Beijing Mandarin
Beijingese
北京官話 /北京官话 Běijīng Guānhuà
Pronunciation	Beijing dialect:[pèɪtɕíŋ kwánxwâ]
Region	Beijing,Hebei,Inner Mongolia,Liaoning andTianjin
Native speakers	27 million (2004)[1]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Mandarin Beijing Mandarin
Dialects	Beijing dialect Chengde dialect Chifeng dialect
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
ISO 639-6	bjgh
Linguist List	cmn-bei
Glottolog	beij1235  Beijingic
Linguasphere	79-AAA-bb
[image reference needed]

In Chinese dialectology,Beijing Mandarin (simplified Chinese:北京官话;traditional Chinese:北京官話;pinyin:Běijīng Guānhuà) refers to a major branch ofMandarin Chinese recognized by theLanguage Atlas of China, encompassing a number of dialects spoken in areas ofBeijing,Hebei,Inner Mongolia,Liaoning, andTianjin,^[1] the most important of which is theBeijing dialect, which provides the phonological basis forStandard Chinese. Both Beijing Mandarin and its Beijing dialect are also calledBeijingese.

Beijing Mandarin andNortheastern Mandarin were proposed by Chinese linguistLi Rong as two separate branches of Mandarin in the 1980s.^[2] In Li's 1985 paper, he suggested using tonal reflexes ofMiddle Chinesechecked tone characters as the criterion for classifying Mandarin dialects.^[3] In this paper, he used the term "Beijing Mandarin" (北京官话) to refer the dialect group in whichchecked tone characters with avoiceless initial have dark level, light level, rising and departing tone reflexes.^[3] He chose the name Beijing Mandarin as this Mandarin group is approximate to theBeijing dialect.^[4]

He subsequently proposed a split of Beijing Mandarin and Northeastern Mandarin in 1987, listing the following as reasons:^[5][6]

• Checked-tone characters withvoiceless initials inMiddle Chinese are far more commonly distributed into therising tone category in Northeastern Mandarin than in Beijing Mandarin;
• The tonal value of the dark level tone is lower in Northeastern Mandarin than that in Beijing Mandarin;
• Generally, the日 initial of Middle Chinese developed into a modern non-null initial in Beijing Mandarin and a modern null initial in Northeastern Mandarin.

The 2012 edition ofLanguage Atlas of China added one more method for distinguishing Beijing Mandarin from Northeastern Mandarin:^[7]

• The modern pronunciations of the精, 知, 莊 and 章 initials of Middle Chinese are two sets of sibilants—dental and retroflex—and these two sets are not merged or confused in Beijing Mandarin.

Meanwhile, there are some scholars who regard Beijing Mandarin and Northeastern Mandarin as a single division of Mandarin. Lin (1987) noticed the phonological similarity between Beijing Mandarin and Northeastern Mandarin.^[8] Zhang (2010) suggested that the criteria for the division of Beijing Mandarin and Northeastern Mandarin as top-level Mandarin groups are inconsistent with the criterion for the division of other top-level Mandarin groups.^[9]

Beijing Mandarin is classified into the following subdivisions in the 2012 edition ofLanguage Atlas of China:^[10]

• Jīng–Chéng (京承)
  • Jīngshī (京师;京師), including the urban area and some inner suburbs ofBeijing.
  • Huái–Chéng (怀承;懷承), including some suburbs of Beijing, parts ofLangfang, most parts ofChengde,Wuqing andDuolun.
• Cháo–Fēng (朝峰), an area between theHuái–Chéng cluster and theNortheastern Mandarin, covering the cities ofChaoyang andChifeng. This subgroup has characteristics intermediate of those of Beijing Mandarin and Northeastern Mandarin.^[11]

Per the 2012 edition ofAtlas, these subgroups are distinguished by the following features:^[1]

• Jīng–Chéng subgroup has a high dark level tone, and theCháo–Fēng subgroup a relatively low one;
• Within theJīng–Chéng subgroup, dialects in theHuái–Chéng cluster append an/n/ or/ŋ/ initial tokaikou hu characters with影, 疑, 云 and 以 initials in Middle Chinese, while an initial is absent in theJīngshī cluster.

Compared with the first edition (1987), the second edition (2012) of theAtlas demotedJīngshī andHuái–Chéng subgroups to clusters of a newJīng–Chéng subgroup.Shí–Kè (石克) orBěijiāng (北疆) subgroup (including the cities ofShihezi andKaramay), listed as a subgroup of Beijing Mandarin in the 1987 edition, is re-allocated to aBěijiāng (北疆) subgroup ofLanyin Mandarin and aNánjiāng (南疆) subgroup ofCentral Plains Mandarin. TheCháo–Fēng subgroup covers a greater area in the 2012 edition.^[12]

With regard to initials, the reflexes ofkaikou hu syllables with any of the影, 疑, 云 and 以 initials inMiddle Chinese differ amongst the subgroups: a null initial is found in theJīngshī cluster, while/n/ or/ŋ/ initials are often present in theHuái–Chéng cluster and theCháo–Fēng subgroup.^[1][13]

Dental and retroflex sibilants are distinct phonemes in Beijing Mandarin.^[5] This is contrary toNortheastern Mandarin, in which the two categories are either in free variation or merged into a single type of sibilants.^[5]

In both Beijing Mandarin andNortheastern Mandarin, thechecked tone ofMiddle Chinese has completely dissolved and is distributed irregularly^[16] among the remaining tones.^[17] However, Beijing Mandarin has significantly fewer rising-tone characters with a checked-tone origin, compared withNortheastern Mandarin.^[18]

TheCháo–Fēng subgroup generally has a lower tonal value for the dark level tone.^[1]

TheCháo–Fēng subgroup has more words in common with that of Northeastern Mandarin.^[11]

The intensifier老 is also used in theCháo–Fēng subgroup.^[11]

• Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (2012),Zhōngguó Yǔyán Dìtú Jí中国语言地图集 [Language Atlas of China], vol. Hànyǔ Fāngyán Juàn汉语方言卷 [Chinese dialects volume] (2nd ed.), Beijing: Commercial Press,ISBN 9787100070546

• Hou, Jingyi (2002),Xiàndài Hànyǔ Fāngyán Gàilùn现代汉语方言概论, Shanghai Educational Publishing House,ISBN 7-5320-8084-6

• Li, Rong (1985), "Guānhuà Fāngyán de Fēnqū"官话方言的分区,Fāngyán 方言 (1):2–5,ISSN 0257-0203

• Li, Rong (1989), "Hànyǔ Fāngyán de Fēnqū"汉语方言的分区,Fāngyán 方言 (4):241–259,ISSN 0257-0203

• Lin, Tao (1987), "Běijīng Guānhuà Qū de Huàfēn"北京官话区的划分,Fāngyán 方言 (3):166–172,ISSN 0257-0203

• Zhang, Shifang (2010),Běijīng Guānhuà Yǔyīn Yánjiū北京官话语音研究, Beijing Language and Culture University Press,ISBN 978-7-5619-2775-5

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