Shaxian dialect (Central Min: æ²Â縣äºÂ, Mandarin Chinese: æ²Â縣話) is a dialect of Central Min Chinese spoken in Sha County, Sanming in Western Fujian Province of China.
Shaxian dialect has 17 initials, 36 rimes and 6 tones.
Notes:
Some rimes come in pairs in the above table, and they are closely related with the tones: the one to the left only exist in dark level (), light level (), light rising () and departing (); while the other only exist in dark rising () and entering (). It can be compared with close and open rimes of Fuzhou dialect, Eastern Min.
The entering tones in Sanming dialect don't have any entering tone coda () such as , , and . It's quite different from many other Chinese dialects.
Shaxian dialect has extremely extensive tone sandhi rules: in an utterance, only the last syllable pronounced is not affected by the rules.
The two-syllable tonal sandhi rules are shown in the table below (the rows give the first syllable's original citation tone, while the columns give the citation tone of the second syllable):
Some rimes may change their pronunciation because they are closely related with the tones (see above).