Shehua (, ''Shēhuà'', meaning 'She speech') is an unclassified Sinitic language spoken by the

She people The She people (; Shehua: ; Cantonese: , Fuzhou: ) are an ethnic group in China. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. The She are the largest ethnic minority in Fujian, Zhejiang, and J ...

of Southeastern China. It is also called Shanha, San-hak () or Shanhahua (). Shehua speakers are located mainly 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 ...

and

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Ji ...

provinces of Southeastern China, with smaller numbers of speakers in a few locations of

Jiangxi Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north int ...

(in Guixi and Yanshan County),

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020 ...

(in

Chaozhou Chaozhou (), alternatively Chiuchow, Chaochow or Teochew, is a city in the eastern Guangdong province of China. It borders Shantou to the south, Jieyang to the southwest, Meizhou to the northwest, the province of Fujian to the east, and th ...

and

Fengshun County Fengshun ( postal: Fungshun or Pungshan; ) is a county in Meizhou City, in the east of Guangdong Province, southern China. Ethno-linguistic make-up Fengshun is noted for its large Hakka population. Administrative divisions Fengshun County's ex ...

) and

Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze Riv ...

(in Ningguo) provinces. ''Shēhuà'' () is not to be confused with Shēyǔ (, also known as Ho Ne), which is a Hmong–Mien language spoken in East-Central

. Shehua and Sheyu speakers have separate histories and identities, although both are officially classified by the Chinese government as

. The Dongjia of

Majiang County Majiang County () is a county of southeast-central Guizhou province, China. It is the westernmost county-level division of the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture (; Hmu language: ''Qe ...

Guizhou Guizhou (; Postal romanization, formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in the Southwest China, southwest region of the China, People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the pr ...

are also officially classified as

, but speak a Western Hmongic language closely related to Chong'anjiang Miao ().

History

During the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...

, Shehua speakers lived in the

border region. Afterwards, they moved to their present locations further to the northeast.

Classification

Some linguists consider Shehua to be a variety of

Hakka Chinese Hakka (, , ) forms a language group of varieties of Chinese, spoken natively by the Hakka people throughout Southern China and Taiwan and throughout the diaspora areas of East Asia, Southeast Asia and in overseas Chinese communities aroun ...

, while others consider it to be an unclassified variety of Chinese that has received some influence from Hakka and is not part of Hakka. Hiroki Nakanishi (2010) considers Shehua to be a

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 ...

dialect that may have a Sheyu (Hmongic)

substratum In linguistics, a stratum (Latin for "layer") or strate is a language that influences or is influenced by another through contact. A substratum or substrate is a language that has lower power or prestige than another, while a superstratum or sup ...

. However, Zhao (2004) considers Shehua to be an independent branch of Chinese, and that it should not be classified within Hakka. Depending on their locations, Shehua dialects have been variously influenced by

, Gan, Wu, and

Min Min or MIN may refer to: Places * Fujian, also called Mǐn, a province of China ** Min Kingdom (909–945), a state in Fujian * Min County, a county of Dingxi, Gansu province, China * Min River (Fujian) * Min River (Sichuan) * Mineola (Amtr ...

Dialects

You (2002:31-35) divides Shehua into 9 dialectal areas (''fangyan qu'' 方言区), and with respective locations and speaker demographics from You (2002) listed as well. The Eastern

and Southern

dialectal areas each have over 100,000 speakers, while the smallest dialectal areas are in

and

, with each having only a few thousand speakers. Altogether, there are more than 400,000 Shehua speakers in China. *Mindong (, Eastern

), spoken in the counties of Fu'an 福安, Fuding 福鼎, Xiapu 霞浦, Ningde 宁德, Shouning 寿宁, Zhouning 周宁, Zherong 柘荣, Pingnan 屏南, Luoyuan 罗源, Lianjiang 连江, Fuzhou 福州郊区, Minhou 闽侯, Minqing 闽清, and Yongqin 永泰. 184,000 speakers. In contact with Eastern Min. *Minbei (, Northern

), spoken in the counties of Nanping 南平, Jian'ou 建瓯, Jianyang 建阳, Shaowu 邵武,

Shunchang Shunchang County (; Northern Min: ) is a county under the administration of Nanping City, in the northwest of Fujian province, People's Republic of China. The county's name was established in 933, during the Tang Dynasty. It has a total populat ...

顺昌, and Guangze 光泽. 21,000 speakers. In contact with

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 ...

. *Minzhong (, Central

), spoken in the counties of Sanming 三明, Yong'an 永安, Shaxian 沙县, and Ninghua 宁化. Also spoken in Shuangguishan 双贵山,

Youxi County Youxi () is a county of central Fujian province, People's Republic of China. It is under the administration of Sanming Sanming (, Foochow Romanized: Săng-mìng), also known as Minzhong (), is a prefecture-level city in western Fujian province, ...

, Fujian.Wu Chong-chieh 吳中杰. 2014. Northern and Southern Vernaculars of She (San-hak): On Shuangguishan, Youxi County, Fujian Province / 畲話的南北分片問題：以閩中尤溪雙貴山為例的探討. In 客家研究第七卷第二期, 2014 年12 月39-62 頁. 12,000 speakers. In contact with

Central Min Central Min, or Min Zhong (), is a part of the Min group of varieties of Chinese. It is spoken in the valley of the Sha River in Sanming prefecture in the central mountain areas of Fujian, consisting of Yong'an, the urban area of Sanming ( Sany ...

. *Minnan (, Southern Fujian), spoken in the counties of Licheng District 鲤城区 (in Quanzhou), Anxi 安溪, Dehua 德化, Yongchun 永春, Hua'an 华安, Longyan 龙岩, and Zhangping 漳平. 12,000 speakers. In contact with

Southern Min Southern Min (), Minnan ( Mandarin pronunciation: ) or Banlam (), is a group of linguistically similar and historically related Sinitic languages that form a branch of Min Chinese spoken in Fujian (especially the Minnan region), most of Taiwa ...

. In

Zhangping Zhangping (; POJ: Chiang-pêng) is a city in the southwest of Fujian province, People's Republic of China. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Longyan. Transport Zhangping is a rail hub in southwestern Fujian, where th ...

City, Shanyangge Shehua 山羊隔畲话 is spoken by over 800 people in the two villages of Shanyangge 山羊隔, Guilin Township 桂林乡, and Jianci 尖祠, Xi'nan Township 溪南乡.Lin Jinlu, etc. Longyan Prefecture Geographical Gazetteer Editorial Committee 龙岩地区地方志编纂委员会编; 总编林金禄. 1992. Longyan Prefecture Geographical Gazetteer 福建省龙岩地区志. Shanghai: Shanghai People's Press 上海人民出版社. Shanyangge Shehua is distinct from Shejiake 畲家客, which is a

dialect spoken by over 100 people in Zhangping County in the two villages of Changta Village 长塔村, Xianghu Township 象湖乡 and Wei Village 尾村, Shuangyang Township 双洋乡. *Zhe'nan (, Southern

), spoken in the counties of Pingyang 平阳, Cangnan 苍南, Rui'an 瑞安, Wencheng 文成, Taishun 泰顺,

Lishui Lishui (; Lishuinese: ''li⁶ syu³'' ) is a prefecture-level city in the southwest of Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It borders Quzhou, Jinhua and Taizhou to the north, Wenzhou to the southeast, and the province of Fujian to ...

丽水, Jingning 景宁, Yunhe 云和, Longquan 龙泉, Songyang 松阳, Qingtian 青田, and Wuyi 武义. 120,000 speakers. In contact with

Wu Chinese The Wu languages (; Wu romanization and IPA: ''wu6 gniu6'' [] ( Shanghainese), ''ng2 gniu6'' [] (Suzhounese), Mandarin pinyin and IPA: ''Wúyǔ'' []) is a major group of Sinitic languages spoken primarily in Shanghai, Zhejiang, Zhejiang Provin ...

. *Zhezhong (, Central

), spoken in the counties of Longyou 龙游, Quxian 衢县, Lanxi 兰溪, Jinhua 金华, and Suichang 遂昌. 23,000 speakers. In contact with

. *Zhebei (, Northern

), spoken in the counties of Tonglu 桐庐, Jiande 建德, Lin'an 临安, Fuyang 富阳, and Anji 安吉. 13,000 speakers. In contact with

. *Yuedong (, Eastern

), spoken in the counties of

潮州 and

Fengshun Fengshun ( postal: Fungshun or Pungshan; ) is a county in Meizhou City, in the east of Guangdong Province, southern China. Ethno-linguistic make-up Fengshun is noted for its large Hakka population. Administrative divisions Fengshun County's ex ...

丰顺. 2,200 speakers. In contact with the

Teochew dialect Teochew or Chaozhou (, , , Teochew endonym: , Shantou dialect: ) is a dialect of Chaoshan Min, a Southern Min language, that is spoken by the Teochew people in the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong and by their diaspora around the world. ...

. In

, it is spoken in Fengping Village 凤坪村, Tanjiang Town 潭江镇. *Gandong (, Eastern

), spoken in the counties of Guixi 贵溪 and Yanshan 铅山. 4,000 speakers. In contact with

Gan Chinese Gan, Gann or Kan is a group of Sinitic languages spoken natively by many people in the Jiangxi province of China, as well as significant populations in surrounding regions such as Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, and Fujian. Gan is a member of the Sini ...

. The Shehua variety of Taiyuan 太源畲族乡,

Yanshan County, Jiangxi Yanshan () is a county in Shangrao Municipality, in north-eastern Jiangxi province. Situation It borders Hengfeng County to the north, Shangrao County to the east, Wannian County and Guixi City (in Yingtan) to the west and Wuyishan City a ...

has been documented in detail by Hu & Hu (2013), while the Shehua variety of Zhangping Township 樟坪畲族乡, Guixi City,

has been documented in detail by Liu (2008). In

Province, there is also a Shehua dialect spoken by about 2,400 people in Yunti She Ethnic Township (), Ningguo City that has been influenced by

Lower Yangtze Mandarin Lower Yangtze Mandarin () is one of the most divergent and least mutually-intelligible of the Mandarin languages, as it neighbours the Wu, Hui, and Gan groups of Sinitic languages. It is also known as Jiang–Huai Mandarin (), named after ...

.Wu Chong-chieh 吳中杰. 2004.
Languages of She Minority
/ Shezu yuyan yanjiu'' 畬族語言研究. Ph.D. dissertation. Hsinchu, Taiwan: National Tsing Hua University 國立清華大學語言研究所.钱虹. 2015. 语言接触下的畲话语音变迁——以安徽宁国云梯畲话为例. 《广西民族大学学报：哲学社会科学版》2015年第1期163-167,共5页. You (2002) provides a comparative vocabulary list for the following 13 datapoints. The Zhebei dialectal area 浙北方言区 has not been included by You (2002). # Fu'an 福安, Ningde,

(Mindong dialectal area 闽东方言区) # Fuding 福鼎, Ningde,

(Mindong dialectal area 闽东方言区; includes Xiamen She Ethnic Township 硖门畲族乡) # Luoyuan 罗源,

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 ...

(Mindong dialectal area 闽东方言区) # Sanming 三明,

(Minzhong dialectal area 闽中方言区) #

顺昌,

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 ...

南平,

(Minbei dialectal area 闽北方言区) # Hua'an 华安,

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 prefect ...

华安, southern

(Minnan dialectal area 闽北方言区) # Guixi 贵溪, Yingtan 鹰潭,

(Gandong dialectal area 赣东方言区) # Cangnan 苍南,

Wenzhou Wenzhou (pronounced ; Wenzhounese: Yuziou �y33–11 tɕiɤu33–32 ), historically known as Wenchow is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Zhejiang province in the People's Republic of China. Wenzhou is located at the extreme south east o ...

温州,

(Zhe'nan dialectal area 浙南方言区) # Jingning 景宁,

丽水,

(Zhe'nan dialectal area 浙南方言区) #

丽水,

(Zhe'nan dialectal area 浙南方言区) # Longyou 龙游,

Quzhou Quzhou is a prefecture-level city in western Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. Sitting on the upper course of the Qiantang River, it borders Hangzhou to the north, Jinhua to the east, Lishui to the southeast, and the provinces of ...

衢州,

(Zhezhong dialectal area 浙中方言区; includes Muchen She Ethnic Township 沐尘畲族乡) #

潮州,

(Yuedong dialectal area 粤东方言区) #

丰顺,

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 Cit ...

梅州,

(Yuedong dialectal area 粤东方言区)

Distribution

The following maps show ethnic

She She most commonly refers to: *She (pronoun), the third person singular, feminine, nominative case pronoun in modern English. She or S.H.E. may also refer to: Literature and films *'' She: A History of Adventure'', an 1887 novel by H. Rider Hagga ...

townships and other administrative divisions (highlighted in magenta) in

, and

provinces. The

of these three provinces speak Shehua, while the She of central

and

speak Hmongic languages. The most Shehua speakers are located in Ningde Prefecture,

, and

and

Prefectures,

. Smaller communities of Shehua speakers are located in central Zhejiang, southern Fujian, the mountainous interior of western Fujian, and northeastern Jiangxi near its border with Fujian. It is not known whether Shehua is spoken by She people living in central and southern Jiangxi.

Phonology

Like many

dialects, most Shehua dialects have the final

stop consonant In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be made with the tongue tip or blade (, ), tongue body (, ), li ...

s -p, -t, and -k. Some varieties of the Mindong Shehua dialect (including the Fu'an and Fuding varieties) have the initial voiceless lateral fricative ɬ- where other Shehua dialects have an initial s-. Shehua has 6 phonemic

contour tone A tone contour, or contour tone, is a tone in a tonal language which shifts from one pitch to another over the course of the syllable or word. Tone contours are especially common in East, Southeast Asia, West Africa, Nilo-Saharan languages, K ...

s, which can be organized into the following 6 tone categories (You 2002:80-83). *Tone category 1: dark level 阴平 (historically voiceless) *Tone category 2: light level 阳平 (historically voiced) *Tone category 3: rising 上声 (historically tense or checked) *Tone category 6: departing 去声 (historically breathy) *Tone category 7: dark entering 阴入 (historically voiceless) *Tone category 8: light entering 阳入 (historically voiced)

Unique vocabulary

You (2002:183-216) notes that Shehua has many unique vocabulary items that have no cognates in

, Gan, Wu, or any other

Chinese language Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the ...

. Instead, many words have parallels in Hmong-Mien languages (You 2002:490-504), and in Tai and Kam-Sui languages (You 2002:458-489). Other words appear to have no parallels in any other language family or branch (You 2002:505-518).

References

Citations

Sources

* Nakanishi Hiroki 中西裕树. 2010.

' 《论畬话的归属》. ''Journal of Chinese Linguistics Monograph Series'', no. 24 (2010): 247-67. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23825447 * Hu Songbai 胡松柏; Hu Derong 胡德荣. 2013. ''Yanshan Taiyuan Shehua yanjiu'' 《铅山太源畲话研究》. Beijing: China Social Sciences Academy Press 中国社会科学出版社. * You Wenliang 游文良. 2002. ''Shezu yuyan'' 《畲族语言》. Fuzhou: Fujian People's Press 福建人民出版社. {{Hmong-Mien languages Varieties of Chinese Sino-Tibetan languages Fujian Zhejiang She people