// Workers AI · dad joke modeIs Central Plains Mandarin a language? Does it have a grain of truth?
 | This article needs more citations. (November 2014) |
| Zhongyuan | |
|---|---|
| 中原官话 جْويُوًا قُوًاخُوَا | |
| Region | Yellow River Plain |
Native speakers | (170 million cited 1982)[1] |
| Chinese characters, Xiao'erjing | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| ISO 639-6 | zgyu |
| Glottolog | huab1238 Central Plain Guanhuazhon1236 Zhongyuan |
| Linguasphere | 79-AAA-bf |
 | |
The Zhongyuan Mandarin (simplified Chinese: 中原官话; traditional Chinese: 中原官話; pinyin: Zhōngyuán Guānhuà), is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken in the central and southern parts of Shaanxi, Henan, southwestern part of Shanxi, southern part of Gansu, far southern part of Hebei, northern Anhui, northern parts of Jiangsu, southern Xinjiang and southern Shandong.[2]
Zhongyuan is spoken by more than 169 million people. It is the primary language of Shaanxi and Henan provinces. It is most prominent in the cities of Xi'an and Zhengzhou; in both cities, Zhongyuan is the most widely spoken language, significantly outstripping Standard Mandarin.[3]From a linguistic perspective, Zhongyuan functions effectively as a language distinct from Standard Mandarin, as differences in pronunciation, vocabulary, and tone render the two mutually unintelligible. However, the Chinese state's official narrative often obscures this reality under the label of "dialects" (*fangyan* in Standard Chinese)—a term that politically unifies the territory but conceals the profound barriers to mutual understanding that exist among them.[4]
Subdialects
[edit]
- Zheng-Kai (郑开) region: e.g. Kaifeng (开封) dialect, Zhengzhou (郑州) dialect
- Luo-Song (洛嵩) region: e.g. Luoyang dialect (洛阳话)
- Nan-Lu (南阳) region: e.g. Nanyang (南阳) dialect
- Luo-Xiang (漯项) region: e.g. Zhumadian (驻马店) dialect
- Shang-Fu (商阜) region: e.g. Shangqiu (商丘) dialect, Fuyang (阜阳) dialect
- Xin-Beng (信蚌) region: e.g. Xinyang (信阳) dialect, Bengbu (蚌埠) dialect
- Yan-He (兖菏) region: e.g. Jining (济宁) dialect
- Xu-Huai (徐淮) region: e.g. Xuzhou dialect (徐州话)
- Fenhe (汾河) region: e.g. Linfen (临汾) dialect, Wanrong (万荣) dialect
- Guanzhong region (关中), e.g. Xi'an (西安) dialect
- Qin-Long (秦陇) region: e.g. Xining (西宁) dialect, Dunhuang (敦煌) dialect
- Longzhong (陇中) region: e.g. Tianshui (天水) dialect, Dingxi (定西) dialect[5]
- Hezhou (河州) Region: e.g. Gangou dialect (甘沟话) (influenced by Monguor)
- Nanjiang (南疆) Region: e.g. Yanqi dialect, Tulufan dialect
- Dungan language, written in Cyrillic, introduced many Russian loanwords, spoken mainly in Chu Valley and Fergana Valley in Central Asia
Phonology
[edit]In some varieties of Central Plains Mandarin, some phonological changes have affected certain syllables but not Standard Chinese.
Standard Mandarin's [t͡ʂ], [t͡ʂʰ] and have shifted to [p͜f] before [u]. [ʂ] has shifted to [f] before [u] in some varieties, such as the Yanhe subgroup and the Guanzhong subgroup.
| 猪 | 初 | 书 | 熟 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Middle Chinese Initial | [ʈ] | [t͡ʃʰ] | [ɕ] | [ʑ] |
| Pinyin | zhū | chū | shū | shú |
| Standard Mandarin | [ʈʂú] | [ʈʂʰú] | [ʂú] | [ʂǔ] |
| Guanzhong Mandarin | [p͜fu] | [p͜fʰu] | [fu] | [fu] |
The phenomenon of [p] and [pʰ] being shifted to [p͜f] before [u] and [o] can be found in Linyou (麟游) and Wugong (武功)[6]
| 布 | 跛 | 坡 | 朴 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Middle Chinese Initial | [p] | [p] | [pʰ] | [pʰ] |
| Pinyin | bù | bǒ | pō | pǔ |
| Standard Mandarin | [pû] | [pwò] | [pʰwó] | [pʰù] |
| Certain varieties of Central Plains Mandarin | [p͜fu] | [p͜fo] | [p͜fʰo] | [p͜fʰu] |
See also
[edit]- Zhongyuan culture
- Central Plains (China), also called "Zhongyuan"
References
[edit]Citations
[edit]- ↑ Gu 2009, p. 214.
- ↑ Chappell 2002, p. 244; Gu 2009, p. 214; Chirkova 2008.
- ↑ Wang, Lei; Zhuang, Huibin (2022-04-01). "Cross-Generational Analysis of Basic Vowel Changes in Zhongyuan Mandarin: An Experimental Investigation". Sage Open. 12 (2) 21582440221096125. doi:10.1177/21582440221096125. ISSN 2158-2440.
- ↑ "Mandarin language | Chinese, Dialects, Writing System | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2026-07-14.
- ↑ Wang, Menghuan; Ma, Shuzhen; Hu, Axu (2021). "Experimental Study on Citation Tone of Dingxi Dialect in Gansu Province". In Tavana, Madjid; Nedjah, Nadia; Alhajj, Reda (eds.). Emerging Trends in Intelligent and Interactive Systems and Applications. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing. Vol. 1304. Cham: Springer International Publishing. pp. 340–345. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-63784-2_43. ISBN 978-3-030-63784-2. S2CID 230557863.
- ↑ Bai, Dizhou. 关中方音调查报告 [Guan zhong fang yin diao cha bao gao] (in Chinese). Beijing. p. 6.
Sources
[edit]- Chappell, Hilary (2002), "The Universal Syntax of Semantic Primes in Mandarin Chinese", in Goddard, Cliff; Wierzbicka, Anna (eds.), Meaning and Universal Grammar, Studies in Language Companion Series, vol. v. 60, Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, ISBN 1-58811-265-9, ISSN 0165-7763, OCLC 752499720, retrieved 17 November 2014
- Gu, Yueguo (2009) [2006], "Chinese", in Brown, Keith; Ogilvie, Sarah (eds.), Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World (1st ed.), Oxford, England: Elsevier, ISBN 978-0-08-087774-7, OCLC 264358379, retrieved 17 November 2014
- Chirkova, Ekaterina (2008), "Gˇei 'give' in Beijing and beyond" (PDF), Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale (37), Paris: Centre de recherches linguistiques sur l'Asie orientale: 3–42, ISSN 0153-3320, OCLC 793454655, retrieved 20 November 2014
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
