Hui (linguistics)
Hui is spoken over a small area compared to other Chinese varieties: about ten or so mountainous counties in southern Anhui, plus a few more in neighbouring Zhejiang and Jiangxi. Despite its small size, Hui displays a very high degree of internal variation. Nearly every county has its own distinct dialect unintelligible to a speaker a few counties away. It is for this reason that bilingualism and multilingualism are common among speakers of Hui.
Like all other varieties of Chinese, there is plenty of dispute as to whether Hui is a language or a dialect. See here for the issues surrounding this dispute.
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Dialects
Hui can be divided into five dialects:
- Jixi-Shexian, spoken in Jixi, She County, Huizhou, Jingde, and Ningguo, Anhui province, as well as Chun'an, Zhejiang province
- Xiuning-Yixian, spoken in Tunxi, Taiping, Xiuning, Yi County, and Qimen, as well as Wuyuan, Jiangxi province
- Qimen-Dexing, spoken in Qimen and Dongzhi, Anhui province, as well as Fuliang, Dexing, and Wuyuan, Jiangxi province
- Yanzhou, spoken in Chun'an and Jiande, Zhejiang province
- Jingde-Zhanda, spoken in Jingde, Qimen, Shitai, Yi County, and Ningguo, Anhui province
Features
Phonologically speaking, Hui is noted for its massive loss of codass, including -i, -u, and nasalss:
| Character | Meaning | Hui of Tunxi | Mandarin of Beijing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 燒 | burn | ɕiɔ | ʂɑu |
| 柴 | firewood | sa | tʂʰai |
| 綫 | line | siːɛ | ɕiɛn |
| 張 | sheet | tɕiau | tʂɑŋ |
| 網 | web | mau | wɑŋ |
| 檻 | threshold | kʰɔ | kʰan |
Because nasal codass have mostly dropped off, Hui reuses the /-n/ ending as a diminutive. For example, in the Tunxi dialect, there is 索 "rope" /soːn/ < /soʔ/ + /-n/.
| Chinese: spoken varieties | |
| Categories: | Mandarin | Jin | Wu | Hui | Xiang | Gan | Hakka | Yue | Pinghua | Min |
| Danzhouhua | Shaozhou Tuhua | Xianghua | |
| Subcategories of Min: | Min Dong | Min Bei | Min Zhong | Pu Xian | Min Nan | Qiong Wen | Shao Jiang |
| Note: The above is only one classification scheme among many. | |
| Comprehensive list of Chinese dialects | |
| Official spoken varieties: | Standard Mandarin | Standard Cantonese |
| Historical phonology: | Old Chinese | Middle Chinese | Proto-Min | Proto-Mandarin | Haner |
| Chinese: written varieties | |
| Official written varieties: | Classical Chinese | Vernacular Chinese |
