The Longyan dialect or Longyanese is a variety of Hokkien spoken in the urban city area of Eastern Longyan in Fujian Province, while Hakka is spoken in rural villages of Western Longyan. The Longyan Min people had settled in the region from Southern Fujian as early as the Tang dynasty (618–907). Due to its close proximity to rural Hakka villages, Longyan Min has some influence from Hakka albeit to a limited extent. The Longyan dialect has a limited degree of intelligibility with other Southern Min varieties. Today, Longyanese is predominantly spoken in Longyan's urban district Xinluo District while Zhangzhou Minnan is spoken in Zhangping City excluding Chishui and Shuangyang towns where Longyan Minnan is spoken. Hakka on the other hand is spoken in the non-urban rest of the rural areas of Longyan prefecture: Changting County, Liancheng County, Shanghang County, Wuping County, and Yongding District.
Branner suggests that the Xinluo and Zhangping dialects should be grouped with the Datian dialect as a coastal Min group separate from both Southern Min and Eastern Min. p. 78. However, he argues that the dialect of Wan'an township, in the northern part of Xinluo district, is a coastal Min variety separate from all of these.
Phonology The Longyan dialect has 14 initials, 65 rimes, and 8 tones.
Initials , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .
Rimes , , , ,
, , , , , , ,
, , , , , , ,
, , , , , ,
, , , ,
, , , , ,
, , , , , , , , ,
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .
Tones No.12345678Tonesdark level陰平light level陽平dark rising陰上light rising陽上dark departing陰去light departing陽去dark entering陰入light entering陽入Tone contour (334) (11) (21) (52) (213) (55) (5) (32)Example Hanzi邊寒碗近漢尺曲白
Tone sandhi The Longyan 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 (the rows give the first syllable's original citation tone, while the columns give the citation tone of the second syllable):
dark level, 334light level, 11dark rising, 21light rising, 52dark departing, 213light departing, 55dark entering, 5light entering, 32dark level, 334 remain unchangedlight level, 11 remain unchangeddark rising, 21 dark departing, 213 remain unchangedlight rising, 52 light level, 11dark departing, 213 remain unchanged dark rising, 21light departing, 55 remain unchanged dark level, 334dark entering, 5 remain unchanged dark level, 334light entering, 32 dark rising, 21
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