The Wenchang dialect () is a dialect of Hainanese spoken in Wenchang, a county-level city in the northeast of Hainan, an island province in southern China.
It is considered the prestige form of Hainanese, and is used by the provincial broadcasting media.
Phonology The initials of the Wenchang dialect are as follows: +Wenchang dialect initials Bilabial Dental Palatal Velar Glottal Stop / Affricate Nasal Fricative () () Lateral
The semivowels and are in complementary distribution with , and may be treated as allophones of the same phoneme. The voiced stops and occur with only about ten words each.
There are five vowels, , , , and . The high vowels and may also occur as medials.
The possible finals are:
+Wenchang dialect finals Vocalic codas Nasal codas Stop codas a 阿 ai 爱 au 后 am 暗 an 安 aŋ 红 ap 盒 at 达 ak 北 ɛ 下 ei 事 eiŋ 英 eik 益 i 皮 iu 手 in 新 ip 邑 it 必 ia 写 iau 妖 iam 念 iɛn 联 iaŋ 谁 iap 狭 iɛt 捏 iak 菊 iɔ 笑 iom 心 iɔŋ 用 iop 涩 iɔk 育 ɔ 歌 ɔi 鞋 ou 侯 ɔm 栾 ɔn 春 ɔŋ 公 ɔp 合 ɔt 黜 ɔk 乐 u 有 ui 气 un 轮 ut 脫 ua 娃 uai 快 uan 湾 uaŋ 广 uat 挖 uak 廓 ue 话 m̩ 毋 ŋ̍ 嗯
The Wenchang dialect has six tones on isolated syllabes: +Wenchang tones level (píng 平) rising (shàng 上) departing (qù 去) entering (rù 入) upper (yīn 阴) ˦ ʔ˨˩ ˩ ʔ˥˩ lower (yáng 阳) ˧ ʔ˦˨
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