Hui Chinese () is one of the ten primary varieties of the Chinese language spoken in the Hui cultural region (), including the historical Huizhou Prefecture in Southern Anhui, and part of the historical Yanzhou Prefecture in Zhejiang and part of in Jiangxi.
Although the Hui cultural region is small compared to other Chinese dialectal regions, Hui Chinese displays a very high degree of internal variation, and the lect is also situated near many mutually unintelligible varieties, making its classification difficult. It has been previously grouped with Jianghuai Mandarin, Wu, and Gan, and some even believe that it does not even constitute a singular language family.
Hui Chinese is the Chinese variety spoken in the Hui cultural region, which not only include the historical Huizhou Prefecture, but also include part of the historical Yanzhou Prefecture and part of the historical . The relationship between Huizhou Prefecture and Hui cultural region resembles that of Canton Prefecture and Yue cultural region.
Hui Chinese was originally classified as Lower Yangtze Mandarin but it is currently classified separately from it. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences supported the separation of Huizhou from Lower Yangtze Mandarin in 1987. Its classification is disputed, with some linguists, such as Matisoff classifying it as Wu Chinese, others such as Bradley (2007) as Gan, and still others setting it apart as a primary branch of Chinese.
A reconstruction of Common Huizhou by Coblin has found that the lect group is likely areal, not a "genetically related" group of varieties, and is merely a useful category to collect these hard-to-classify varieties. He notes that they do not belong to any other top-level group due to the lack of shared innovations with any, and that they do not have any shared innovations among themselves. He also notes that the above conclusion would imply that his reconstruction is not a proto-system, but instead an "analytical device or template".
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Jianghuai speakers moved into Hui dialect areas.
Some works of literature produced in Yangzhou, such as Qingfengzha, a novel, contain Jianghuai Mandarin. People in Yangzhou identified by the dialect they speak, locals spoke the dialect, as opposed to sojourners, who spoke other varieties like Huizhou or Wu. This led to the formation of identity based on one's dialect. Large numbers of merchants from Huizhou lived in Yangzhou and effectively were responsible for keeping the town afloat. Merchants in the later imperial period also sponsored operas and performances in the Hui dialect.
Zhengzhang Shangfang divided the Hui languages into five subgroups, which are also used in the Language Atlas of China:
Huizhou varieties differ from township to township. People in different townships, towns, etc. (even in one county) often cannot speak with one another.
Phonologically speaking, Hui is noted for its massive loss of syllable codas, including -i, -u, and nasals:
Many Hui dialects have diphthongs with a higher lengthened first part. For example, ("speech") is in Xiuning County (Standard Chinese ), ("yard") is in Xiuning County (Standard Chinese ); ("knot") is in Yi County (Standard Chinese ), ("agreement") is in Yi County (Standard Chinese ). A few areas take this to extremes. For example, Likou in Qimen County has for ("rice") (Standard Chinese ), with the appearing directly as a result of the lengthened, nasalized .
Because nasal codas have mostly been lost, Hui reuses the ending as a diminutive. For example, in the Tunxi dialect, "rope" appears as from + .