Huizhou Chinese or Hui dialect, is a group of closely related Sinitic languagesspoken over a small area in and around the historical region of Huizhou, in about ten or so mountainous counties in southern Anhui, plus a few more in neighbouring Zhejiang and Jiangxi. Although the Hui area is small compared with other Chinese dialect groups, it displays a very high degree of internal variation. Nearly every county has its own distinct dialect unintelligible to a speaker from a few counties away. For this reason, bilingualism and multilingualism are common among speakers of Hui. It is estimated that there are around 4.6 million speakers of Huizhou varieties.
Classification
Huizhou 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 YangtzeMandarin in 1987. Its classification is disputed, with some linguists such as Matisoff classifying it as Wu Chinese, others such as Bradley as Gan, and still others setting it apart as a primary branch of Chinese.
History
In 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 dialect. Large numbers of merchants from Huizhou lived in Yangzhou and effectively were responsible for keepingthe town afloat. Merchants in the later imperial period also sponsored operas and performances in the Hui dialect.
Languages and dialects
divided the Hui languages into five subgroups, which are also used in the Language Atlas of China: ;Ji–She ;Xiu–Yi ;Qi–De ;Yanzhou ;Jing–Zhan Huizhou varieties differ from village to village. People in different villages often cannot speak with one other.
Features
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, is in Xiuning County, is in Xiuning County ; is in Yi County, is in Yi County. A few areas take this to extremes. For example, Likou in Qimen County has for , 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 +.
