The Guanzhong dialect ( zh, s=关中话, t=關中話, p=Guānzhōnghuà) is a dialect of
Central Plains Mandarin
Central Plains Mandarin, or ''Zhongyuan'' Mandarin (), is a variety of Mandarin Chinese spoken in the central and southern parts of Shaanxi, Henan, southwestern part of Shanxi, southern part of Gansu, far southern part of Hebei, northern Anhui, n ...
spoken in
Shaanxi
Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see #Name, § Name) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichu ...
's
Guanzhong
Guanzhong (, formerly romanised as Kwanchung) region, also known as the Guanzhong Basin, Wei River Basin, or uncommonly as the Shaanzhong region, is a historical region of China corresponding to the crescentic graben basin within present-day ce ...
region, including the prefecture-level city of
Xi'an. Since people from Xi'an are considered the prototypical Guanzhong speakers, the Guanzhong dialect is sometimes referred to as ''Shaanxihua'' () or ''Xi'anhua'' ().
During the
Western Zhou Dynasty, the Guanzhong dialect was called "Yayan", or the 'elegant dialect'. The Book of Poetry records that "the Shang King was not elegant, but the elegant were free from Zhou." The Guanzhong dialect was once the official language of the four dynasties of
Zhou,
Qin Qin may refer to:
Dynasties and states
* Qin (state) (秦), a major state during the Zhou Dynasty of ancient China
* Qin dynasty (秦), founded by the Qin state in 221 BC and ended in 206 BC
* Daqin (大秦), ancient Chinese name for the Roman Emp ...
,
Han
Han may refer to:
Ethnic groups
* Han Chinese, or Han People (): the name for the largest ethnic group in China, which also constitutes the world's largest ethnic group.
** Han Taiwanese (): the name for the ethnic group of the Taiwanese p ...
and
Tang
Tang or TANG most often refers to:
* Tang dynasty
* Tang (drink mix)
Tang or TANG may also refer to:
Chinese states and dynasties
* Jin (Chinese state) (11th century – 376 BC), a state during the Spring and Autumn period, called Tang (唐) b ...
. The unification pattern of the Han Dynasty and the great integration of nationalities promoted the Xi'an dialect to influence dialects all over the country, which reached its peak during the Tang Dynasty.
However, the dialects spoken in northern and southern Shaanxi differ from that of Guanzhong, such as the
Hanzhong dialect, which is more closely related to
Sichuanese Mandarin.
In general, the Guanzhong dialect can be classified into two sub-dialects: the Xifu dialect (), or the 'dialect of the western prefectures', which is spoken in the west of
Xi'an, in
Baoji of
Shaanxi Province;
Tianshui,
Qingyang
Qingyang () is a prefecture-level city in eastern Gansu province, China.
Geography and climate
Qingyang is the easternmost prefecture-level division of Gansu and is thus sometimes referred to as "Longdong" (). It forms an administrative penins ...
,
Pingliang,
Longnan
Longnan () is a prefecture-level city in the southeast of Gansu province in China. It borders Sichuan on its south and Shaanxi on its east. As of the 2020 Chinese census, the population of the prefecture-level city was 2,855,555.
Geography and ...
of
Gansu Province
Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province.
The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibeta ...
; and south of
Guyuan of
Ningxia Province, and the Dongfu dialect (), or the 'dialect of the eastern prefectures', spoken in
Xi'an,
Weinan,
Tongchuan,
Xianyang and
Shangluo of
Shaanxi Province.
Due to the prevalence of
Standard Mandarin
Standard Chinese ()—in linguistics Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin, in common speech simply Mandarin, better qualified as Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin or Standard Mandarin Chinese—is a modern standar ...
in urban areas such as
Xi'an, the younger generations prefer Mandarin or ''Shaanxi Mandarin'', which is essentially Mandarin with the tone changes typical of the Guanzhong dialect. Due to the lexical and grammatical similarities between Northern Mandarin dialects, attrition of these dialects is more serious. Authorities have moved in to document the local dialects to preserve them.
See also
*
Qinqiang
Citations
References
*
Mandarin Chinese
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