Chinese Linguistics Monograph Series. Vol. 3\. Chinese University Press, Project on Linguistic Analysis. pp. 185–234\. JSTOR 23827039.
* Yan, Margaret Mian (2006), Introduction to Chinese Dialectology, LINCOM Europa, ISBN 978-3-89586-629-6.
* Li, Rong (2012), 中國語言地圖集 [Language Atlas of China] (in Chinese) (2 ed.), The Commercial Press, ISBN 978-7-100-07054-6.中國語言地圖集Category:Articles+containing+Chinese-language+text&rft.edition=2&rft.pub=The+Commercial+Press&rft.date=2012&rft.isbn=978-7-100-07054-6&rft.aulast=Li&rft.aufirst=Rong&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Lower+Yangtze+Mandarin" class="Z3988">

## Further reading

[edit]

* Kong, Huifang; Wu, Shengyi; Li, Mingxing (2022). "Hefei Mandarin". Illustrations of the IPA. Journal of the International Phonetic Association: 1–22\. doi:10.1017/S0025100322000081, with supplementary sound recordings.

* Chen, Yiya; Guo, Li (2022). "Zhushan Mandarin". Illustrations of the IPA. Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 52 (2): 309–327\. doi:10.1017/S0025100320000183, with supplementary sound recordings.

* v
* t
* e

Sino-Tibetan branches

Western Himalayas (Himachal,
Uttarakhand, Nepal, Sikkim)|

* West Himalayish
* Tamangic
* Newaric
* Newar
* Baram–Thangmi
* Kiranti
* Dhimalish
* Dhimal
* Toto
* Lhokpu
* Lepcha

| Greater Magaric|

* Magaric
* Magar
* Kham
* Chepangic
* Chepang
* Bhujel
* Raji–Raute
* Dura–Tandrange

|

Eastern Himalayas
(Tibet, Bhutan, Arunachal)|

* Bodish
* Tibetic
* East Bodish
* Tshangla
* Basum
* Nam?
* Gongduk
* ʼOle
* Tani
* Chamdo

Myanmar and Indo-
Burmese border|

* Karbi
* Kuki-Chin
* Mruic
* Mru
* Hkongso
* Pyu
* Taman

| Naga|

* Ao
* Angami–Pochuri
* Meitei
* Tangkhulic
* Zeme

|

Sal|

* Boro–Garo
* Konyak
* Jingpho–Luish

East and Southeast Asia|

* Sinitic
* Bai
* Tujia
* Nungish
* Karenic
* Gong
* Kathu
* Cai–Long
* Caijia
* Longjia–Luren

| Burmo-Qiangic|

* Qiangic
* Gyalrongic
* Ersuic
* Naic
* Lolo-Burmese
* Mondzish
* Burmish
* Loloish

|

Dubious (possible
isolates, Arunachal)|

* Hrusish
* Hruso
* Mijiic
* Kho-Bwa
* Puroik
* Miju–Meyor
* Songlin

| Greater Siangic|

* Siangic
* Koro
* Milang
* Idu–Taraon

|

Proposed groupings|

* Central Tibeto-Burman
* Kuki-Chin–Naga
* Macro-Bai
* Mahakiranti
* Rung
* Tibeto-Burman
* Tibeto-Kanauri

Proto-languages|

* Proto-Sino-Tibetan
* Proto-Tibeto-Burman
* Proto-Loloish
* Proto-Karenic
* Proto-Min
* Proto-Hakka

Italics indicates single languages that are also considered to be separate branches.

* v
* t
* e

Chinese language

Sinitic languages

Major linguistic groups

| Mandarin|

| Northeastern|

* Changchun
* Harbin
* Shenyang
* Taz

|

Beijing|

* Beijing
* Taiwan

Jilu|

* Tianjin
* Jinan

Jiaoliao|

* Dalian
* Qingdao
* Weihai

Central Plains|

* Dongping
* Gangou
* Guanzhong
* Xi'an
* Luoyang
* Xuzhou
* Dungan
* Xinjiang

Southwestern|

* Sichuanese
* Chengdu–Chongqing
* (?) Minjiang
* Leshan
* Renshou–Fushun [zh]
* Zigong
* Kunming
* Nanping
* Wuhan
* Gui–Liu
* Wuming

Jianghuai|

* Nanjing
* Nantong
* Nanping

Lanyin|

* Lanzhou dialect [zh]
* Ürümqi dialect [zh]
* Xinjiang

Other|

* Junjiahua
* Qinjiang
* Gyami

Jin|

* Zhangjiakou–Hohhot
* Zhi–Yan

Wu|

| Taihu|

* Shanghai
* Suzhou
* Wuxi
* Changzhou
* (?) Hangzhou
* Shaoxing
* Ningbo
* Jinxiang
* Jiangyin
* Shadi

|

Taizhou Wu|

* Taizhou
* Tiantai

Oujiang|

* Wenzhou
* Rui'an
* Wencheng

Wuzhou|

* Jinhua

Chu–Qu|

* Quzhou
* Jiangshan
* Qingtian

Xuanzhou|

* Xuancheng

Huizhou|

* Ji-She [zh]
* Xiu-Yi [zh]
* Qi-De [zh]
* Yanzhou [zh]
* Jing-Zhan [zh]

Gan|

* Chang–Du
* Nanchang
* Yi–Liu
* Ying–Yi
* Da–Tong

Xiang|

* Changyi
* Changsha
* Loushao
* Shuangfeng
* Xiangxiang
* Wugang
* Ji–Xu
* Yong–Quan
* Qiyang

Min|

| Eastern|

| Houguan [zh]|

* Fuzhou
* Fuqing
* Changle
* Gutian
* Matsu

|

Fu–Ning [zh]|

* Ningde
* Fu'an

Other|

* Manjiang
* Zhongshan
* Longdu
* Nanlang

Pu–Xian|

* Putian
* Xianyou

Southern|

| Hokkien|

* Quanzhou
* Zhangzhou
* Amoy
* Chawan
* Taiwan
* Philippines
* Penang
* Medan
* Singapore
* Southern Malaysia

|

Teochew|

* Swatow
* Haklau
* Pontianak

Zhongshan|

* Sanxiang

Other|

* Zhenan
* Longyan

Leizhou|

* Zhanjiang

Hainan|

* Wenchang
* Haikou
* Banqiao

Inland|

* Northern
* Jian'ou
* Jianyang
* Central
* Shao–Jiang

Hakka|

* Huiyang [zh]
* Changting
* Meixian
* Pontianak
* Singkawang
* Taiwan
* Sixian
* Hailu
* Raoping
* Tingzhou
* Wuhua

Yue|

| Yuehai|

* Guangzhou
* Hong Kong
* Malaysia
* Xiguan
* Jiujiang
* Shiqi
* Weitou
* Dapeng

|

Siyi|

* Taishan
* Xinhui [zh]

Other|

* Gao–Yang
* Goulou
* Wu–Hua
* Yong–Xun
* Luo–Guang
* Qin–Lian

Pinghua|

* Northern Pinghua
* Tongdao
* Younian
* Southern Pinghua
* Yongjiang
* Guandao
* Rongjiang

Unclassified|

* Shaozhou Tuhua
* Xiangnan Tuhua
* Danzhou
* Badong Yao
* Shehua
* Waxiang
* Yeheni
* Huizhou
* Mai
* Laobeizi

(?) Macro-Bai|

* Bai
* Cai-Long
* Caijia
* Longjia
* Luren

Standard forms of Chinese

| Mandarin
(Standard Chinese)|

* Sichuanese
* Taiwanese
* Philippine
* Malaysian
* Singaporean
* Standard

|

Other varieties|

* Cantonese
* Hokkien
* Hakka

History, phonology, and grammar

| History|

* Old Chinese
* Eastern Han
* Middle Chinese
* Old Mandarin
* Middle Mandarin
* Proto-Min
* Proto-Hakka
* Ba–Shu
* Gan

|

Phonology|

* Historical
* Old
* Old National
* Cantonese
* Hokkien
* Northern Wu
* Mandarin
* Literary and colloquial readings

Grammar|

* Numerals
* Classifiers
* Honorifics
* Cantonese grammar
* Classical grammar

Idioms|

* Chengyu
* Xiehouyu

Written Chinese and input methods

| Literary forms|

| Official|

* Classical
* Adoption
* in Japan
* in Vietnam
* Vernacular

|

* Written Cantonese
* Written Dungan
* Written Hokkien
* Written Sichuanese

Scripts|

| Logographic|

| Script styles|

* Oracle bone
* Bronze
* Seal
* Clerical
* Semi-cursive
* Cursive

|

* Chinese characters
* Simplified
* Traditional
* Punctuation

Braille|

* Cantonese
* Mainland Chinese
* Taiwanese
* Two-cell

Phonetic|

* Romanization
* Gwoyeu Romatzyh
* Hanyu Pinyin
* MPS II
* Postal
* Tongyong Pinyin
* Wade–Giles
* EFEO
* Lessing-Othmer
* Yale
* Cyrillization
* Dungan Cyrillic
* Bopomofo
* Cantonese Bopomofo
* Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols
* Taiwanese kana
* Taiwanese Hangul
* Xiao'erjing
* Nüshu

Input methods|

| Logographic|

* Biaoxingma
* Boshiamy [zh]
* Cangjie
* Simplified
* CKC
* Dayi
* Stroke count
* Wubi (Wang Ma)
* ZhengMa
* Q9

|

Pinyin|

* Google
* Microsoft
* Sogou

List of varieties of Chinese
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