Waxiang ( simplified Chinese : 瓦乡话 ; traditional Chinese : 瓦鄉話 ; pinyin : Wǎxiānghuà ; ɕioŋ˥tsa˧ ) is a divergent variety of Chinese , spoken by the Waxiang people , an unrecognized ethnic minority group in the northwestern part of Hunan province, China . Waxiang is a distinct language, and is very different from the surrounding Southwestern Mandarin , Xiang Chinese , and the Eastern Miao (Xong) languages.
33-575: As noted by Laurent Sagart (2011) and others, Waxiang appears to share some words with the Caijia language of western Guizhou . Sagart (2011) considers Caijia to be a sister of Waxiang. Currently, Waxiang is classified as a divergent Chinese variety rather than a non-Sinitic language. Similarities among Old Chinese , Waxiang, Caijia, and Bai have also been pointed out by Wu & Shen (2010). Qu & Tang (2017) show that Waxiang and Miao ( Qo Xiong ) have had little mutual influence on each other. Waxianghua
66-776: A lesser extent, Kra-Dai . A reconstruction of 4,000 Chinese characters has been published online. Their 2014 book has been awarded the Leonard Bloomfield Book Award from the Linguistic Society of America . Sagart is known for his proposal of the Sino-Austronesian language family. He considers the Austronesian languages to be related to the Sino-Tibetan languages , and also treats the Tai–Kadai languages as
99-652: A number of features of Old Chinese not found in most modern varieties of Chinese , such as the initial *l- (which became a voiced dental stop in Middle Chinese ): Waxiang also has some cases of /z/ for Old Chinese *r- (which became l- in Middle Chinese): In a number of words, Waxiang and Proto-Min have affricate initials where Middle Chinese has sy- : In some words, Waxiang and Proto-Min have voiced affricates where Middle Chinese has y- : Sagart (2011) argues that Waxiang and Caijia together constitute
132-422: A reconstruction of Old Chinese that separated word roots and affixes. His recent work, in collaboration with William H. Baxter , is a reconstruction of Old Chinese that builds on earlier scholarship and in addition takes into account paleography, phonological distinctions in conservative Chinese dialects ( Min , Hakka , and Waxiang ) as well as the early layers of Chinese loanwords to Vietic , Hmong-Mien and to
165-543: A significant number of distinctively Min words that may be traced back to proto-Min. In some cases a semantic shift has occurred in Min or the rest of Chinese: Norman and Mei Tsu-lin have suggested an Austroasiatic origin for some Min words: However, Norman and Mei Tsu-lin's suggestion is rejected by Laurent Sagart (2008), with some linguists arguing that the Austroasiatic predecessor of the modern Vietnamese language originated in
198-577: A similar process has not taken place. For Hokkien, competing systems exist. Given that Min combines the Chinese of several different periods and contains some non-Chinese substrate vocabulary, an author literate in Mandarin (or even Classical Chinese) may have trouble finding the appropriate Chinese characters for some Min vocabulary. In the case of Taiwanese , there are also indigenous words borrowed from Formosan languages (particularly for place names), as well as
231-841: A sister group to the Malayo-Polynesian languages within the Austronesian language family. Laurent Sagart also contributed to Indo-European studies. He co-authored a proposal that the ability to digest milk played an important role in the Indo-European expansion (Garnier et al. 2017), and took part in a controversy in French academia concerning Indo-European studies (Pellard et al. 2018). Along with numerous researchers such as Valentin Thouzeau, Robin J. Ryder, Simon J. Greenhill , Johann-Mattis List , Guillaume Jacques and Yunfan Lai, Sagart conclude in
264-762: A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America that the Sino-Tibetan languages originated among millet farmers, located in Northern China, around 7,200 years ago. Min Chinese Min ( simplified Chinese : 闽语 ; traditional Chinese : 閩 語 ; pinyin : Mǐnyǔ ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī : Bân-gú / Bân-gír / Bân-gí / Mân-ú ; BUC : Mìng-ngṳ̄ )
297-501: A substantial number of loan words from Japanese . The Min ( Hokkien , Teochew , Hainanese , Luichow , Hinghwa , Hokchew , Hokchia , Haklau / Hai Lok Hong ) spoken in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia has borrowed heavily from Malay (or Indonesian for Indonesia) and, to a lesser extent, from Singaporean or Malaysian English and other languages. Meanwhile, the Hokkien spoken in
330-524: Is Hokkien , a variety of Southern Min which has its origin in southern Fujian. Amoy Hokkien is the prestige dialect of Hokkien in Fujian, while a majority of Taiwanese speak a dialect called Taiwanese Hokkien or simply Taiwanese. The majority of Chinese Singaporeans , Chinese Malaysians , Chinese Filipinos , Chinese Indonesians , Chinese Thais , Chinese Cambodians are of Southern Min-speaking background (particularly Hokkien and/or Teochew ), although
363-731: Is a broad group of Sinitic languages with about 70 million native speakers. These languages are spoken in Fujian province as well as by the descendants of Min-speaking colonists on the Leizhou Peninsula and Hainan and by the assimilated natives of Chaoshan , parts of Zhongshan , three counties in southern Wenzhou , the Zhoushan archipelago , Taiwan and scattered in pockets or sporadically across Hong Kong , Macau , and several countries in Southeast Asia , particularly Singapore , Malaysia ,
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#1733202429501396-654: Is a senior researcher at the Centre de recherches linguistiques sur l'Asie orientale (CRLAO – UMR 8563) unit of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). Born in Paris in 1951, he earned his Ph.D. in 1977 at the University of Paris 7 and his doctorat d'État in 1990 at University of Aix-Marseille 1 . His early work focused on Chinese dialectology . He then turned his attention to Old Chinese , attempting
429-516: Is called Kienning Colloquial Romanized (Gṳ̿ing-nǎing Lô̤-mǎ-cī ), for Hainanese it is called Bǽh-oe-tu (BOT). These systems were developed by British , Irish , Danish , and American Protestant Christian missionaries over the course of the 19th century. In 2006, Tâi-lô ( Tâi-uân Lô-má-jī Phing-im Hong-àn ) which was derived from Pe̍h-ōe-jī (POJ) was officially promoted by Taiwan 's Ministry of Education (MOE). Some publications use mixed writing, with mostly Chinese characters but using
462-665: Is found in Luxi , Guzhang and Yongshun counties in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture , Zhangjiajie prefecture-level city (in Dayong 大庸 ), and Chenxi , Xupu and Yuanling counties in Huaihua prefecture-level city. Neighboring languages include Southwestern Mandarin , Xiang Chinese , Tujia , Qo Xiong , and Hm Nai . The word Wa 瓦 is only a phonetic transcription. Wu & Shen (2010) report Waxianghua to be spoken in
495-514: Is that adapting Chinese characters to write Min requires a substantial effort to choose characters for a significant portion of the vocabulary. Other approaches to writing Min rely on romanization or phonetic systems such as Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols or historically during Japanese rule over Taiwan , Taiwanese kana was also used for Taiwanese Hokkien in some Taiwanese-Japanese dictionaries made during that time. Since 1987, Taiwanese Hangul also exists for Taiwanese Hokkien. Some Min speakers use
528-561: The Latin alphabet to represent words that cannot easily be represented by Chinese characters. In Taiwan, a mix of Chinese characters and Latin letters written in Pe̍h-ōe-jī (POJ) or Tâi-lô has recently been practised. In Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia, some also occasionally write Hokkien and/or Teochew using Latin letters via ad-hoc means using the writer's knowledge of
561-608: The Philippines , Indonesia , Thailand , Myanmar , Cambodia , Vietnam , Brunei . The name is derived from the Min River in Fujian, which is also the abbreviated name of Fujian Province. Min varieties are not mutually intelligible with one another nor with any other variety of Chinese (such as Mandarin , Cantonese , Wu , Gan , Xiang , or Hakka ). There are many Min speakers among overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia . The most widely spoken variety of Min outside of mainland China
594-642: The South China Sea . Most subsequent migration from north to south China passed through the valleys of the Xiang and Gan rivers to the west, so that Min varieties have experienced less northern influence than other southern groups. As a result, whereas most varieties of Chinese can be treated as derived from Middle Chinese —the language described by rhyme dictionaries such as the Qieyun (601 AD)—Min varieties contain traces of older distinctions. Linguists estimate that
627-505: The Sui – Tang dynasties. The Min languages are believed to have a significant linguistic substrate from the languages of the inhabitants of the region before its sinicization . The Min homeland of Fujian was opened to Han Chinese settlement by the defeat of the Minyue state by the armies of Emperor Wu of Han in 110 BC. The area features rugged mountainous terrain, with short rivers that flow into
660-470: The Church Romanization ( simplified Chinese : 教会罗马字 ; traditional Chinese : 教會羅馬字 ; pinyin : Jiàohuì Luómǎzì ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī : Kàu-hoē Lô-má-jī ). For Hokkien the romanization is called Pe̍h-ōe-jī (POJ), for Fuzhounese it is called Foochow Romanized ( Bàng-uâ-cê , BUC), for Putian dialect it is called Hinghwa Romanized ( Hing-hua̍ Báⁿ-uā-ci̍ ), for Jian'ou dialect it
693-951: The Hainan dialects have complex tone sandhi systems. Although they have far fewer speakers, the inland varieties show much greater variation than the coastal ones. Pan and colleagues divided the inland varieties into two groups: The Language Atlas of China (1987) included a further group: Although coastal varieties can be derived from a proto-language with four series of stops or affricates at each point of articulation (e.g. /t/ , /tʰ/ , /d/ , and /dʱ/ ), inland varieties contain traces of two further series, which Norman termed "softened stops" due to their reflexes in some varieties. Inland varieties use pronouns and negatives cognate with those in Hakka and Yue . Inland varieties have little or no tone sandhi. Most Min vocabulary corresponds directly to cognates in other Chinese varieties, but there are also
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#1733202429501726-508: The Philippines has also borrowed a few terms from Spanish , Tagalog ( Filipino ), and English over the recent centuries. In Kelantan Peranakan Hokkien , spoken in Kelantan state of Malaysia to Pattani province of Thailand , a mix of Southern Thai and Kelantan Malay is also used with the local Kelantan Hokkien of Peranakans and Chinese Malaysians in Northern Malaya . The result
759-594: The earliest branching of Chinese. However, Sagart later retracted this proposal, saying that he is no longer sure whether Waxiang and Caijia actually form a subgroup together. Like Waxiang, Caijia preserves Old Chinese *l-, has a voiced fricative reflex of *r-, and retains the Old Chinese word 字 'love', which has been replaced by 愛 in all other Chinese varieties. Waxiang and Caijia also share two words not found in other Chinese varieties: Laurent Sagart Laurent Sagart ( French: [saɡaʁ] ; born 1951)
792-416: The farthest extent of any non-Mandarin variety, to the extent that pure Cantonese vernacular can be unambiguously written using Chinese characters. Contrary to popular belief, a vernacular written in this fashion is not in general comprehensible to a Mandarin speaker, due to significant changes in grammar and vocabulary and the necessary use of a large number of non-Mandarin characters. For most Min varieties,
825-622: The following villages. Liubaohua 六保话 , a dialect closely related to Waxianghua, is spoken in several villages in southeastern Guzhang County (including in Shaojitian Village 筲箕田村 , Shanzao Township 山枣乡 ) and parts of Luxi County. Liubaohua is spoken in the following locations (Zou 2013). The Nanshan dialect of Waxianghua ( Chinese : 南山乡话 ) is spoken in parts of Chengbu County , Hunan and Longsheng County , Guangxi by about 1,100 Waxiang people who had originally migrated from Yuanling County. Their villages include: Waxiang preserves
858-516: The local mainstream orthography they grew up being literate in, such as Singaporean or Malaysian English orthography (descended from British English ), Malay orthography / Indonesian orthography , Mandarin Pinyin for those in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia, then Philippine English orthography (descended from American English ), Filipino orthography , Mandarin Pinyin , and sometimes Spanish orthography (for older writings), for those in
891-450: The middle Yangtze has been largely abandoned in most circles and left unsupported by the majority of Austroasiatic specialists. Rather, recent movements of analyzing archeological evidence, posit an Austronesian layer, rather than an Austroasiatic one. Min languages by number of native speakers (as of 2004) Min is usually described as one of seven or ten groups of varieties of Chinese but has greater dialectal diversity than any of
924-634: The mountainous region in Central Laos and Vietnam, rather than in the region north of the Red River delta . In other cases, the origin of the Min word is obscure. Such words include: When using Chinese characters to write a non-Mandarin form, a common practice is to use characters that correspond etymologically to the words being represented, and for words with no evident etymology, to either invent new characters or borrow characters for their sound or meaning. Written Cantonese has carried this process out to
957-592: The oldest layers of Min dialects diverged from the rest of Chinese around the time of the Han dynasty . However, significant waves of migration from the North China Plain occurred: Jerry Norman identifies four main layers in the vocabulary of modern Min varieties: Laurent Sagart (2008) disagrees with Norman and Mei Tsu-lin's analysis of an Austroasiatic substratum in Min. The hypothesis proposed by Jerry Norman and Mei Tsu-lin arguing for an Austroasiatic homeland along
990-414: The other groups. The varieties used in neighbouring counties, and in the mountains of western Fujian even in adjacent villages, are often mutually unintelligible. Early classifications, such as those of Li Fang-Kuei in 1937 and Yuan Jiahua in 1960, divided Min into Northern and Southern subgroups. However, in a 1963 report on a survey of Fujian, Pan Maoding and colleagues argued that the primary split
1023-505: The rise of Mandarin has led to a decline in the use of Min Chinese. Communities speaking Eastern Min , Pu-Xian Min , Haklau Min , Leizhou Min , and Hainanese can also be found in parts of the Chinese diaspora, such as in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. Many Min languages have retained notable features of the Old Chinese language , and there is linguistic evidence that not all Min varieties are directly descended from Middle Chinese of
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1056-550: The vast majority of speakers, and have spread from their homeland in Fujian and eastern Guangdong to the islands of Taiwan and Hainan , to other coastal areas of southern China, and to Southeast Asia. Pan and colleagues divided them into three groups: The Language Atlas of China (1987) distinguished two further groups, which had previously been included in Southern Min: Coastal varieties feature some uniquely Min vocabulary, including pronouns and negatives. All but
1089-479: Was between inland and coastal groups. A key discriminator between the two groups is a group of words that have a lateral initial /l/ in coastal varieties, and a voiceless fricative /s/ or /ʃ/ in inland varieties, contrasting with another group having /l/ in both areas. Norman reconstructs these initials in Proto-Min as voiceless and voiced laterals that merged in coastal varieties. The coastal varieties have
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