Zhangzhou dialects

Template:Short description The Zhangzhou dialects (Template:Zh), also rendered Changchew, Chiangchew or Changchow, are a collection of Hokkien dialects spoken in southern Fujian province (in southeast China), centered on the city of Zhangzhou. The Zhangzhou dialect proper is the source of some place names in English, including Amoy (from , now called Xiamen), and Quemoy (from , now called Kinmen).

Classification

The Zhangzhou dialects are classified as Hokkien, a group of Southern Min varieties. In Fujian, the Zhangzhou dialects form the southern subgroup () of Southern Min. The dialect of urban Zhangzhou is one of the oldest dialects of Southern Min, and along with the urban Quanzhou dialect, it forms the basis for all modern varieties. When compared with other varieties of Hokkien, it has an intelligibility of 89.0% with the Amoy dialect and 79.7% with the urban Quanzhou dialect.

Phonology

This section is mostly based on the variety spoken in the urban area of Zhangzhou.

Initials

There are 15 phonemic initials:

		Bilabial	Alveolar		Velar	Glottal
			plain	sibilantTemplate:Efn
Plosive/ Affricate	plain	Template:IPAslink Template:Angbr 邊 / 边	Template:IPAslink Template:Angbr 地	Template:IPAslink Template:Angbr 曾	Template:IPAslink Template:Angbr 求	Template:IPAslink Template:Angbr 英
	aspirated	Template:Angbr 頗 / 颇	Template:Angbr 他	Template:Angbr 出	Template:Angbr 氣 / 气
	voiced	Template:IPAslink Template:Angbr 門 / 门		Template:IPAslink Template:Angbr 熱 / 热	Template:IPAslink Template:Angbr 語 / 语
Fricative				Template:IPAslink Template:Angbr 時 / 时		Template:IPAslink Template:Angbr 喜
Lateral			Template:IPAslink Template:Angbr 柳

When the rime is nasalized, the three voiced phonemes , and are realized as the nasals Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink and Template:IPAblink, respectively.

Rimes

There are 85 rimes:

		Open syllable							Nasal coda							Nasal vowel coda
open mouth		Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink /	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAslink	/	/	Template:IPAslink				Template:IPAslink			/
	checked	/	/	/								/	/		/			/		/
even teeth		Template:IPAslink /					/			/					/	/				/
	checked		/	/	/					/		/		/			/			/
closed mouth		Template:IPAslink							/								/	/
	checked

The vowel Template:IPAslink is the open central unrounded vowel Template:IPAblink in most rimes, including , , , , , , , , . In the rimes and , Template:IPAslink is realized as Template:IPAblink (i.e. as and ) or Template:IPAblink (i.e. as and ).

The rimes and are usually realized with a short Template:IPAblink between the vowel Template:IPAblink and the velar consonant. In many areas outside of the urban area of Zhangzhou, including Pinghe, Changtai, Yunxiao, Zhao'an and Dongshan, and are pronounced as and instead.

The codas Template:IPAslink, Template:IPAslink and Template:IPAslink are unreleased, i.e. , and , respectively.

Tones

There are seven tones:

No.	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Tone name	dark level /	light level /	rising /	dark departing /	light departing /	dark entering /	light entering /
Tone contour	(44)	(13)	(53)	(21)	(22)	(32)	(121)
Example hanzi	/			/	/		/

Most people in the urban area do not pronounce the dark level tone as high-level, but slightly mid-rising. While most sources still records this tone as 44, its tone value has also been recorded as 24, 45, 34 or 35 to reflect its rising nature.

Tone sandhi

The Zhangzhou dialect has nine tone sandhi rules: only the last syllable of nouns and clause endings remain unchanged by tone sandhi. The two-syllable tone sandhi rules are shown in the table below:

Tone sandhi of first syllable

Original citation tone		Tone sandhi	Example word & sandhi
dark level 44		22	Template:Fs interlinear
light level 13		22	Template:Fs interlinear
rising 53		44	Template:Fs interlinear
dark departing 21		53	Template:Fs interlinear
light departing 22		21	Template:Fs interlinear
dark entering 32	coda	53 (the glottal stop is lost)	Template:Fs interlinear
	coda , ,	5	Template:Fs interlinear
light entering 121	coda	21 (the glottal stop is lost)	Template:Fs interlinear
	coda , ,	21	Template:Fs interlinear