The Fuqing dialect (, BUC: Hók-chiăng-uâ, IPA: ), or Hokchia, is an Eastern Min dialect. It is spoken in the county-level city of Fuqing, China, situated within the prefecture-level city of Fuzhou. It is not completely mutually intelligible with the Fuzhou dialect, although the level of understanding is high enough to be considered so.
Phonology The Fuqing dialect has fifteen initials, forty-six rimes, and seven tones.
Initials Including the null initial, the Fuqing dialect has fifteen initials, excluding the phonemes and , which are only used in connected spoken speech.
+ Chart of Fuqing dialect initials Bilabial Alveolar Dental Velar Glottal Nasal Plosive Affricate Fricative Approximant
(The Chinese characters represent the sample characters taken from the Qī Lín Bāyīn (戚林八音, Foochow Romanized: Chék Lìng Báik-ĭng), while the Latin letters are from the orthography Foochow Romanized).
is a voiceless dental fricative, and is the mainstream pronunciation; some pronounce it as . There is no phonemic contrast between the two.
, and palatalize to , , before finals that begin with , the close front rounded vowel (i.e. before the finals , , , ).
Rimes Including the syllabic nasal consonant , the Fuqing dialect has forty-six rimes in total. Apart from and , all rimes have a close/open distinction.
+ Chart of Fuqing dialect rimes Simple vowels Compound vowels Nasal coda Glottal coda Null medial 嘉 (a, ahFinals that end in "h" in Foochow Romanized have lost the final glottal stop represented by the "h", and have merged with the light entering tone.) 郊 (au) 山 (ang) 鴨 (ak) 開 (ai) 歌 (o̤, o̤h) 催 (oi/o̤i) 釭 (ong/aung) 樂 (ok/auk) 西 (a̤) 溝 (eu) 燈 (eng/aing) 客 (ek/aik) 初 (e̤/ae̤) 東 (e̤ng/ae̤ng) 角 (e̤k/ae̤k) 伓 (ng) Medial /i/ 奇 (ia, iah) -- (--) 聲 (iang) 察 (iak) 之 (i/e, ih/eh) 秋 (iu/eu) 賓 (ing/eng) 力 (ik/ek) 雞 (ie) 燒 (ieu) 天 (ieng) 熱 (iek) Medial /u/ 孤 (u/o) 輝 (ui/oi) 春 (ung/ong) 福 (uk/ok) 花 (ua, uah) 歡 (uang) 法 (uak) 過 (uo, uoh) 杯 (uoi) 光 (uong) 月 (uok) Medial /y/ 須 (ṳ/e̤ṳ) 銀 (ṳng/e̤ṳng) 肉 (ṳk/e̤ṳk) 橋 (io, ioh) 香 (iong) 藥 (iok)
The rime before the slash is the close or tense rime (, or alternatively in ), while the rime after the slash is the open or lax rime (; or otherwise named in ). The Chinese characters represent the sample characters taken from the Qī Lín Bāyīn (戚林八音, Foochow Romanized: Chék Lìng Báik-ĭng), with further characters from rimes with glottal codas. The Latin letters are from the orthography Foochow Romanized.
The rime only has one syllable , and is not found in the Qī Lín Bāyīn; furthermore, Foochow Romanized does not have a way to represent this syllable.
In the modern Rongcheng dialect, the rime has now merged into and is no longer distinguished. Also in the new Rongcheng dialect, the rime has merged into . The syllabic nasal in the modern Rongcheng dialect is read as ; some sources have not yet listed this final in their charts.福清市志編纂委員會：《福清市志》, 1994, 廈門大學出版社 (Xiamen University Press), 《卷三十．方言》 (Vol. 30: Topolects).
Tones The Fuqing dialect has seven tones, with the Middle Chinese four tone categories of level/even (平), departing (去) and entering (入) all divided into dark (陰) and light (陽) categories. The names and the sequence of the seven tones are outlined below, as listed in the traditional rime dictionary Qī Lín Bāyīn: Traditional nomenclatureUpper level 上平Rising tone 上聲Upper departing 上去Upper entering 上入Lower level 下平Lower departing 下去Lower entering 下入Standard nomenclatureStandard nomenclature refers to names of the tones as used in modern Chinese academia, which is also used by Standard Mandarin. This article follows this convention.Dark level 陰平 Ĭng-bìngRising tone 上聲 Siōng-siăngDark departing 陰去 Ĭng-ké̤ṳDark entering 陰入 Ĭng-ĭkLight level 陽平 Iòng-bìngLight departing 陽去 Iòng-ké̤ṳLight entering 陽入 Iòng-ĭkIPA pitches (53) (32) (21) (12ʔ) (55) (42) (5ʔ) Foochow Romanized(with a as example)ăāáákàâăk
The dark level (陰平 Ĭng-bìng) tone falls the most sharply; the light departing (陽去 Iòng-ké̤ṳ) tone is a mid falling tone, whose fall in pitch is not as dramatic.
In tone sandhi, a new tone contour, one that rises (, 35) is produced from certain interactions of tone categories in the "New" Rongcheng dialect.
Additionally, the Fuqing dialect contains the neutral tone in colloquial speech, which generally manifests as a mid tone.
Close-open rimes The phenomenon of close and open rime alternation (also known as tense and lax rimes; in Chinese, variously ; ; or )王建華 etc.：連江縣國民小學鄉土語言教材－福州語 第一冊(教師手冊)，連江縣政府，民國九十年：p.8. This article uses the terminology from this textbook. is found throughout the dialects of cities and villages in the traditional Fuzhou area (the ten towns of Fuzhou, 福州十邑). But it is absent from, for example, the dialects of Gutian (古田) and Luoyuan (羅源). The dialect of Fuqing, along with that of the urban area of Fuzhou, exhibits this phenomenon.
According to the original listing of the rimes in the Qī Lín Bāyīn, the medial vowel did not change with the tones. But in the Fuqing dialect, when the rime is in either one of the departing tones or in the dark entering tone, the medial vowel changes to another, the rime being called the open rime. When in either of the two level tones, in the rising tone, or in the light entering tone, the rime does not change; this rime is called the close rime. In the Fuqing dialect, with the exception of [ŋ] and [iau], all rimes exhibit this close-open alternation.
As an example, the rime from "春" in the Qī Lín Bāyīn, lists the two rimes: and . In the Gutian dialect, the same vowel is preserved in the rime , regardless of tone. But in the Fuqing dialect, the rime in the dark departing (陰去) and light departing (陽去) tones changes to , where the vowel in the final has become . Similarly, in the upper departing (上入) tone becomes the open rime , where the vowel has again changed. Tone nameDark level 陰平Rising tone 上聲Dark departing 陰去Dark entering 陰入Light level 陽平Light departing 陽去Light entering 陽入Chinese character東董 噸督同燉獨 Fuqing dialectGutian dialect
Within the Fuqing dialect, the vowel of the open rime is always more open (or lower) by a degree than the close rime. For example, 知 in the dark level tone 陰平 is read as a close rime, with the close vowel . Listed as the same rime but in a different tone (i.e. light departing 陽去) is 地, which is instead read as , an open rime with the half-close vowel , one degree more open than . All close rimes in the relevant tone categories have become their corresponding open rimes according to this rule.
Close rime Open rime 師 士 低 遞 東 動 庚 縣 夫 婦 多 道 巴 罷
Synchronically, this alternation can affect vowels when tone sandhi occurs; please see the section on rime changes.
Sound changes The Fuqing dialect has a particularly rich set of phonetic changes. The pronunciation of a particular Chinese character under certain circumstances can undergo changes in its initial, its rime, and its tone. For example, the word 兄弟哥 (brother, Standard Mandarin: 兄弟) is made of the three words 兄 , 弟 and 哥 , but is actually pronounced as 兄弟哥 . Within this word, the first syllable 兄 has undergone tone sandhi and has thus changed tone; the last syllable 哥 has lost its initial consonant; and the rime of the middle syllable 弟 has changed in both vowel and tone. Within lexical or semantic items, the three features of initial, rime and tone are subject to sandhi phenomena. In colloquial Fuqing speech, this type of change is very frequently encountered, but is rare in Chinese as a whole.
Initial assimilation In colloquial Fuqing speech, the initial consonants of Chinese characters or syllables are subject to change under specific circumstances within lexical items. The first modern work to examine the phonology of the Fuzhou dialect, the Mǐnyīn Yánjiū (閩音研究), used the term "initial assimilation" (in ) to refer to this phenomenon.陳澤平：閩語新探索, Shanghai, Far East Publishing House, 2003: p.25.陶燠民：閩音研究, Beijing, Scientific Publishing House, 1956, p.15:「二字連語，而有文法上密切之關係，則發生類化現象，其變則隨上字韻母之陰陽，下字聲母之組別而異……。」 The Fuqing dialect contains two voiced initial consonants, and , that only appear through initial assimilation.
Initial assimilation in the Fuqing dialect occurs in polysyllabic lexemes (i.e. lexical items or words of two or more syllables or Chinese characters) and certain semantic groups. Usually within these groups, all syllables apart from the first undergo initial assimilation. But if the initial of the following syllable is a nasal or , then the initial assimilation does not occur at that point. Not every phrase will undergo initial assimilation, and the ones that do may differ from their counterparts in the other Min Dong varieties.
The syllable that undergoes initial assimilation is the "latter character"; that which precedes it is the "former character". Initial assimilation in the Fuqing dialect consists of three types: voicing, nasalisation/nasal assimilation and suppression. The rime of the former character determines the type of assimilation of the latter character's initial. Former character's rime typeLatter character's initial typeExample"Checked rime" / Rime ending in a glottal stopNo change > (福清, Fuqing)Yang rime / Rime ending in a nasalNasalisation / Nasal assimilation > (兄弟, brother)Yin rime / Rime ending in a vowelVoicing or suppression > (西北, northwest) > (五縣, five counties)
Which voiced consonant or nasal consonant or whether the consonant is suppressed depends on the place of articulation of the latter syllable's initial. Initial's place of articulationInitialExample characterNasalisation / Nasal assimilationVoicingSuppressionLabial /p, pʰ/臂 (肩臂) (手臂) --Velar /k, kʰ, h, ʔ/ 學 (算學) -- (數學)Dental (Type A) /t, tʰ, θ/頭 (枕頭) (額頭) --Dental (Type B) /ts, tsʰ/ 蔗 (甘蔗) (福州蔗) -- Type A dentals after voicing assimilation do not become the standard , but are slightly flapped.袁家驊：漢語方言概要, Beijing, Language and Literature Publishing House, 2003: p. 289.
Tone sandhi As with the majority of southern varieties of Chinese, the Fuqing dialect exhibits tone sandhi. The phenomenon of tone sandhi in the Fuqing dialect contains a whole set of rules to be followed, but it is still rather complex: one tone can undergo different changes depending on what tone follows it. For example, the light entering (陽入) tone in front of the dark departing (陰去) tone becomes (11), but in front of a rising tone (上聲) it becomes (55); and in front of the dark entering (陰入) tone it becomes (21).
+ Chart of tone sandhi with 實, a syllable in the light entering tone (陽入調) Original syllable (IPA) Tone of the following syllable Tone value after sandhi Example word Dark departing 陰去 (11) (實際) Rising tone 上聲 (55) (實踐) Dark entering 陰入 (21) (實質)
In many local dialects of the Fuzhou area (within the Eastern Min family), the last syllable of a word does not undergo tone sandhi. However, in the Fuqing dialect, the last syllable's tone does change under certain circumstances.
First Character and Pronunciation Last Character and Pronunciation Pronunciation in Sandhi 小 禮 小禮 綠 色 綠色
Below is a full table for the tone sandhi on two syllable domains for the main "new" Rongcheng pronunciation of the Fuqing dialect:
"New" Rongcheng Fuqing dialect: Two-character Tone SandhiTone of latter syllableĬng-bìng (陰平)
(53)Siōng-siăng (上聲) (32)Ĭng-ké̤ṳ (陰去) (21)Ĭng-ĭk (陰入) (12ʔ)Iòng-bìng (陽平) (55)Iòng-ké̤ṳ (陽去) (42)Iòng-ĭk (陽入) (5ʔ)Ĭng-bìng (陰平) (53)Siōng-siăng (上聲) (32)Ĭng-ké̤ṳ (陰去) (21)Ĭng-ĭk (陰入) (12ʔ)Iòng-bìng (陽平) (55)Iòng-ké̤ṳ (陽去) (42)Iòng-ĭk (陽入) (ʔ5)
Aside from words composed of two syllables (or binomes), those composed of three syllables also undergo tone sandhi. First Character Second Character Third Character Pronunciation in Sandhi福 清 話 福清話
Rime changes