Xiang Chinese

Xiang
Hunanese
湘語/湘语
150px "Xiang Language" written in Chinese characters
Native to	China
Region	Central and southwestern Hunan, and northern Guangxi, a few parts of Guizhou, Sichuan and Shaanxi
Ethnicity	Hunanese people (Han Chinese)
Native speakers	38 million (2007)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Xiang
Dialects	Old Xiang New Xiang Chen-Xu Xiang Hengzhou Xiang Yong-Quan Xiang
Language codes
ISO 639-3	hsn
Glottolog	xian1251
220px

Xiang Chinese
Traditional Chinese	湘語
Simplified Chinese	湘语
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Xiāng Yǔ Xiang IPA siɔ̃44ny31
Commonly known as
Traditional Chinese	湖南話
Simplified Chinese	湖南话
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Húnán Huà Xiang IPA ɣu13nia13ɣo21

Xiang (Hsiang, simplified Chinese: 湘语; traditional Chinese: 湘語) or imprecisely Hunanese (Chinese: 湖南话), is a group of linguistically similar and historically related varieties of Chinese, spoken mainly in Hunan province but also in a few parts of Guangxi, Sichuan and Shaanxi. Scholars divided Xiang into five subgroups, Chang-Yi, Lou-Shao, Hengzhou, Chen-Xu and Yong-Quan. Among those, Lou-shao, as known as Old Xiang, still exhibits the three-way distinction of Middle Chinese obstruents, preserving the voiced stops, fricatives, and affricates. Xiang has also been heavily influenced by Mandarin, which adjoins three of the four sides of the Xiang speaking territory, and Gan in Jiangxi Province, from where a large population immigrated to Hunan during the Ming Dynasty.

Xiang speakers played an important role in Modern Chinese history, especially in those reformatory and revolutionary movements such as Self-Strengthening Movement, Hundred Days' Reform, Xinhai Revolution and Chinese Communist Revolution. Some examples of Xiang speakers are Mao Zedong, Zuo Zongtang, Huang Xing and Ma Ying-jeou.

History

Ancient ages

During Qin and Han dynasty, most part of today's Eastern Hunan belonged to Changsha-Xian/Changsha-Guo. According to Yang Xiong's Fangyan, people in this region spoke Southern Chu, which is considered the ancestor of Xiang Chinese today.

Middle ages and recent history

During the Tang dynasty, a large-scale emigration took place with people emigrating from the north to the south, bringing Middle Chinese into Hunan. Today's Xiang still keeps some Middle Chinese words, such as 嬉 (to have fun), 薅 (to weed), 行 (to walk). Entering tone vowels started weakening in Hunan at this time.

The late Yuan Dynasty peasant uprising caused a great many casualties in Hunan. During the Ming dynasty, a large-scale emigration from Jiangxi to Hunan took place. Gan, which was brought by settlers from Jiangxi, influenced Xiang. The speech in east Hunan differentiated into New Xiang during that period.

Quanzhou County became part of Guangxi province after the adjustment of administrative divisions in the Ming Dynasty. Some features of Xiang at that time were kept in this region.

Classification

File:Xiang in hunan.png

Dialect map of Hunan Province. New Xiang orange, Old Xiang yellow, Chen-Xu Xiang light red. Xiangnan Tuhua dark green and medium green.
Note other dialects are shown in larger areas than in the next map. Hakka pink, Southwestern Mandarin light blue, medium blue, light green, and Waxiang dark blue

Since the classification of Yuan Jiahua (1960), Xiang has been considered one of seven major groups of varieties of Chinese. Jerry Norman classified Xiang, Gan and Wu, as central groups, intermediate between the Mandarin group to the north and the southern groups, Min, Hakka and Yue.

In Xiang dialects, the voiced initials of Middle Chinese yield unaspirated initials in all tone categories. A few varieties have retained voicing in all tones, but most have voiceless initials in some or all tone categories.

Development of voiced initials in different tones

gloss	Middle Chinese	Chengbu	Shuangfeng	Shaoyang	Changsha
peach	桃 daw	dao2	də2	daɤ2	taɤ2
sit	坐 dzwaX	dzo6	dzu6	tso6	tso6
together	共 gjowngH	goŋ6	gaŋ6	kong6	kong5
white	白 baek	ba7	piɛ6	pe6	pɤ7

Yiyang

Yueyang

Changsha

Yongzhou

Quanzhou

Jishou

Chenxi

Hengyang

Shaoyang

Shuangfeng

Zixing

Dialects of Xiang Chinese

Xiang and other subgroups identified by Bao & Chen

New Xiang (Chang–Yi)      Waxiang      Hengzhou      Xiangnan Tuhua      Chen–Xu (Ji–Xu)      Old Xiang (Lou–Shao)      Yong–Quan

Pervasive influence from Mandarin dialects has made Xiang dialects difficult to classify. Xiang is traditionally divided into New Xiang, in which voicing has been lost completely, and Old Xiang varieties, which retain voiced initials in at least some tones. Changsha dialect is usually taken as representative of New Xiang, while Shuangfeng dialect represents Old Xiang. Norman describes the boundary between New Xiang and Southwestern Mandarin as one of the weakest in China, with considerable similarities between dialects near either side of the boundary, though more distant dialects are mutually unintelligible. Indeed, Zhou Zhenhe and You Rujie (unlike most authors) classified New Xiang as part of Southwestern Mandarin. Within New Xiang and Old Xiang, there are also many different sub-dialects.

The Language Atlas of China identified a third subgroup, Ji-Xu in some places of Western Hunan. Bao & Chen (2007) split out part of New Xiang as a new Hengzhou Xiang subgroup, and part of Old Xiang out as a Yong-Quan Xiang subgroup. They also reclassified parts of the Ji–Xu subgroup as Southwest Mandarin, renaming the remainder of the subgroup as Chen-Xu Xiang. Their five subgroups are:

New Xiang

(17.8 million speakers) voiced initials in Middle Chinese become unaspirated voicless consonant. Most of the dialects of New Xiang retain the entering tone as a separate category.

Old Xiang

(11.5 million speakers) Voiced initials still exist. The entering tone does not exist in most of the dialects.

Chen-Xu Xiang

(3.4 million speakers) Some of the voiced consonants are retained.

Hengzhou Xiang

(4.3 million speakers)

Yong-Quan Xiang

(6.5 million speakers) Voiced consonants still exist. Sometimes Yong-Quan dialects are considered a variety of Old Xiang.

Geographic distribution

Xiang is spoken by over 36 million people in China, primarily in the most part of the Hunan province, and in the four counties of Quanzhou, Guanyang, Ziyuan, and Xing'an in northeastern Guangxi province, and in several places of Guizhou and Guangdong provinces. It is abutted by Southwestern Mandarin-speaking areas to the north and west, as well as by Gan in the eastern parts of Hunan and Jiangxi. Xiang is also in contact with the Qo-Xiong Miao and Tujia languages in West Hunan.

Distribution of Xiang subgroups according to Bao & Chen (2007)

Subgroup	Division	Main cities and counties
New Xiang	Chang-Tan	Urban Changsha, Changsha County, Wangcheng, Ningxiang, Liuyang*, Urban Zhuzhou, Zhuzhou County, Urban Xiangtan, Xiangyin, Miluo, Nanxian, Anxiang*
	Yi-Yuan	Urban Yiyang, Yuanjiang, Taojiang, Anhua, Nanxian*
	Yueyang	Yueyang County, Urban Yueyang
Old Xiang	Xiang-Shuang	Xiangtan County, Shuangfeng, Shaoshan, Urban Loudi, Hengshan*
	Lian-Mei	Lianyuan, Lengshuijiang*, Anhua*, Ningxiang*
	Xinhua	Xinhua, Lengshuijiang
	Shao-Wu	Urban Shaoyang, Wugang, Shaodong, Shaoyang County, Xinshao, Longhui, Xinning, Chengbu, Dongkou*
	Sui-Hui	Suining, Huitong
Hengzhou	Hengyang	Urban Hengyang, Hengyang County, Hengnan
	Hengshan	Hengshan, Hengdong, Nanyue
Chen-Xu	–	Chenxi, Xupu, Luxi, Jishou**, Baojing**, Huayuan**, Guzhang**, Yuanling*
Yong-Quan	Dong-Qi	Urban Yongzhou, Dong'an, Qiyang, Qidong
	Dao-Jiang	Jiangyong, Daoxian, Jianghua*, Xintian*
	Quan-Zi	Quanzhou County, Xing'an, Guanyang, Ziyuan
*Small part of this territory belongs to this Xiang subgroup. **Included in Xiang only in Language Atlas of China.

See also

• Changsha dialect
• Shuangfeng dialect
• List of Chinese dialects

External links

• Xiang
• Xiang Encyclopedia of Modern Asia | 2002 |
• Xiang Romanization