Swatow dialect

Swatow dialect
Swatow dialect
Shantou
汕頭話 Suan¹tao⁵ uê⁷
Native to	China
Region	Mainly in Shantou, southeastern Guangdong province.
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Min Coastal Min Southern Min Swatow dialect; ; ; ; ; ;
Early forms	Proto-Sino-Tibetan Old Chinese Proto-Min ; ;
Writing system	Peng'im
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	shan1244
Linguasphere	79-AAA-jif
	Swatow dialect

The Swatow dialect, also known as the Shantou dialect, is a variety of Chinese mostly spoken in Shantou in Guangdong, China. Swatow dialect is the standardize language spoken in Chaoshan, which typically understood by many residence of Chaoshan.^[4] It is not part of the Teochew Dialect as their language and accents are unfathomably hard to comprehend, It is typically classified as a standardized Chaoshan dialect of Chaoshan as their accents are well understood by most people who inhabited the Chaoshan region.^[3]

Shantou or Swatow is the main city of the Chaoshan region. It has one of the largest port on the South China Sea, and is one of China's Special Economic Zones.^[5] Hence, Swatow dialect are spoken by almost over 5.5 million residence who resides in Shantou or greater Chaoshan as compared to Teochew which is spoken by 2.4 million residence who resides in Chaozhou and Swatow dialect is understood by 15 million local Chaoshan native.^[6] Although there are some similarities in grammar and words, the accents, tone and usage of words however have a huge variance differs Swatow Dialect and the Teochew Dialect.^[7] Swatow dialect are easily understood by the nearby cities such as Jieyang, Puning, Chaonan, Chaoyang, Raoping and other region. Swatow Dialect is also used as lingua franca in the Chaoshan region due to its Special economic zones of China.^[8]

Swatow Dialect or Chaoshan language course also taught in the Shantou University.^[9]

Differences between Swatow and Teochew Dialect

A great example would be "You" 汝 in Swatow dialect, it is pronounce as "Lu" or "Loo" instead of Teochew Dialect "You" 汝 as "Ler" or "Le", this also applies to other similar character or words such as 猪，鱼，书， in Swatow Dialect "Too",“Hoo", "Zoo" rather than Teochew Dialect "Ter", "Her", "Zir".^[10]

Phonology

Swatow dialect has 18 initials, over 60 rimes, and 8 tones.

English	Swatow Dialect
How are you doing? What's up?	汝好無？ (lu2 ho2 bho5)
Thank you Thanks	感謝 (Gam3 sia7)
We've got to go first See you later	先行 (Saing1 gian5)
Im sorry	孬意思 (mo2 i3 su3) 對唔住 (dui3 m6 zu6)
Can you speak Chaoshan?	請問汝會曉呾潮汕話𠁞？ (cian2 meng7 lu2 ei6 hiao2 dan3 dio5 suan1 uê7 bhoi6?)
May i know what is your name?	汝叫乜名? (lu2 gio3 mih4 mian5?)
Where are you originally from?	汝個趁底塊來個 (lu2 gai5 tang3 di7 do7 lai5 gai5?)

Initials

		Bilabial	Alveolar		Velar	Glottal
		Bilabial	plain	sibilant	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		/m/ 毛	/n/ 腦		/ŋ/ 俄
Plosive/ Affricate	tenuis	/p/ 波	/t/ 刀	/ts/ 之	/k/ 哥	/ʔ/ 烏
	aspirated	/pʰ/ 抱	/tʰ/ 天	/tsʰ/ 此	/kʰ/ 戈
	voiced	/b/ 無			/g/ 鵝
Continuant	voiceless			/s/ 思
Continuant	voiced		/l/ 羅	/z/ 入		/h/ 何

Rimes

Swatow dialect has at least the following rimes:

Nucleus		-a-			-ɛ̝-		-o̞-		-ɯ-	-i-	-u-	-ai-		-au-		-oi-	-ou-	-ui-	-iu-	∅-
Medial		∅-	i-	u-	∅-	u-	∅-	i-	∅-	∅-	∅-	∅-	u-	∅-	i-	∅-	∅-	∅-	∅-	∅-
Coda	-∅	a 亞	ia 呀	ua 娃	e 啞	ue 鍋	o 窩	io 腰	ɯ 余	i 衣	u 污	ai 哀	uai 歪	au 歐	iau 夭	oi 鞋	ou 烏	ui 威	iu 憂
	-◌̃	ã 噯	ĩã 營	ũã 鞍	ẽ 楹	ũẽ 橫		ĩõ 羊	ɯ̃ 秧	ĩ 丸		ãĩ 愛	ũãĩ 懸			õĩ 閑			ĩũ 幼
	-ʔ	aʔ 鴨	iaʔ 益	uaʔ 呴	eʔ 厄	ueʔ 襪	oʔ 學	ioʔ 約		iʔ 裂	uʔ 呴					oiʔ 狹
	-m	am 庵	iam 淹	uam 犯						im 音										m̩ 唔
	-ŋ	aŋ 按	iaŋ 央	uaŋ 汪	eŋ 英		oŋ 翁	ioŋ 雍	ɯŋ 恩	iŋ 因	uŋ 溫									ŋ̩ 䘼
	-p	ap 盒	iap 壓	uap 法						ip 邑
	-k	ak 惡	iak 躍	uak 獲	ek 液		ok 屋	iok 育		ik 乙	uk 熨

Tones

No.	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Tones	dark level 陰平	dark rising 陰上	dark departing 陰去	dark entering 陰入	light level 陽平	light rising 陽上	light departing 陽去	light entering 陽入
Tone contour	˧ (33)	˥˧ (53)	˨˩˧ (213)	˨ (2)	˥ (55)	˧˥ (35)	˩ (11)	˥ (5)
Example Hanzi	詩	死	四	薛	時	是	示	蝕

Tone sandhi

Swatow 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:

Tone sandhi of first syllable
Original citation tone	Tone sandhi
dark level 33	23
light level 55	21
dark rising 53	35
light rising 35	21
dark departing 213	55
light departing 11	12
dark entering 2	5
light entering 5	2

Notes

^ Min is believed to have split from Old Chinese, rather than Middle Chinese like other varieties of Chinese.^[1]^[2]^[3]

References

^ Mei, Tsu-lin (1970), "Tones and prosody in Middle Chinese and the origin of the rising tone", Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 30: 86–110, doi:10.2307/2718766, JSTOR 2718766
^ Pulleyblank, Edwin G. (1984), Middle Chinese: A study in Historical Phonology, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, p. 3, ISBN 978-0-7748-0192-8
^ ^a ^b Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (2023-07-10). "Glottolog 4.8 - Min". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. doi:10.5281/zenodo.7398962. Archived from the original on 2023-10-13. Retrieved 2023-10-13.
^ 汕头文化云 Shantou Culture Cloud, 汕头文化云 Shantou Culture Cloud. "—保留着较多古汉语的地方方言 Swatow Dialect retains Old Chinese Ancient language". stwhyun.com. 2020 汕头文化云. Retrieved 25 April 2025.
^ Top China Travel, Top China Travel. "Shantou Special Economic Zone". topchinatravel.com. Top China Travel. Retrieved 25 April 2025.
^ 大潮汕谈世情, 全面解析潮汕文化、传统、习俗. "潮汕话，究竟还能讲多久？How many people spoke the Chaoshan language?". 163.com. 163.com. Retrieved 25 April 2025.
^ Fielde, Adele, (Adele Marion), 1839-1916. "A pronouncing and defining dictionary of the Swatow dialect, arranged according to syllables and tones". nlb.gov.sg. American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1883 National Library Board Singapore, 1883. Retrieved 25 April 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^ 南方日报, 南方日报. "汕头华侨经济文化合作试验区设立10周年：让世界看到更好的华侨试验区". qb.gd.gov.cn. Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the People's Government of Guangdong Province. Retrieved 25 April 2025.
^ Shantou University, Shantou University. "Chaoshan Langauge and Literature 潮汕文化". wxy.stu.edu.cn. Shantou University.
^ Fielde, Adele, (Adele Marion), 1839-1916. "A pronouncing and defining dictionary of the Swatow dialect, arranged according to syllables and tones". nlb.gov.sg. American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1883 National Library Board Singapore, 1883. Retrieved 25 April 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

Office of Chorography of Shantou City 汕头市地方志办公室 (1999). Shan tou shi zhi 汕头市志 ["Chorography of Shantou City"]. Vol. 72. Beijing: Xinhua chubanshe 新华出版社 ["Xinhua Publishing House"]. ISBN 9787501143870.

External links

Media related to Shantou dialect at Wikimedia Commons

[minClassification-4] Min is believed to have split from Old Chinese, rather than Middle Chinese like other varieties of Chinese.^[1]^[2]^[3]

[1] Mei, Tsu-lin (1970), "Tones and prosody in Middle Chinese and the origin of the rising tone", Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 30: 86–110, doi:10.2307/2718766, JSTOR 2718766

[2] Pulleyblank, Edwin G. (1984), Middle Chinese: A study in Historical Phonology, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, p. 3, ISBN 978-0-7748-0192-8

[glottoMin-3] Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (2023-07-10). "Glottolog 4.8 - Min". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. doi:10.5281/zenodo.7398962. Archived from the original on 2023-10-13. Retrieved 2023-10-13.

[5] 汕头文化云 Shantou Culture Cloud, 汕头文化云 Shantou Culture Cloud. "—保留着较多古汉语的地方方言 Swatow Dialect retains Old Chinese Ancient language". stwhyun.com. 2020 汕头文化云. Retrieved 25 April 2025.

[6] Top China Travel, Top China Travel. "Shantou Special Economic Zone". topchinatravel.com. Top China Travel. Retrieved 25 April 2025.

[大潮汕谈世情-7] 大潮汕谈世情, 全面解析潮汕文化、传统、习俗. "潮汕话，究竟还能讲多久？How many people spoke the Chaoshan language?". 163.com. 163.com. Retrieved 25 April 2025.

[8] Fielde, Adele, (Adele Marion), 1839-1916. "A pronouncing and defining dictionary of the Swatow dialect, arranged according to syllables and tones". nlb.gov.sg. American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1883 National Library Board Singapore, 1883. Retrieved 25 April 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

[9] 南方日报, 南方日报. "汕头华侨经济文化合作试验区设立10周年：让世界看到更好的华侨试验区". qb.gd.gov.cn. Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the People's Government of Guangdong Province. Retrieved 25 April 2025.

[10] Shantou University, Shantou University. "Chaoshan Langauge and Literature 潮汕文化". wxy.stu.edu.cn. Shantou University.

[11] Fielde, Adele, (Adele Marion), 1839-1916. "A pronouncing and defining dictionary of the Swatow dialect, arranged according to syllables and tones". nlb.gov.sg. American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1883 National Library Board Singapore, 1883. Retrieved 25 April 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

[a]

[4]

[3]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[1]

[2]