Shaxian dialect
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 to | Southern China | 
| Region | Sha County, Sanming, Fujian | 
Sino-Tibetan
 
  | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – | 
| Glottolog | None | 
| Linguasphere | 79-AAA-hba | 
Phonology
    
Shaxian dialect has 17 initials, 36 rimes and 6 tones.
Initials
    
| 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 | pʰ 普抱  | tʰ 通頭  | kʰ 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:
- /tʃ/, /tʃʰ/, /ʃ/ only connected with round mouth rimes (撮口呼韻母);
 - /b/, /l/, /g/ cannot be connected with nasal vowel rimes;
 - /m/, /n/, /ŋ/ only connected with nasal vowel rimes.
 
Rimes
    
| ɯ / ɤ 資 / 子  | i / e 西 / 死  | 
| u / o 故 / 古  | y / ø 居 / 舉  | 
| iu / io 抽 / 丑  | ui / ue 追 / 嘴  | 
| yɯ / yɤ 威 / 偉  | o / ɔ 波 / 保  | 
| io / iɔ 腰 / 約  | e / ɛ 排/八  | 
| ye / yɛ 吹 / 血  | a 家  | 
| ia 遮  | ua 瓜  | 
| ya 蟻  | ai 猜  | 
| uai 乖  | au 交  | 
| iau 曉  | ŋ̍ 光  | 
| aŋ 講  | uaŋ 望  | 
| ɛiŋ 心  | iɛiŋ 英  | 
| yɛiŋ 永  | ɔuŋ 風  | 
| œyŋ 鍾  | iŋ 廠  | 
| ĩ / ẽ 仙 / 險  | uĩ / uẽ 翻/粉  | 
| yĩ / yẽ 根 / 卷  | ɔ̃ 爭  | 
| iɔ̃ 驚  | ɔ̃i 燈  | 
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
    
| 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 | 詩 | 南 | 始 | 是 | 四 | 失 | 
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
    
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
    
    
References
    
- 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
 - 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
 - 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.
 
- Compilation Commission of Chorography of Sha County 沙县地方志编纂委员会 (1992). Sha xian zhi 沙县志 ["Chorography of Sha County"]. Vol. 32. Beijing: Zhongguo kexue jishu chubanshe 中国科学技术出版社 ["China Science and Technology Press"]. ISBN 7-110-02307-9.
 
