The Sixian dialect, also known as the Sixian accent (; Sixian
Hakka Romanization System
The Taiwanese Hakka Romanization System () is a romanization system for Taiwanese Hakka. It was published by the Ministry of Education, Taiwan, in 2012.
See also
* Languages of Taiwan
* Taiwanese Hakka
Taiwanese Hakka is a language group c ...
: Xi ien kiongˊ / Xi ian kiongˊ;
[ is pronounced as ien (PFS: yen) in Northern Sixian and as ian (PFS: yan) in Southern Sixian.] Pha̍k-fa-sṳ
Pha̍k-fa-sṳ is an orthography similar to Pe̍h-ōe-jī and used to write Hakka, a variety of Chinese. Hakka is a whole branch of Chinese, and Hakka dialects are not necessarily mutually intelligible with each other, considering the large geogr ...
: Si-yen-khiông / Si-yan-khiông
), is a dialect of Hakka used by
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
ese
Hakkas
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 ...
, and it is the most spoken dialect of
Taiwanese Hakka
Taiwanese Hakka is a language group consisting of Hakka dialects spoken in Taiwan, and mainly used by people of Hakka ancestry. Taiwanese Hakka is divided into five main dialects: Sixian, Hailu, Dabu, Raoping, and Zhao'an. The most widely sp ...
, being used in Hakka broadcasting in many public occasions. The Sixian dialect is generally spoken in northern and southern Taiwan, with main representative regions being
Taoyuan and
Miaoli
Miaoli City (Wade–Giles: ''Miao²-li⁴''; Hakka PFS: ''Mèu-li̍t-sṳ''; Hokkien POJ: ''Biâu-le̍k-chhī'' or ''Miâu-le̍k-chhī'') is a county-administered city and the county seat of Miaoli County, Taiwan. Miaoli has a relatively h ...
in the north, as well as the Liudui Region in
Kaohsiung
Kaohsiung City (Mandarin Chinese: ; Wade–Giles: ''Kao¹-hsiung²;'' Pinyin: ''Gāoxióng'') is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsi ...
and
Pingtung in the south.
Taiwanese Hakka is often called ''Si Hai Yong Le Da Ping An'' (), referring to the Sixian (),
Hailu Hailu ( Amharic: ኃይሉ) is a male name of Ethiopian origin that may refer to:
*Hailu Shawul (born 1936), Ethiopian engineer and the chairman of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy
* Hailu Tekle Haymanot (1868–1950), Ethiopian army commande ...
(),
Yongding (),
Changle
(, Foochow Romanized: Diòng-lŏ̤h) is one of 6 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian Province, China. It occupies a land area of and a sea area of . Changle was established in the sixth year of Em ...
(),
Dabu (),
Raoping
Raoping County ( postal: Jaoping; ) is a county in eastern Guangdong Province, bordering Fujian Province to the east, and facing the South China Sea to the south. The city with the same name has 135,600 inhabitants (1990).
It is under the jurisdic ...
() and Zhao'an () dialects. Among these, the Sixian and Changle dialects originate in Jiaying Prefecture, Guangdong, established in 1733 during the Qing Dynasty under the rule of Yongzheng Emperor. Historically, the Jiaying Prefecture governed five counties. The Sixian dialect comes from the four counties of Chengxiang (now
Meixian), Zhengping (now
Jiaoling
Jiaoling County ( postal: Chiuling; ) is a county in the northeast of Guangdong Province, China, bordering Fujian province to the north. Under the jurisdiction of Meizhou City, it was previously known as the Zhenping County ( postal: Chenping).
...
),
Xingning and
Pingyuan, giving it the name Sixian (four counties); the Changle dialect originates in its
eponym
An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''.
Usage of the word
The term ''epon ...
, the county of Changle (now
Wuhua). Currently, speakers of the Yongding and Changle dialects have basically left their own accent families, so only the Sixian, Hailu, Dabu, Raoping and Zhao'an dialects remain in use in Taiwan. In Taiwan, the only widely used Hakka dialects are Sixian and Hailu.
The Sixian dialect of Taiwan is slightly different from the
Meixian dialect Meixian may refer to the following places in China:
* Meixian District, a district in Meizhou, Guangdong
** Meixian dialect, the local dialect of Hakka spoken there
* Mei County, also known as Meixian, a county in Shaanxi
* Meixian, Fujian (), t ...
of mainland China since the majority of immigrants from Jiaying Prefecture are from Zhenping County, which is present-day Jiaoling County, so the Sixian dialect is closer to the Jiaoling dialect of mainland China. There are also differences in vocabulary and phonology between the Sixian dialect spoken in northern Taiwan (called Northern Sixian or Miaoli dialect) and in Liudui of southern Taiwan (called Southern Sixian). Because of the differences between the two varieties of Sixian, the recitation contests in the National Language Competition separate the contest into the two accents of (Northern) Sixian and Southern Sixian. Alternatively, Sixian may include Xingning and Changle, but because these two counties were formerly a part of Huizhou ''
fu'', they may be closer to the Hailu dialect.
Phonology
Consonants
* Note: The
zero consonant In orthography, a zero consonant, silent initial, or null-onset letter is a consonant letter that does not correspond to a consonant sound, but is required when a word or syllable starts with a vowel (i.e. has a null onset). Some abjads, abugidas ...
, like in (IPA: ), is not listed in the table above.
Rhymes
According to the ''Handbook for Using the Hakka Romanization System'' () published by the Taiwanese Ministry of Education, the rhymes can be split into three categories: yin rhymes (), yang rhymes (), and checked rhymes ().
Yin rhymes
Yin rhymes are rhymes with a pure vowel or a complex vowel.
= Pure vowels
=
= Complex vowels
=
Yang rhymes
Yang rhymes end in a nasal consonant. They can be
syllabic
Syllabic may refer to:
*Syllable, a unit of speech sound, considered the building block of words
**Syllabic consonant, a consonant that forms the nucleus of a syllable
*Syllabary, writing system using symbols for syllables
*Abugida, writing system ...
nasals or nuclei (pure or complex vowel) with nasal codas.
= Syllabic nasals
=
= Nuclei with nasal codas
=
Checked rhymes
Checked rhymes end with a stop consonant (/p̚/,/t̚/,/k̚/) and a short vowel before it.
Tones
Using and as examples:
Tone sandhi
In compounds, if a dark-level tone is followed by a dark-level, light-entering or departing tone, the dark-level tone (24) changes to the light-level tone (11). In Southern Sixian, if a light-level tone (11) is not in the end of a compound, it is changed to the dark-level tone (33 in Meinong).
In the Dalukuan and Guangfu Village accents, there are seven tone sandhi rules: the "low" dark-level and light-level tones mostly become a mid tone (33) or a high rising tone (35); thus, the tones of these two areas sound higher than the other areas in Liudui.
Related Hakka dialects
In China, the
Dabu and
Fengshun Counties originally belonging to the Chaozhou ''fu'' have been combined with the former Jiaying Prefecture, establishing
Meizhou
Meizhou (, Hakka Chinese: Mòichû) is a prefecture-level city in eastern Guangdong province, China. It has an area of , and a population of 3,873,239 million as of the 2020 census. It comprises Meijiang District, Meixian District, Xingning City ...
. Historically, other than the Sixian and Changle dialects, the Dabu and Fengshun dialects were also brought to Taiwan from areas presently governed by Meizhou in China. The Fengshun dialect mainly originates in
Fengshun and
Jieyang
Jieyang () is a prefecture-level city in eastern Guangdong Province (Yuedong), People's Republic of China, part of the Chaoshan region whose people speak Chaoshan Min distinct from neighbouring Yue speakers. It is historically important as th ...
Counties. However, in Taiwan, speakers of the Dabu and Fengshun dialects are still traditionally considered to be Chaozhou Hakkas. Other than the Dabu and Fengshun dialects, the Raoping dialect is also from Chaozhou, specifically the
Raoping
Raoping County ( postal: Jaoping; ) is a county in eastern Guangdong Province, bordering Fujian Province to the east, and facing the South China Sea to the south. The city with the same name has 135,600 inhabitants (1990).
It is under the jurisdic ...
and
Huilai Counties.
In Taiwan, the Sixian dialect is the most spoken dialect spoken by the Hakkas, and following is the Hailu dialect (Sixian Hakka Romanization System: hoiˋ liug kiongˊ). The Hailu dialect originates in Huizhou ''fu'' (present-day
Huizhou
Huizhou ( zh, c= ) is a city in central-east Guangdong Province, China, forty-three miles north of Hong Kong. Huizhou borders the provincial capital of Guangzhou to the west, Shenzhen and Dongguan to the southwest, Shaoguan to the north, Heyua ...
and
Shanwei
Shanwei (), or Swabue is a prefecture-level city in eastern Guangdong province, People's Republic of China. It borders Jieyang to the east, Meizhou and Heyuan to the north, Huizhou to the west, and looks out to the South China Sea to the south. I ...
) in mainland China, so it is also sometimes called the Huizhou dialect. Since there are many Hakka dialects in Taiwan, when Taiwanese Hakkas interact with each other, there may be influences from other dialects, forming a dialect between the Sixian and Hailu dialects called the Si-Hai dialect (or Hai-Si dialect). The Sihai dialect is not a particular accent, but is just formed because of the interaction between different Hakka groups. Taiwanese Hakka can generally be classified under the Yue-Tai dialects, which are also called the Si-Hai dialects.
The Sixian, Hailu, Changle, Dabu and Raoping dialects all come from Guangdong, China, so Taiwanese Hakkas trace back their origins to Guangdong. Even Hakkas from
Tingzhou ''fu'', Fujian, consider themselves to be from Yuedong (Guangdong). Therefore, there is a parallel between "Yuedong Hakkas" and "Minnan Hoklos". Taiwanese Hakka dialects from Fujian include the Yongding, Zhao'an and Tingzhou dialects. The Yongding dialect originates in the
Yongding,
Shanghang
Shanghang (; hak, Sông-hông-yen) is a county in southwest Fujian Province, China, bordering Guangdong Province to the southwest. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Longyan.
Transportation
Part of Shanghang County i ...
and
Wuping Counties of Tingzhou ''fu''. Its phonology is close to Yuedong dialects (e.g. Sixian and Dabu dialects). The Tingzhou dialect originates in the
Changting,
Ninghua,
Qingliu,
Guihua and
Liancheng Counties of Tingzhou ''fu''. The Zhao'an dialect originates in the
Zhao'an
Zhao'an () is a county in the municipal region of Zhangzhou, southernmost Fujian province, People's Republic of China.
History Qing dynasty to the Republic of China
In May 1907, county officials arrested, on suspicion of piracy, the local lea ...
,
Pinghe
Pinghe County () is a county of the prefecture-level city of Zhangzhou, in southern Fujian province, PRC, bordering Guangdong province to the west.
Administrative Division
The administrative centre or seat of Pinghe County is Xiaoxi ().
Towns ...
,
Nanjing
Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...
and
Hua'an Counties of
Zhangzhou
Zhangzhou (), alternately romanized as Changchow, is a prefecture-level city in Fujian Province, China. The prefecture around the city proper comprises the southeast corner of the province, facing the Taiwan Strait and surrounding the prefec ...
''fu''. The Zhao'an and Tingzhou dialects are quite different from the Yue-Tai (Si-Hai) dialects, making them unique in Taiwan.
Notes
Works cited
*
*
*
{{Authority control
Languages of Taiwan
Hakka Chinese
Dialects of languages with ISO 639-3 code