The Sanming dialect (Central Min: 三明事, Mandarin Chinese: 三明話) is a dialect of Central Min spoken in urban areas of Sanming, a prefecture-level city in Western Fujian Province, China.
Phonology The Sanming dialect has 18 initials, 37 rimes and 6 tones.
Initials BilabialAlveolarPostalveolarVelarNasal StopTenuisAspiratedAffricateTenuis Aspirated Fricative Glide
Initials may also be heard as prenasal in free variation. When the two initials are followed by non-nasalized rimes, they can be heard as voiced plosives . Palato-alveolar sounds can also be heard as alveolo-palatal sounds in free variation among speakers.
Rimes + Open syllable Nasal coda Nasal vowel coda Open mouthɹ̩ aɯ auam aiŋ ã ɔ̃ Even mouth iɛ iɒ ia iɯiauiam iaiŋiã iɔ̃ ɛ̃ Closed mouth uɛ ui uã Round mouth yi yɛ yoyaiŋ yã yɛ̃
Tones No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Tone name dark level陰平 light level陽平 dark rising陰上 light rising陽上 departing去聲 entering入聲 Tone contour 553 41 21 213 33 12 The entering tones in the Sanming dialect do not have any entering tone coda () such as , , and . This feature is quite different from many other Chinese dialects.
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