Siyi dialect

Siyi
Seiyap, Sze Yup
Native to	The Sze Yup region of Guangdong province, People's Republic of China; Sze Yup Chinese communities in Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and the Americas.
Region	Sze Yup
Native speakers	3.9 million  (2010)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Chinese Yue Siyi
Dialects	Taishan dialect Xinhui dialect Siqian dialect Guzhen dialect Enping dialect Kaiping dialect
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Linguist List	yue-siy
Siyi is the yellow area on the coast.

Siyi (Seiyap/Sze Yup; Chinese: 四邑方言) is a coastal branch of Yue Chinese spoken mainly in Guangdong province, but is also used in overseas Chinese communities. Within the province, it is mainly spoken in the region administered by the prefecture-level city of Jiangmen, but pockets exist outside of Jiangmen, including the Doumen and Jinwan districts in Zhuhai, Guzhen in Zhongshan and Jun'an in Foshan. Taishanese, which was one of the most important Chinese dialects in Chinese American communities, can be considered to be a representative dialect.

Etymology

The name "Siyi" (四邑, "Four Counties") refers to the four counties of Jiangmen, Taishan, Enping and Kaiping. Heshan is a relatively new addition (1983) to the jurisdiction of Jiangmen, having been formerly under the administrations of Xinhui and Kaiping. Since 1983, this region is referred to as Wuyi (Ng Yup; 五邑; "Five Counties") in the province, but due to historical reasons, the term "Siyi" is still used amongst the overseas Chinese communities.

Geographic distribution

The Siyi dialect is mainly distributed along the catchment area of the Tan river (潭江), as well as part of the region west of the main stream of the Xi river, near to the confluence of the two rivers. Most of the region in which Siyi is spoken is administered by the prefecture-level city of Jiangmen, including the Jiangmen city districts of Jianghai, Pengjiang and Xinhui, as well as the county-level cities of Taishan, Kaiping, Enping and the southeastern part of Heshan, but the dialect is also spoken in parts of Zhuhai, the town of Guzhen in Zhongshan and the town of Jun'an in Foshan. In terms of geographic extremes, Siyi is spoken furthest north in Yayao (雅瑶), Heshan; furthest south in Xiachuan (下川), Taishan; furthest east in Hongqi (红旗), Zhuhai; and furthest west in Naji (那吉), Enping. The total geographic area of the region is approximately 9000 square kilometers and the total number of speakers is estimated at about 3.9 million in 2010.