Xianyou dialect

Putian
Sing-iú-uā / 仙遊話
Native to	Southern China
Region	Xianyou, Putian, Fujian
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Min Coastal Min Pu-Xian Min Putian
Early forms	Proto-Sino-Tibetan Old Chinese[a] Proto-Min
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	xian1252
Linguasphere	79-AAA-ida

Xianyou dialect
Traditional Chinese	仙遊話
Simplified Chinese	仙游话
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Xiānyóuhuà Pu-Xian Min Hinghwa BUC Sing-iú-uā (IPA: [ɬiŋ˨˨ iu˨˦ ua˨˩])

The Xianyou dialect (Pu-Xian Min: Sing-iú-uā / 仙遊話; IPA: [ɬiŋ˨˨ iu˨˦ ua˨˩]) is a dialect of Pu-Xian Min Chinese spoken in Xianyou, Putian in the southeast coast of Fujian province, China.

Phonology

The Xianyou dialect has 15 initials, 45 rimes and 7 tones.

Initials

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Lateral	Velar	Glottal
Stop	Unaspirated voiceless	p 巴	t 打		k 家	ʔ 烏
	Aspirated voiceless	pʰ 彭	tʰ 他		kʰ 卡
Nasal		m 麻	n 拿		ŋ 雅
Fricative	Voiceless			ɬ 沙		h 下
	Voiced	β*			ɣ*
Affricate	Unaspirated voiceless		ts 渣
	Aspirated voiceless		tsʰ 査
Approximant				l 拉

Rimes

a 鴉	ã 平	au 拗		aŋ 江	aʔ 壓
ɒ 奥	ɒ̃ 泛			ɒŋ 王	ɒʔ 屋
o 科		ɔu 烏
e 裔		ai 愛		ɛŋ 煙	ɛʔ 黑
ø 改
				ŋ 伓
i 衣	ĩ 反	iu 油	iũ 張	iŋ 引	iʔ 益
ia 夜	iã 丙	ieu 要		iɛŋ 鹽	iɛʔ 葉
u 夫		ui 位	uĩ 風
ua 画		uoi 歪	uã 搬	uaŋ 碗	uoʔ 活
y 余	ỹ 頓			yŋ 恩	yʔ 役
ya 鵝			yã 然	yøŋ 羊	yøʔ 藥

Tones

No.	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Tones	dark level 陰平	light level 陽平	rising 上聲	dark departing 陰去	light departing 陽去	dark entering 陰入	light entering 陽入
Tone contour	˥˦˦ (544)	˨˦ (24)	˧˧˨ (332)	˥˨ (52)	˨˩ (21)	ʔ˨ (ʔ2)	ʔ˦ (ʔ4)
Example Hanzi	詩巴	時爬	始把	試霸	寺罷	濕北	實拔

Assimilation

	Coda of the Former Syllable	Initial of the Latter Syllable	Assimilation	Coda of the Former Syllable	Initial of the Latter Syllable
Group A	Open syllable	/p/, /pʰ/	→	remain unchanged	/β/, /ɣ/
		/t/, /tʰ/, /ts/, /tsʰ/, /ɬ/			/l/
		/k/, /kʰ/, /h/			/ɣ/
Group B	/-ŋ/ (nasal coda)	/p/, /pʰ/		/-m/	/m/
		/t/, /tʰ/, /ts/, /tsʰ/, /l/, /ɬ/		/-n/	/n/, remain unchanged
		/k/, /kʰ/, /h/, null initial		remain unchanged, or /-n/	/ŋ/, /n/
		/m/, /n/, /ŋ/		/-m/, /-n/, /-ŋ/	remain unchanged
Group C	/-ʔ/ (glottal coda)	/p/, /pʰ/, /m/		/-p̚/	remain unchanged
		/t/, /tʰ/, /ts/, /tsʰ/, /ɬ/, /l/, /n/		/-t̚/
		/k/, /kʰ/, /ŋ/, /h/		/-k̚/
		null initial		/-ʔ/
Group E	Open syllable	/m/, /n/, /ŋ/		nasalization	remain unchanged
		nasalized rime		nasalization
		nasalized rime		remain unchanged	/n/

Tone sandhi

The Xianyou 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):

Tone sandhi of the first syllable

	dark level 544	light level 24	rising 332	dark departing 52	light departing 21	dark entering ʔ2	light entering ʔ4
dark level 544	24	22		24			22
light level 24	22			44	52		22
rising 332	24	44	24
dark departing 52	44		33	44	52		44
light departing 21	22			44	52		22
dark entering ʔ2	ʔ4
light entering ʔ4	ʔ2			ʔ4			ʔ2

Notes

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

References

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.

• Compilation Commission of Chorography of Xianyou County 仙游县地方志编纂委员会 (1995). Xianyou xianzhi 仙游县志 ["Chorography of Xianyou County"]. Vol. 34. Beijing: Fangzhi chubanshe 方志出版社 ["Chorography Press"]. ISBN 7-80122-007-2.