Junjiahua, Junhua, Junsheng or "military speech" in English, is any of a number of isolated dialects in

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) ...

, Guangxi,

Hainan Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...

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 cap ...

, and

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 ...

region. Some believe that they are a

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

dialect group that assimilated to local Chinese variants in southern China. Junhua began as a lingua franca in the army, being spoken between soldiers dispatched to all parts of China during the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peo ...

. It was subsequently spread to areas around the camps where the army settled. It is now an

endangered language An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a "dead langu ...

. In

, it's still spoken by about 100,000 people. These speakers mainly live in

Sanya Sanya (; also spelled Samah) is the southernmost city on Hainan Island, and one of the four prefecture-level cities of Hainan Province in South China. According to the 2020 census, the total population of Sanya was 1,031,396 inhabitants, li ...

Changjiang Li Autonomous County Changjiang Li Autonomous County (formerly known by its Cantonese romanization name Cheongkong) is an autonomous county in Hainan, China. It is one of six counties of Hainan. Its postal code is 572700, and in 1999 its population was 225,131 peopl ...

Danzhou Danzhou () is a prefecture-level city in the northwest of the Chinese island province of Hainan. Although called a "city", Danzhou administers a large area which was called Dan County or Danxian () until 1993. The administrative seat and urban ...

, Dongfang and

Lingao Língāo County (formerly romanised as Limko or Limkao) is an administrative district in Hainan province, China. It is one of 4 counties of Hainan. Its postal code is 571800, and in 1999 its population was 399,057 people. Climate See also * L ...

. Some also consider the Dapenghua spoken in

Dapeng Peninsula Dapeng Peninsula or Dapengbandao () is a peninsula in the east of Longgang district, that lies in the easternmost part of Shenzhen in the Guangdong Province in China.To the southwest of the peninsula is Mirs Bay and to the northeast is Daya B ...

Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...

to be a form of Junjiahua.

References

{{Languages of Taiwan Endangered languages Varieties of Chinese Languages of China Languages of Taiwan Military life Languages attested from the 2nd millennium Military history of the Ming dynasty