She Chinese

Shanke dialect (simplified Chinese: 山客话; traditional Chinese: 山客話; pinyin: shānkèhuà; lit. 'mountain Hakka dialect'; pha̍k-fa-sṳ: sânhakfa), also known as Shanha dialect (simplified Chinese: 山哈话; traditional Chinese: 山哈話; pinyin: shānhǎhuà) or She dialect (simplified Chinese: 畲话; traditional Chinese: 畲話; pinyin: shēhuà; pha̍k-fa-sṳ: chhiàfa), is the native Chinese language spoken by the vast majority of She (Shanke) people. Shanke speakers are located mainly in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces of Southeastern China, with smaller numbers of speakers in a few locations of Jiangxi (in Guixi and Yanshan County), Guangdong (in Chaozhou and Fengshun County) and Anhui (in Ningguo) provinces.

The People's Republic of China government has not officially adopted a clear nomenclature distinguishing the Chinese Shanke dialect and the non-Chinese HmongicShe language. In its official introduction to the She ethnic group published by the National Ethnic Affairs Commission, the Shanke dialect is instead referred to simply as the "She language (Chinese: 畲语; lit. 'She language')", rather than as "Shanke dialect (Chinese: 山客话; lit. 'Shanke dialect')" or "She dialect (Chinese: 畲话; lit. 'She dialect')". Meanwhile, the non-Chinese Hmongic She language is not given any name at all, but is merely described as "closely related to the 'Bunu' language of the Yao people (belonging to the Hmongic languages)". This is quite different from the precise official naming of the languages of other ethnic minorities, such as the Uyghurs and Tibetans. Linguist published a journal article specifically noting that there has been considerable inconsistency among scholars in the naming of this language. Owing to the absence of an official standardised name, this language has been referred to inconsistently across different publications. Some scholars call it the "She language (畲语)", while others refer to it as "She dialect (畲话)". However, these are all exonyms. The only designation that can be established with certainty is the endonym Shanke dialect (山客话), which is referred to by its native speakers.