Hainanese

Hainanese is a variety of Min Chinese spoken on the island of Hainan and by regional overseas Chinese communities.

In the classification by Yuan Jiahua, used by Ethnologue, it is part of the Southern Min group despite being mutually unintelligible with Southern Min varieties such as Hokkien and Teochew. In the classification of Li Rong, used by the Language Atlas of China, it is treated as a separate Min subgroup. Hou Jingyi combines it with Leizhou Min, spoken on the Leizhou Peninsula, in a Qiong–Lei group.

The term "Hainanese" is also used for the language of the Li people living in Hainan, but it generally refers to Min varieties spoken in Hainan.

Phonology The phonologies of the different varieties of Hainanese are highly divergent, with the Wenchang dialect being the prestige dialect, and often used as a reference."" From

Consonants

Below is a table for the consonants of Hainanese across the dialects of Wenchang, Haikou and the dialect of Banqiao Town, in Dongfang. For more information on a specific variety, please consult the relevant article.

Labial Dental Alveolo-palatal Velar Glottal Plosive pa toi kong a pho khu gua ɓak ɗei ()Affricate tsia jit Fricative fi sei hai vun zok Nasal mak niam ngak Approximant wat lao yok

Many of the most widely spoken varieties of Hainanese notably have a series of implosive consonants, and , which were acquired through contact with surrounding languages, probably Hlai. However, more conservative varieties of Hainanese such as Banqiao remain closer to Teochew and other varieties of Southern Min.

The consonant system of Hainanese corresponds well with that of Hokkien, but it has had some restructuring. In particular: Etymological plain stops have undergone implosivization (*p > , *t > ) in the more innovative varieties such as Wenchang and Haikou. Etymological aspirated stops have spirantized (*pʰ > , *tʰ > , *tsʰ > , *kʰ > ) in more innovative varieties. The lenition of an historic *b into in Banqiao and Haikou, though not in Wenchang. Former *s has hardened into a stop (*s > ), although in the more conservative Banqiao dialect some instances have only undergone fortition to (*s > ), and others have remained . Former *h has become in Wenchang.

Additionally, is an allophone of .

These changes also make Hainanese fairly close to Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary.

Chinese character Mandarin Taiwanese Hokkien Haikou Hainanese Sino-Vietnamese xié siâ dia2 da xiān sian din1 tiên sàn suànn dan4 tàn jì jiak di1 tích shén sîn din2 thần chī chi si1 si

Vowels

Hainanese has seven phonemic vowels. Front Central Back Close Close-mid Open-mid Open

Tones

+ Tone chart of the Hainan dialect Tone number Tone name Tone contour Example 1 yin ping () (24) 2 yang ping () (21) 3 yin shang () (211) 4 yin qu () (35) 5 yang qu () (33) 6 yin ru () (5) 7 yang ru () (3) 8 chang ru () (55)

Romanization Hainanese Pinyin

Hainanese Pinyin () is a phonetic system announced by the Education Administration Department of Guangdong Province in September 1960. It marks tones with numbers.

Initials IPA Hainanese Pinyin Bǽh-oe-tu Example b b b p p ph p f m m v b ? v v d t dd d n n l l g k ng g h kh hh h gh g z c s s y j

Finals IPA Hainanese Pinyin Bǽh-oe-tu Example a a o o e e i i u u ai ai ai ɔi oi oi au ao au ia ia ia iɔ io io ua ua oa ue ue oe ui ui oi uai uai oai ɔu ou ou iu iu iu iau iao iau iam iam iam im im im am am am an an an in in in un un un uan uan oan aŋ ang ag eŋ eng eg ɔŋ ong og iaŋ iang iag uaŋ uang oag iɔŋ iong iog ip ib ib iap iab iab at ad at it id it ut ud ut uat uad oat ak ag ak ek eg ek ok og ok iok iog iok uak uag oak -ʔ -h -h

Grammar

Hainanese is known for having post-verbal locative prepositional phrases, as opposed to having such phrases in the pre-verbal position, as is common in most other varieties of Chinese. For example:

This has been attributed to contact with the Kra–Dai languages of Hainan, such as Hlai and Be.

Hainanese

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