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| Xiang | |
|---|---|
| Hunanese | |
| 湘語/湘语 | |
 "Xiang language" written inChinese characters | |
| Pronunciation | Xiang Chinese pronunciation:[sian˧y˦˩] |
| Native to | China |
| Region | Central and southwesternHunan, northernGuangxi, parts ofGuizhou,Guangdong,Sichuan,Jiangxi andHubei provinces |
| Ethnicity | Hunanese |
Native speakers | 38 million (2021)[1] |
| Varieties |
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| Chinese characters | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | hsn |
| Glottolog | xian1251 |
| Linguasphere | 79-AAA-e |
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| Xiang Chinese | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 湘語 | ||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 湘语 | ||||||||||||||
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| Hunanese | |||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 湖南話 | ||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 湖南话 | ||||||||||||||
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Xiang orHsiang (Chinese: 湘;Changsha Xiang:[sian˧y˦˩],[2] Mandarin:[ɕi̯aŋ˥y˨˩˦]), also known asHunanese, is a group of linguistically similar and historically relatedSinitic languages, spoken mainly inHunan province but also in northernGuangxi and parts of neighboringGuizhou,Guangdong,Sichuan,Jiangxi andHubei provinces. Scholars divided Xiang into five subgroups: Lou–Shao (Old Xiang), Chang–Yi (New Xiang), Chen–Xu or Ji–Xu, Hengzhou, and Yong–Quan.[3] Among those, Lou–Shao, or Old Xiang, still exhibits the three-way distinction ofMiddle Chineseobstruents, preserving thevoicedstops,fricatives, andaffricates. Xiang has also been heavily influenced byMandarin, which adjoins three of the four sides of the Xiang-speaking territory, andGan inJiangxi Province, from where a large population immigrated to Hunan during theMing dynasty.[4]
Xiang-speakingHunanese people have played an important role inModern Chinese history, especially in those reformatory and revolutionary movements such as theSelf-Strengthening Movement,Hundred Days' Reform,Xinhai Revolution[5] andChinese Communist Revolution.[6] Some examples of Xiang speakers areMao Zedong,Zuo Zongtang,Huang Xing andMa Ying-jeou.[7]
Historical linguists such asW. South Coblin have been in doubt of a taxonomic grouping of Xiang.[8] However, counterargument suggests that shared innovations can be identified for Xiang.[9][10]
Prehistorically, the main inhabitants were the ancientcountry of Ba,Nanman,Baiyue and other tribes whose languages cannot be studied. During theWarring States period, large numbers of Chu migrated into Hunan. Their language blended with that of the original natives to produce a new dialect, Nanchu (Southern Chu).[11] During Qin and Han dynasty, most part of today's Eastern Hunan belonged toChangsha Kingdom. According toYang Xiong'sFangyan, people in this region spoke SouthernChu, which is considered[by whom?] the ancestor of Xiang Chinese today.[12][verification needed]
During theTang dynasty, a large-scale emigration took place with people emigrating from the north to the south, bringing Middle Chinese into Hunan.[13] Today's Xiang still keeps some Middle Chinese words, such as嬉 (to have fun),薅 (to weed),行 (to walk).Entering tone vowels started weakening in Hunan at this time. Migrants who came from the North mainly settled in northern Hunan, followed by western Hunan. For this reason, northern and western Hunan are Mandarin districts.[11]
Migrants fromJiangxi concentrated mainly in southeastern Hunan and present dayShaoyang and Xinhua districts. They came for two reasons:[11] The first is thatJiangxi became too crowded, and its people sought expansion. The second is that Hunan suffered greatly during theMongol conquest of the Song dynasty, when there was mass slaughter.[14] The lateYuan dynasty peasant uprising caused a great many casualties in Hunan.
During theMing dynasty, a large-scale emigration fromJiangxi toHunan took place. In the earlyMing dynasty, large numbers of migrants came fromJiangxi and settled in present dayYueyang,Changsha,Zhuzhou,Xiangtan, andHengyang districts. After the middle of theMing dynasty, migrants came more diverse, and came more for economic reasons and commerce.[11]Gan, which was brought by settlers from Jiangxi, influenced Xiang. The speech in east Hunan differentiated intoNew Xiang during that period.
Quanzhou County became part ofGuangxi province after the adjustment of administrative divisions in the Ming dynasty. Some features of Xiang at that time were kept in this region.
Since the classification ofYuan Jiahua (1960), Xiang has been considered one of seven major groups ofvarieties of Chinese.[15]Jerry Norman classified Xiang,Gan andWu as central groups, intermediate between theMandarin group to the north and the southern groups,Min,Hakka andYue.[16]
In Xiang languages, the voiced initials ofMiddle Chinese yield unaspirated initials in all tone categories. A few varieties have retained voicing in all tones, but most have voiceless initials in some or all tone categories.[17]
| gloss | Middle Chinese | Chengbu | Shuangfeng | Shaoyang | Changsha |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| peach | 桃daw | dao2 | də2 | daɤ2 | taɤ2 |
| sit | 坐dzwaX | dzo6 | dzu6 | tso6 | tso6 |
| together | 共gjowngH | goŋ6 | gaŋ6 | koŋ6 | koŋ5 |
| white | 白baek | ba7 | piɛ6 | pe6 | pɤ7 |
|
Pervasive influence from Mandarin dialects has made Xiang dialects difficult to classify.[17]Yuan Jiahua divided Xiang intoNew Xiang, in which voicing has been lost completely, andOld Xiang varieties, which retain voiced initials in at least some tones.[18] TheChangsha dialect is usually taken as representative of New Xiang, whileShuangfeng dialect represents Old Xiang.[19] Norman describes the boundary between New Xiang andSouthwestern Mandarin as one of the weakest in China, with considerable similarities between dialects near either side of the boundary, though more distant dialects are mutually unintelligible.[20]Indeed,Zhou Zhenhe and You Rujie (unlike most authors) classified New Xiang as part ofSouthwestern Mandarin.[21][22]
TheLanguage Atlas of China relabelled the New and Old Xiang groups as Chang-Yi and Lou-Shao respectively, and identified a third subgroup,Ji-Xu, in some parts of Western Hunan.[23] Bao & Chen (2005) split out part ofAtlas's Chang-Yi subgroup as a new Hengzhou subgroup, and part of Lou-Shao as a Yong-Quan subgroup. They also reclassified parts of the Ji–Xu subgroup as Southwestern Mandarin, renaming the remainder of the subgroup asChen-Xu Xiang. Their five subgroups are:
Xiang is spoken by over 36 million people in China, primarily in the most part of theHunan province, and in the five counties ofQuanzhou,Guanyang,Ziyuan,Xing'an andLongsheng in northeasternGuangxi province, and in several places ofGuizhou andSichuan provinces. It is abutted by Southwestern Mandarin-speaking areas to the north and west, as well as byGan in the eastern parts of Hunan andJiangxi. Xiang is also in contact with theQo-Xiong Miao andTujia languages in West Hunan.
中原多故，襄邓百姓，两京衣冠，尽投江湘，故荆南井邑，十倍其初，乃置荆南节度使。
Sino-Tibetan branches | |||||
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| WesternHimalayas (Himachal, Uttarakhand,Nepal,Sikkim) |
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| EasternHimalayas (Tibet,Bhutan,Arunachal) | |||||
| Myanmar and Indo- Burmese border |
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| East andSoutheast Asia |
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| Dubious (possible isolates,Arunachal) |
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| Proposed groupings | |||||
| Proto-languages | |||||
Italics indicates single languages that are also considered to be separate branches. | |||||
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