The Nanping dialect (), or Nanping Mandarin (), is a dialect of

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language ...

spoken in

Yanping District Yanping District is a district of Nanping, Fujian province, People's Republic of China. The population of Yanping District was 504,483 at 2016. Etymology The name of the district literally means "Prolong Peace", and it is still commonly referred ...

, in

Nanping Nanping (), historically known as Yanping (), is a third-tier prefecture-level city in northwestern Fujian Province, People's Republic of China. It borders Ningde to the east, Sanming to the south, and the provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangxi to ...

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 ...

. Locally, it is known as ''Tuguanhua'' (). It is one of three Mandarin dialect islands in Fujian.

History and distribution

In the past, Nanping Mandarin had great influence in northern Fujian. During the

Republican Era Republican Era can refer to: * Minguo calendar, the official era of the Republic of China It may also refer to any era in a country's history when it was governed as a republic or by a Republican Party. In particular, it may refer to: * Roman Rep ...

, this dialect of Mandarin was taught as the standard in many schools in the area. However, since Yanping is surrounded by areas where Eastern and

Northern Min Northern Min () is a group of mutually intelligible Min varieties spoken in Nanping prefecture of northwestern Fujian. Classification and distribution Early classifications of varieties of Chinese, such as those of Li Fang-Kuei in 1937 and ...

are spoken, the areas where Nanping Mandarin is still spoken has shrunk down. During the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific T ...

, when

Fuzhou Fuzhou (; , Fuzhounese: Hokchew, ''Hók-ciŭ''), alternately romanized as Foochow, is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian province, China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute ...

was under Japanese control, many people moved from Fuzhou into Nanping, and because of closer association with the provincial capital since the founding of the People's Republic of China, Fuzhounese became more popular, and speakers of Nanping Mandarin became fewer in number. Nanping Mandarin is still spoken in these parts of

: * the centre of the district; * the seat of Xiqin Town; * parts of Shuinan Subdistrict, including Baxian, Geping, Lingxia Bridge and Houlingxia; * Jixi, in Nanshan Town.

Phonology

Consonants

There are fourteen consonants in the phonemic inventory: A more conservative form of the dialect also includes , and , which are contrastive to , and , e.g. ≠ .

Tones

Nanping Mandarin is traditionally considered to have five tones by diachronic convention, but it may be analyzed as having four phonemic tones.

Notes

References

* * * * {{Chinese language Languages of China Mandarin Chinese