Swatow dialect
Shantou
汕頭話 Suan¹tao⁵ uê⁷
Native to	China
Region	Mainly inShantou, southeasternGuangdong province.
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Min Coastal Min Southern Min Teochew Min Swatow dialect
Early forms	Proto-Sino-Tibetan Old Chinese[a] Proto-Min
Writing system	Peng'im
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	shan1244
Linguasphere	79-AAA-jif
Swatow dialect

TheSwatow dialect, also known as theShantou dialect, is avariety of Chinese mostly spoken inShantou inGuangdong,China. It is typically classified in theTeochew group of dialects^[3], and is regarded as the representative dialect of Teochew Min.^[4]

Although numerous Romanized materials labeled as "Swatow dialect" were produced from the nineteenth to the early twentieth century, their phonological systems actually reflected the dialect of the prefectural city of Chaochowfoo.^[5] The modern Swatow dialect did not take shape until the 1940s. As a modern emerging city, Swatow's residents were mainly immigrants from various parts of theChaoshan region and their descendants. Between the establishment of Swatow as a city in 1921 and 1934, a large influx of immigrants increased the population from 60,000 to 193,000, with an average annual growth of 10,000. Thereafter, population growth slowed, and the various dialects began to merge, gradually developing into a stable phonological system. By around 1946, the present-day phonological system of the Swatow dialect had already taken shape and come to be regarded as the norm.^[6]

Swatow dialect has 18 initials, 91 rimes, and 8 tones.^[7]

Swatow dialect has at least the following rimes:

Swatow dialect has extremely extensivetone sandhi rules: in an utterance, only the last syllable pronounced is not affected by the rules. The two-syllable tonal sandhi rules are shown in the table below:

• Office of Chorography of Shantou City 汕头市地方志办公室 (1999).Shan tou shi zhi汕头市志 ["Chorography of Shantou City"]. Vol. 72. Beijing: Xinhua chubanshe 新华出版社 ["Xinhua Publishing House"].ISBN 9787501143870.

• Fielde, Adele M. (1883).A pronouncing and defining dictionary of the Swatow dialect, arranged according to syllables and tones. Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press. Retrieved2015-04-01.
• Fielde, Adele M. (1878).First Lessons in the Swatow Dialect. Swatow: Swatow Printing Office Company. Retrieved2015-04-01.
• Lechler, Rudolf, Samuel Wells Williams, William Duffus (1883).English-Chinese Vocabulary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Swatow. Swatow: English Presbyterian Mission Press. Retrieved2015-04-01.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Hsiung-chʻêng, Lin (1886).A handbook of the Swatow vernacular. Singapore: Koh Yew Hean Press. Retrieved2015-04-01.

• Media related toShantou dialect at Wikimedia Commons

• Guangdong
• Southern Min
• Southern Min-language dialects
• Shantou
• Teochew dialect

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