Chawan dialect () is a variety of Southern Min spoken in the

Chawan A ''chawan'' (; literally "tea bowl") is a bowl used for preparing and drinking tea. Many types of ''chawan'' are used in East Asian tea ceremonies. The choice of their use depends upon many considerations. History The ''chawan'' originated in ...

(Zhao'an) County in

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...

province,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. It is usually considered a divergent dialect of

Hokkien The Hokkien () variety of Chinese is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, where it is widely spoken in the south-eastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is one of the national languages in ...

exhibiting some Teochew influence.

Geography and classification

Chawan dialect is spoken in the southern half of the

(Zhao'an) county. The northern part of the county, with roughly one-third of its population, is mainly

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...

-speaking, and the border between the Chawan-speaking and the Hakka-speaking parts of county lies within the Hongxing township () and Taiping town (). The dialect spoken in Sidu (), Meizhou () and Jinxing (), three localities in the eastern part of the Chawan county, is closer to the Yunxiao Hokkien. The Yunxiao dialect bears some affinity to Chawan, however, it lacks some of its notable characteristicts, such as vowels /ɯ/ and /ə/. A related dialect is spoken in some parts of the Dongshan island, particularly the Qianlou town (). The speech of the Nanzhao town is taken as representative for Chawan dialect. There are some internal differences, but the subdialects of Chawan are yet poorly described. E.g.: * The dialect of the Tingyang village () in Baiyang Township (), almost at the Fujian-Guangdong border, shows some Teochew specific traits, such as lack of denasalization and the merger of /in, an/ with /iŋ, aŋ/ (e.g. it distinguishes ''ma̍k'' and ''ba̍k'', while general Chawan has both as ''ba̍k''; it distinguishes initials, but not finals in ''nâng'' and ''lâng'', while general Chawan has ''lâng'' and ''lân''). * The dialect of the Wenshan () village in the Taiping Town () has the rime /oi/ in words like ''bói'', unlike general Chawan ''bóe''. It also has the rime /-uou/ instead of /-ou/ (e.g. it reads ''thó͘'' as ʰuou³⁵ unlike general Chawan ʰou⁵³, which is a trait found in some Hokkien dialects around

Zhangpu Zhangpu County () is a county of Zhangzhou prefecture-level city in far southern Fujian province, People's Republic of China. The county seat is located in the town of Sui'an (). Zhangpu is bordered by the Longhai City in the north, the counties ...

. Chawan is usually classified as a dialect of Hokkien. However, it also has some common traits with Teochew, particularly in its vocabulary, e.g.: * ''théiⁿ'' "to see" (cf. Teochew ''thóiⁿ'', Hokkien ''khòaⁿ'') * ''tàⁿ-ōɛ'' "to talk" (cf. Teochew ''tàⁿ-ōe'', Hokkien ''kóng-ōa'') * ''nńg'' "woman" (cf. Teochew ''nṳ́ng'', Hokkien ''lí'')

Phonology

Consonants

In terms of consonants, Chawan does not differ much from other dialects of Hokkien. It has as total of 15 initials. Denasalization is extensive, which is typical for Hokkien, but not for Teochew.

Rimes

The most notable feature of Chawan is the presence of the vowels /ɯ/ and /ə/, which are absent in the general

Zhangzhou dialects The Zhangzhou dialects (), also rendered Changchew, Chiangchew or Changchow, are a collection of Hokkien dialects spoken in southern Fujian province (in southeast China), centered on the city of Zhangzhou. The Zhangzhou dialect proper is the sourc ...

. Chawan is also notable for distinguishing /ue/ and /uɛ/. While the former rime is common across Hokkien dialects, the latter is usually merged with /ue/ (in

Quanzhou Hokkien The Quanzhou dialects (), also rendered Chin-chew or Choanchew, are a collection of Hokkien dialects spoken in southern Fujian (in southeast China), in the area centered on the city of Quanzhou. Due to migration, various Quanzhou dialects are s ...

) or /ua/ (in Zhanghzou Hokkien). To a lesser extent, Yunxiao Hokkien also distinguishes /ue/ and /uɛ/. Chawan dialect does not dissimilate the rimes /uam/ and /uap/ (in ''hoâm'', ''hoām'', ''hoap''), similarly to Teochew. Most other Hokkien dialects have /uan/ and /uat/ instead.

Tones

Chawan has 7 citation tones, which are mostly similar to general Zhangzhou Hokkien tones.

Notes

References

{{Chinese language Hokkien-language dialects Fujian Zhangzhou Zhao'an County