Taishan dialect - Chinese linguistics and dialect

March 8, 2014


		1 Introduction 2 History of Taishanese 3 Relationship between Cantonese and Taishainese 4 Writing 5 See also 6 External links

Chinese Chinese linguistics and dialect

Taishan dialect

Wikipedia

Taishanese (台山話 Taishanese: Hoi4 saan6 wa1, Cantonese: toi4 saan1 wa6), or Seiyap, is a List of Chinese dialects|Chinese dialect (or group of very similar dialects) spoken in and around Taishan, in Guangdong province. Taishanese is grouped within Yue, one of the major branches of Spoken Chinese language|spoken Chinese.

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History of Taishanese

Taishanese originates from the Taishan region, where it is spoken. Often regarded as a single language, Taishanese can also be seen as a group of very closely related, mutually intelligible subdialects spoken by the various towns and villages in and around Seiyap (the four counties of Taishan, Enping, Kaiping, Xinhui). It is said that one can tell from what village or town a person is from based on his pronounciation of words and manner of speaking.

Taishanese is one of the major languages of the Chinese diaspora. The Taishan region was a major source of Chinese immigrants in the Americas in the 19th and early 20th centuries. 1.3 million people are estimated to have origins in Taishan. Because Taishanese is often included with Cantonese or regarded as a dialect of Cantonese, many Cantonese speakers are in fact Taishanese or descendents of Taishanese speakers. Prior to the repealing of the Chinese Exclusion Act, which allowed new waves of Chinese immigrants, Taishanese was ubiquitous in Chinatowns across North America. Taishanese is still spoken everyday in many Chinatowns including those of Oakland Chinatown|Oakland and San Francisco Chinatown|San Francisco. Taishanese is spoken by older generations of Chinese people, as well as Chinese of Taishan descent, but often, usage of Taishanese is giving way to Cantonese, due the popularity, standardization, prestige, and usage in education of standard Cantonese.

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Relationship between Cantonese and Taishainese

Taishanese is often regarded as being very similar to Cantonese, or merely heavily accented Cantonese. However, Taishanese and Cantonese are not neccessarily mutually intelligible. Phonology is very similar to Cantonese, however, pronounciation and vocabulary differ, sometimes greatly. Due to the widespread use of Cantonese in mainstream and popular culture, most Taishanese speakers will understand spoken Cantonese. Some may even regard their own language simply as a differently-accented version of Cantonese. The reverse is not neccessarily true, however. Native Cantonese speakers unfamiliar with Taishanese (such as Hong Kongers) may find difficulty understand Taishanese unless spoken slowly.

This rarely becomes an issue in China, however. In Guangdong province, standard Cantonese is used as a lingua franca, and speakers of various dialects, such as Chaozhou dialect|Chaozhou, Hakka dialect|Hakka, and Taishanese will often speak or understand Cantonese. In addition, Mandarin Putonghua is the standardized language taught in schools throughout China. Thus, many Taishanese speakers in Taishan will usually be fluent in Cantonese as well as Standard Mandarin|Mandarin. Depending on the situation, Taishanese speakers holding a conversation may Code-switching|code-switch between Taishanese, Cantonese, and Mandarin.

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Writing

No standardized form of written Taishanese exists. Writing is done using Chinese characters and Mandarin vocabulary and grammar. Many common words used in spoken Taishanese have no Chinese character associated with them. No standard Romanization system exists for Taishanese; the ones given on this page are ad hoc. The following example of plural pronouns will show the differences between Taishanese, Cantonese, and Mandarin.

English	Taishanese	Cantonese	Mandarin
we/us	ngoik	ngo5 dei6 (我哋)	wǒ m?n (我們)
you (plural)	nek	nei5 dei6 (你哋)	nǐ m?n (你們)
they/them	kek	keoi5 dei6 (佢哋)	tā m?n (他們)

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