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Information about Xiang (linguistics)

Xiang (湘?)
Spoken in:China
Region:Central and southwestern Hunan, Sichuan, and northern Guangxi
Total speakers:30.85 million
Ranking:30
Genetic classification:
Official status
Official language of:
Regulated by:
Language codes
ISO 639-1zh
ISO 639-2
SIL
See also: Language – List of languages


Xiāng (湘語/湘语), also known as Hunan, Hunanese, or Hsiang is a Chinese language spoken mainly in the Hunan province, but also in a few other provinces such as Sichuan and Guangxi. It is a group of languages of immense interest to Chinese dialectologists and historical phonologists because some of its languages still exhibit the three-way distinction of Middle Chinese obstruents, preserving the voiced stops, fricatives and affricates as in the modern Wu languages. However, it is surrounded by Mandarin in the north, west and south, thus showing a lot of Mandarin influences. New Xiang, which has lost the voiced obstruents, (as opposed to Old Xiang, which has preserved them) is to a certain extent intelligible to speakers of Southwestern Mandarin.

One of the most well-known native speakers of the Xiang language was Mao Zedong, who was a native of Xiangtan.

Classification

Xiāng is one of the Sinitic language families, which in turn forms part of the larger Sino-Tibetan language family. Despite being a distinct language family, the Xiang languages at large are close to the Wu languages because of the voiced obstruents and to Mandarin because of the grammatical and lexical influence it has on the Xiang languages, notably the new Xiang languages, which reminds us of a similar linguistic situation of the Hangzhou dialect.

Geographic distribution

Xiang is spoken by over 36 million people in China, primarily in the central and southwestern parts of the Hunan province, over 20 counties in Sichuan, the 4 counties of Quánzhōu (全州), Guànyáng (灌陽), Zīyuán (資源) and Xīngān (興安) in northern Guangxi and parts of Guangdong. Apart from being surrounded by Mandarin speaking areas in the north, west and south, Xiang also borders Gan in the eastern part of Hunan and Jiangxi. Geographically, Xiang is also in contact with the Tujia and Hmong languages in the northwest.

Dialects

As mentioned above, linguists distinguish two sub-families within the Xiang family, namely the Old and New Xiang languages. Old Xiang, aside from having preserved the Middle Chinese obstruents, is also spoken in the southern regions and New Xiang in the north, therefore more heavily influenced by Mandarin than the Old Xiang languages.

According to Bao & Chen (2005), three main dialect groups have been identified, amongst other unclassified dialects:
  • Chángyì sub-group (長益片) including 32 cities and counties
  • Chángshā city (長沙市), Chángshā (長沙), Xiāngtán city (湘潭市), Xiāngtán (湘潭), Zhūzhōu city (株州市), Zhūzhōu (株州), Píngjiāng (平江), Liúyáng (瀏陽), Níngxiāng (寧鄉), Wàngchéng (望城), Xiāngyīn (湘陰), Yìyáng city (益陽市), Yìyáng (益陽), Táojiāng (桃江), Yuánjiāng (沅江), Mìluó (汨羅), Yuèyáng city (岳陽市), Yuèyáng (岳陽), Nánxiàn (南縣), Ānxiāng (安鄉), Ānhuà (安化), Héngyáng (衡陽市), Héngyángyáng (衡陽陽), Héngnán (衡南), Héngdōng (衡東), Héngshān (衡山), Shàodōng (邵東), Xīnshào (新邵), Qiányáng (黔陽), Hóngjiāng city (洪江市), Huìtóng (會同), Suíníng (綏寧)
  • Lóushào sub-group (婁邵片) including 21 cities and counties
  • Hunan province(湖南省): Lóudǐ city (婁底市), Xiāngxiāng (湘鄉), Shuāngfēng (雙峰), Liányuán (漣源), Lěngshuǐjiāng city (冷水江市), Xīnhuà (新化), Ānhuà (安化), Shàoyáng city (邵陽市), Shàoyáng (邵陽), Dòngkǒu (洞口), Lōnghuí (隆回), Wǔgāng (武岡), Qídōng (祁東), Qíyáng (祁陽), Chéngbù (城步), Xīnníng (新寧) and Máyáng (麻陽).
  • Guangxi province (廣西省): Quánzhōu (全州), Guànyáng (灌陽), Zīyuán (資源) and Xīngān (興安)
  • Jíxù subgroup (吉漵片) including 8 cities and counties
  • Jíshǒu (吉首), Bǎojìng (保靖), Huāyuán (花垣), Gǔzhàng (古丈), Lúqī (瀘溪), Chénqī(辰溪), Xùpǔ (漵浦), Yuánlíng (沅陵)

References

  • Bào, hòuxīng & Chén, huī. (2005). "Xiāngyǔ de fēnqū" (The divisions of Xiang languages). Fāngyán: 261-270. (鮑厚星, 陳暉. 2005. "湘語的分區".方言: 261-270)
  • Norman, Jerry. [1988] (2002). Chinese. Cambridge, England: CUP ISBN 0-521-29653-6
  • Wu, Yunji. (2005). A Synchronic and diachronic study of the grammar of the Chinese Xiang dialects. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 3-11-018366-8
  • Yuán, jiāhuá (1989). Hànyǔ fāngyán gàiyào (An introduction to Chinese dialects). Beijing, China: Wénzì gǎigé chūbǎnshè. (袁家驊. 1989. 漢語方言概要. 北京:文字改革出版社.)

editChinese: Spoken varieties 
Generally accepted first-level categories: Mandarin | Wu | Cantonese | Min | Hakka | Xiang | Gan |
Often accepted first-level categories: Jin | Hui | Ping
Unclassified: Danzhouhua | Shaozhou Tuhua
Subcategories of Mandarin:Northeastern | Beijing | Ji-Lu | Jiao-Liao | Zhongyuan | Lan-Yin | Southwestern | Jianghuai | Dungan
Subcategories of Min:Min Bei | Min Dong | Min Nan | Min Zhong | Puxian | Qiong Wen | Shaojiang
Comprehensive list of Chinese dialects
Historical phonology:Old Chinese | Middle Chinese | Proto-Min | Proto-Mandarin | Haner
Chinese: Written varieties
Official written varieties:Classical Chinese | Vernacular Chinese
Other varieties:Written Vernacular Cantonese
Anthem
March of the Volunteers (义勇军进行曲)
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湖南省
Húnán Shěng
Abbreviations: ?  (Pinyin: Xiāng)

Origin of name 湖 hú - lake
南 nán - south
"south of Lake Dongting"
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四川省
Sìchuān Shěng
Abbreviations: 川/?  (Pinyin: Chuān or Shu)

Origin of name
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This is a list of languages, ordered by the number of native-language speakers, with some data for second-language use. Languages are listed for secondary locations only when spoken by more than 1% of the population.
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A language family is a group of languages related by descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language. As with biological families, the evidence of relationship is observable shared characteristics.
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This is a list of bodies that regulate standard languages.

Afrikaans Die Taalkommissie, South Africa
Arabic Academy of the Arabic Language (مجمع اللغة العربية, Syria, Egypt, Jordan,
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ISO 639 is the set of international standards that lists short codes for language names.

ISO 639 consists of different parts, of which two parts have been approved and a third part that is in the final approval (FDIS) stage. The other parts are works in progress.
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Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics), a Christian linguistic service organization which studies lesser-known languages primarily to provide the speakers with Bibles in
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See Language (journal) for the linguistics journal.


A language is a system of symbols and the rules used to manipulate them. Language can also refer to the use of such systems as a general phenomenon.
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lists of languages:
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湖南省
Húnán Shěng
Abbreviations: ?  (Pinyin: Xiāng)

Origin of name 湖 hú - lake
南 nán - south
"south of Lake Dongting"
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四川省
Sìchuān Shěng
Abbreviations: 川/?  (Pinyin: Chuān or Shu)

Origin of name
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Dialectology is a sub-field of linguistics, the scientific study of linguistic dialect. It studies variations in language based primarily on geographic distribution and their associated features (as opposed to variations based on social factors, which are studied in
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Historical Chinese phonology deals with reconstructing the sounds of Chinese from the past. As Chinese is written with characters, not alphabet or syllabary, the methods employed in Historical Chinese phonology differ considerably from those employed in, for example, Indo-European
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Middle Chinese (Traditional Chinese: 中古漢語; Pinyin: zhōnggǔ Hànyǔ), or Ancient Chinese
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obstruent is a consonant sound formed by obstructing outward airflow, causing increased air pressure in the vocal tract.

Obstruents are those articulations in which there is a total closure or a stricture causing friction, both groups being associated with a
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In phonetics, voice or voicing is one of the three major parameters used to describe a sound. It is usually treated as a binary parameter with sounds being described as either voiceless (unvoiced) or voiced
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stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. The terms plosive and stop are usually used interchangeably, but they are not perfect synonyms.
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Fricatives (or spirants) are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These are the lower lip against the upper teeth in the case of [f]
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Affricate consonants begin as stops (most often an alveolar, such as [t] or [d]) but release as a fricative (such as [s]
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Wu (Chinese: 吴方言; Pinyin: Wú fāngyán; Chinese: 吴语; Pinyin: Wú yǔ
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Standard Mandarin, also known as Modern Standard Chinese
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Also known as Huguang (湖广), Southwestern Mandarin is the variant of Mandarin Chinese widely spoken south of the Yangtze River, and east of the Tibetan Plateau.
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Mao Zedong pronunciation   (help info ) (Simplified Chinese: 毛泽东; Traditional Chinese: 毛澤東; Pinyin: Máo Zédōng; Wade-giles:
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Xiangtan (Chinese: 湘潭; Pinyin: Xiāngtán) is a city located in the center of Hunan province, China.
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Spoken Chinese (or Chinese dialects) comprises many regional variants. Although the English word dialect is often used to translate the Chinese term fangyan (Chinese: 方言
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Sino-Tibetan languages form a hypothetical language family composed of, at least, the Chinese and the Tibeto-Burman languages, including some 250 languages of East Asia. They are second only to the Indo-European languages in terms of their number of speakers.
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The Hangzhou dialect (Traditional Chinese: 杭州話; Simplified Chinese: 杭州话; Pinyin: hángzhōuhuà
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