Hui (linguistics)

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The Hui (徽) dialects are unrelated to the Hui (回) ethnic group of China.
Hui
徽语 Huīyǔ
Spoken in: China 
Region: southern Anhui, neighbouring portions of Zhejiang and Jiangxi, about 12 counties in total
Total speakers: 3.2 million
Language family: Sino-Tibetan
 Chinese
  Hui
Language codes
ISO 639-1: zh
ISO 639-2: chi (B)  zho (T)
ISO 639-3: czh

Hui, or Hui-yu (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; Hanyu Pinyin: Huīyǔ), or Huizhou-hua (Simplified Chinese: 徽州话; Traditional Chinese: 徽州話; Hanyu Pinyin: Huīzhōuhuà), is a subdivision of spoken Chinese. Its exact status is greatly disputed among linguists. Some prefer to classify it under Wu, others prefer to classify it under Gan, still others set it apart as an independent branch.

Hui is spoken over a small area compared to other Chinese varieties: in and around the historical region of Huizhou (for which it is named), in 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 Identification of the varieties of Chinese for the issues surrounding this dispute.

Hui can be divided into five dialects:

Phonologically speaking, Hui is noted for its massive loss of codas, including -i, -u, and nasals:

Character Meaning Hui of Tunxi Mandarin of Beijing
burn /ɕiɔ/ /ʂɑu/
firewood /sa/ /tʂʰai/
line /siːɛ/ /ɕiɛn/
sheet /tɕiau/ /tʂɑŋ/
web /mau/ /wɑŋ/
threshold /kʰɔ/ /kʰan/

Many dialects of Hui have diphthongs with a higher, lengthened first part. For example, 話 "speech" is /uːɜ/ in Xiuning County (Putonghua /xuɑ/), 園 "yard" is /yːɛ/ in Xiuning County (Putonghua /yɛn/); 結 "knot" is /tɕiːaʔ/ in Yi County (Putonghua /tɕiɛ/), 約 "agreement" is /iːuʔ/ in Yi County (Putonghua /yɛ/). A few areas take this to extremes. For example, Likou in Qimen County has /fũːmɛ̃/ for 飯 "rice" (Putonghua /fan/), with the /m/ appearing directly as a result of the lengthened, nasalized /ũː/.

Because nasal codas 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/.


[edit] Chinese: spoken varieties  
Generally accepted first-level categories:

Mandarin | Wu | Cantonese | Min | Hakka | Xiang | Gan |

Often accepted first-level categories:

Jin | Hui | Ping

Unclassified:

Danzhouhua | Shaozhou Tuhua

Subcategories of Mandarin: Northeastern | Beijing | Ji-Lu | Jiao-Liao | Zhongyuan | Lan-Yin | Southwestern | Taiwanese | Jianghuai | Dungan
Subcategories of Min: Min Bei | Min Dong | Min Nan | Min Zhong | Puxian | Qiong Wen | Shaojiang
Comprehensive list of Chinese dialects     |     Identification of the varieties of Chinese
Historical phonology: Old Chinese | Middle Chinese | Proto-Min | Proto-Mandarin | Haner
Written varieties
Official written varieties: Classical Chinese | Vernacular Chinese
Other varieties: Written Vernacular Cantonese
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