Luoyang dialect

Luoyang dialect
洛陽話
Native to	China
Region	Luoyang, Henan
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Mandarin Zhongyuan Luoyang dialect
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

The Luoyang dialect is a dialect of Zhongyuan Mandarin spoken in Luoyang and nearby parts of Henan province. Although it served as the prestige dialect of Chinese from the Warring States Period into the Ming Dynasty, it differs greatly from modern Standard Mandarin, which is based instead on the Beijing dialect.

Phonology

Initials

	Bilabial	Labio- dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Alveolo- palatal	Velar
Nasal	m		n
Plosive	p  pʰ		t  tʰ			k  kʰ
Affricate			ts  tsʰ	tʂ  tʂʰ	tɕ  tɕʰ
Fricative		f  v	s	ʂ  ʐ	ɕ	x  ɣ
Lateral			l

w	Labio-velar approximant
ɥ	Labio-palatal approximant
j	Palatal approximant

Features

• The Middle Chinese entering tone has a different distribution in the Luoyang dialect than in Standard Mandarin. (See entering tone for more.)
• Tone contours are different from those in Standard Mandarin.
• The retroflex and alveolar fricatives are found in different distributions: retroflex fricatives in Standard are often fronted to alveolar fricatives in Luoyang.
• The distinction between /w/ and /v/, lost in Standard, is maintained in Luoyang.
• The retroflex series is less retroflexed than in Standard Mandarin and slightly further forward.
• The alveolo-palatal series is slightly further back than in Standard Mandarin.
• Luoyang final /œ/ and /ɑu/ are often backed to [ɔ] in Standard. For example, 学 (Standard [ɕɥœ], to learn) is [ɕɥɔ], and 角 (Standard [tɕjɑu], horn) is [tɕɥɔ].
• Standard final /əi/ is pronounced [ɯ] or [i] in certain environments in Luoyang.
• Standard final /n/ nasalizes the preceding vowel in the Luoyang Dialect.
• The -儿 suffix is pronounced /ɯ/.