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Like all other varieties ofChinese, there is extremely little mutual intelligibility between Gan Chinese and other varieties. Within the variation of Chinese languages, Gan has more similarities withMandarin than withYue orMin. However, Gan clusters more withXiang than Mandarin.
Gan and other Southern Chinese languages can be distinguished from Northern Chinese by their placement ofdirect objects beforeindirect objects. Gan'sditransitive verbs introduce the theme right after the verb, while Mandarin's introduce the recipient. So the difference in tritransitive verbs may occur because they evolved from different types of ditransitive verbs.[3]
Gan is the most common name. Also spelledGann to reflect the falling tone of the name in Mandarin. Scholars in mainland China useGan.
Jiāngxīhuà ("Jiangxi language") is commonly used in Chinese, but since the borders of the language do not follow the borders of the province, this name is not geographically exact.
Xi ("right-river language") is an ancient name, now seldom used, arising from the fact that most Gan speakers live south of theYangtze River, beyond the right-hand bank when traveling downstream.
The area coloured in light yellow shows the Gan-speaking region in the PRC.
Most Gan speakers live in the middle and lower reaches of theGan River, the drainage area of theFu River, and the region ofPoyang Lake. There are also many Gan speakers living in easternHunan, easternHubei, southernAnhui, northwestFujian, etc.
According to theDiagram of Divisions in the People's Republic of China,[4] Gan is spoken by approximately 48,000,000 people: 29,000,000 in Jiangxi,[5] 4,500,000 in Anhui,[6] 5,300,000 in Hubei,[7] 9,000,000 in Hunan,[8] and 270,000 in Fujian.[9]
During theQin dynasty (221 BC), a large number of troops were sent to southern China in order to conquer theBaiyue territories inFujian andGuangdong, as a result, numerousHan Chinese emigrated toJiangxi in the years following. In the early years of theHan dynasty (202 BC),Nanchang was established as the capital of the YuzhangCommandery (豫章郡) (this name stems from the original name ofGan River), along with the 18 counties (縣) ofJiangxi Province. The population of the Yuzhang Commandery increased from 350,000 (in AD 2) to 1,670,000 (by AD 140); it ranked fourth in population among the more than 100 contemporary commanderies of China. As the largest commandery ofYangzhou, Yuzhang accounted for two-fifths of the population and Gan gradually took shape during this period.
As a result of continuous warfare in the regions of central and Northern China, the first large-scale emigration in the history of China took place. Large numbers of people in central China relocated to southern China in order to escape the bloodshed caused by theupheaval of the Five Barbarians and in this process, Jiangxi played the role of a transfer station. Also, during this period, ancient Gan began to be exposed to the northern dialects. After centuries of rule by theSouthern Dynasties, Gan still retained many original characteristics despite having absorbed some elements of northern speech. Up until theTang dynasty, there was little difference between old Gan and the contemporary Gan of that era. Beginning in theFive Dynasties period, however, inhabitants in the central and northern parts ofJiangxi Province began to migrate to easternHunan, easternHubei, southernAnhui and northwestFujian. During this period, following hundreds of years of migration, Gan spread to its current areas of distribution.
Mandarin Chinese evolved into astandard language based onBeijing Mandarin, owing largely to political factors. At the same time, the differences between Gan and Mandarin continued to become more pronounced. However, becauseJiangxi borders on Jianghuai, a Mandarin,Xiang, andHakka speaking region, Gan proper has also been influenced by these surrounding varieties, especially in its border regions.
After 1949, as a "dialect" inmainland China, Gan faced a critical period. The impact ofMandarin is quite evident today as a result of official governmental language campaigns. Currently, many youths are unable to master Gan expressions, and some are no longer able to speak Gan at all.
Recently, however, as a result of increased interest in protecting the local language, Gan now has begun to appear in various regional media, and there are also newscasts and television programs broadcast in Gan Chinese.
There are significant differences within the Gan-speaking region, and Gan constitutes more languages than listed here. For example, in Anfu county, which was categorized as Ji-Cha, there are two main varieties, called Nanxiang Hua (Southern region) and Beixiang Hua (Northern region). People from one region cannot even understand people from the other region if they were not well educated or exposed to the other.
The main areas of Gan languages in mainland China.
In Gan, there are nine principalgrammatical aspects or "tenses" – initial (起始), progressive (進行), experimental (嘗試), durative (持續), processive (經歷), continuative (繼續), repeating (重行), perfect (已然), and complete (完成).
Thegrammar of Gan is similar to southern Chinese varieties. The sequence subject–verb–object is most typical, but subject–object–verb or the passive voice (with the sequence object–subject–verb) is possible with particles. Take a simple sentence for example: "I hold you". The words involved are: ngo ("I" or "me"), tsot dok ("to hold"), ň ("you").
Subject–verb–object (typical sequence): The sentence in the typical sequence would be: ngo tsot dok ň. ("I hold you.")
Subject–lat–object–verb: Another sentence of roughly equivalent meaning is ngo lat ň tsot dok, with the slight connotation of "I take you and hold" or "I get to you and hold."
Object–den–subject–verb (the passive voice): Then, ň den ngo tsot dok means the same thing but in the passive voice, with the connotation of "You allow yourself to be held by me" or "You make yourself available for my holding."
In Gan, there are a number of archaic words and expressions originally found inancient Chinese, and which are now seldom or no longer used in Mandarin. For example, the noun "clothes" in Gan is "衣裳" while "衣服" in Mandarin, the verb "sleep" in Gan is "睏覺" while "睡覺" in Mandarin. Also, to describe something dirty, Gan speakers use "下里巴人", which is a reference to a song from theChu region dating to China'sSpring and Autumn period.
Additionally, there are numerous interjections in Gan (e.g. 哈, 噻, and 啵), which can largely strengthen sentences, and better express different feelings.
Gan can be written withChinese characters, though it does not have a strong written tradition. There are also someromanization schemes, but none are widely used. When writing, Gan speakers usually have to useStandard Chinese, which is widely used in China.[1]
^The doublenn represents the falling tone in Mandarin
^Xuping Li; Yicheng Wu (2015). "Ditransitives in three Gan dialects: valence-increasing and preposition incorporation".Language Sciences.50:66–77.doi:10.1016/j.langsci.2015.03.006.
^Zhōnghuá rénmín gònghéguó xíngzhèng qūhuà jiǎncè中華人民共和國行政區劃簡冊 (in Chinese). 2004.
^Yan, Margaret Mian (2006).Introduction to Chinese Dialectology. München: LINCOM Europa. p. 148.ISBN3-89586-629-6.
^Kurpaska, Maria (2010).Chinese Language(s): A Look Through the Prism of the Great Dictionary of Modern Chinese Dialects. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. p. 70.ISBN978-3-11-021915-9.
Chen, Changyi 陈昌仪 (1991).Gàn fāngyán gàiyào贛方言概要 [Outline of Gan Dialects] (in Chinese). Nanchang Shi: Jiangxi jiaoyu chubanshe.
Chen, Changyi 陈昌仪; et al. (2005).Jiāngxī Shěng fāngyánzhì江西省方言志 (in Chinese). Beijing: Fangzhi chubanshe.
Li, Rulong 李如龙; Chang, Song-hing 张双庆 (1992).Kè-Gàn fāngyán diàochá bàogào客赣方言调查报告 [A Report on a Survey of the Kejia and Gan Dialects] (in Chinese). Xiamen: Xiamen daxue chubanshe.
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