Chang–Du Gan

Chang–Du or Chang–Jing, sometimes called Nanchang or Nanchangese () after its principal dialect, is one of the Gan Chinese languages. It is named after Nanchang and Duchang County, and is spoken in those areas as well as in Xinjian, Anyi, Yongxiu, De'an, Xingzi, Hukou, and bordering regions in Jiangxi and in Pingjiang County, Hunan.

Phonology

The Nanchang dialect has 19 syllable onsets or initials (including the zero initial), 65 finals and 7 tones.

Initials

In each cell below, the first line indicates IPA transcription, the second indicates pinyin.

Finals

The finals of the Nanchang dialect are:

Consonantal codas

• The codas in italic are at present only reserved in several Gan dialects.

Tone

Like other Chinese varieties, tones in Gan make phonemic distinctions. There are five phonemic tones in Gan, which are reduced to two 'entering tones' before stop consonants. In the traditional classification, these are considered separately:

The 6th and 7th tones are the same as the 4th and 5th tones, except that the syllable ends in a stop consonant, or .

Example

A poem of Meng Haoran (“Men Hau-len” in Gan):

References

• BěijÄ«ng Dàxué Zhōngguó yǔyán wénxuéxì yǔyánxué jiàoyánshì (1989). Hànyǔ fāngyÄ«n zìhuì. BěijÄ«ng: Wénzì gǎigé chÅ«bǎnshè. (北京大學中國語言文學系語言學教研室. 1989. 漢語方音字匯. 北京: 文字改革出版社)
• Norman, Jerry. [1988] (2002). Chinese. Cambridge, England: CUP
• Yuán, Jiāhuá (1989). Hànyǔ fāngyán gàiyào (An introduction to Chinese dialects). Beijing, China: Wénzì gǎigé chÅ«bǎnshè. (袁家驊. 1989. 漢語方言概要. 北京:文字改革出版社.)

External links

• Cantonese and other dialects (in Chinese)
• Classification of Gan Dialects from Glossika