Meixian dialect

Meixian
梅縣話
Native to	Southern China, Taiwan
Region	Meixian
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Chinese Gan–Hakka Hakka Yue-Tai Meihui Meixian
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	yuet1238

Meixian dialect (Chinese: 梅縣話; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: Mòi-yen-fa; IPA: mɔi jan fa), also known as Meizhou (梅州話), Moiyen, and Yue-Tai, is the prestige dialect of Hakka Chinese and the basis for the Hakka dialects in Taiwan. It is named after Mei County, Guangdong.

Phonology

Initials

There are two series of stops and affricates in Hakka, both voiceless: tenuis /p t ts k/ and aspirated /pʰ tʰ tsʰ kʰ/.

		Labial	Dental	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		/m/ ⟨m⟩	/n/ ⟨n⟩	[ɲ] ⟨ng(i)⟩ ~ /ŋ/ ⟨ng⟩*
Plosive	tenuis	/p/ ⟨b⟩	/t/ ⟨d⟩		/k/ ⟨g⟩	(ʔ)
	aspirated	/pʰ/ ⟨p⟩	/tʰ/ ⟨t⟩		/kʰ/ ⟨k⟩
Affricate	tenuis		/ts/ ⟨z⟩ ~ [tɕ] ⟨j(i)⟩*
	aspirated		/tsʰ/ ⟨c⟩ ~ [tɕʰ] ⟨q(i)⟩*
Fricative		/f/ ⟨f⟩	/s/ ⟨s⟩ ~ [ɕ] ⟨x(i)⟩*			/h/ ⟨h⟩
Approximant		/ʋ/ ⟨v⟩	/l/ ⟨l⟩	/j/ ⟨y⟩

* When the initials /ts/ ⟨z⟩, /tsʰ/ ⟨c⟩, /s/ ⟨s⟩, and /ŋ/ ⟨ng⟩ are followed by a palatal medial /j/ ⟨i⟩, they become [tɕ] ⟨j⟩, [tɕʰ] ⟨q⟩, [ɕ] ⟨x⟩, and [ɲ] ⟨ng⟩, respectively.

Finals

Moiyen Hakka has six vowels, [i ɛ a ə ɔ u], that are romanised as i, ê, a, e, o and u, respectively.

Moreover, Hakka finals exhibit the final consonants found in Middle Chinese, namely [m, n, ŋ, p, t, k] which are romanised as m, n, ng, b, d, and g respectively in the official Moiyen romanisation.

Finals of Meixian dialect

nucleus	medial	coda
		-∅	-i	-u	-m	-n	-ŋ	-p	-t	-k
-a-	∅-	a	ai	au	am	an	aŋ	ap	at	ak
	i-	ia	iai	iau	iam	ian	iaŋ	iap	iat	iak
	u-	ua	uai			uan	uaŋ		uat	uak
-e-	∅-	e		eu	em	en		ep	et
	i-	ie				ien			iet
	u-					uen			uet
-i-	∅-	i		iu	im	in		ip	it
-o-	∅-	o	oi			on	oŋ		ot	ok
	i-	io				ion	ioŋ			iok
	u-	uo				uon	uoŋ			uok
-u-	∅-	u	ui			un	uŋ		ut	uk
	i-		iui			iun	iuŋ		iut	iuk
-ə-	∅-	ɹ̩			əm	ən		əp	ət
Syllabics					m̩		ŋ̩

Tone

Moiyen has four tones, which are reduced to two in a checked syllable. The Middle Chinese fully voiced initial syllables became aspirated voiceless initial syllable in Hakka. Before that happened, the four Middle Chinese 'tones', ping, shang, qu, ru, underwent a voicing split in the case of ping and ru, giving the dialect six tones in traditional accounts.

Moiyen tones

Tone number	Tone name	Hanzi	Tone letters	number	English
1	yin ping	陰平	˦	44	high
2	yang ping	陽平	˩	11	low
3	shang	上	˧˩	31	low falling
4	qu	去	˥˧	53	high falling
5	yin ru	陰入	˩ʔ	1	low checked
6	yang ru	陽入	˥ʔ	5	high checked

These so-called yin-yang tonal splittings developed mainly as a consequence of the type of initial a Chinese syllable had during the Middle Chinese stage in the development of Chinese, with voiceless initial syllables [p- t- k-] tending to become of the yin type, and the voiced initial syllables [b- d- ɡ-] developing into the yang type. In modern Moiyen Hakka however, part of the Yin Ping tone characters have sonorant initials [m n ŋ l] originally from the Middle Chinese Shang tone syllables and fully voiced Middle Chinese Qu tone characters, so the voiced/voiceless distinction should be taken only as a rule of thumb.

Hakka tone contours differs more as one moves away from Moiyen. For example, the Yin Ping contour is ˧ (33) in Changting (長汀) and ˨˦ (24) in Sixian (四縣), Taiwan.

Entering tone

Hakka preserves all of the entering tones of Middle Chinese and it is split into two registers. Meixian has the following:

• 陰入 [ ˩ ] a low pitched checked tone
• 陽入 [ ˥ ] a high pitched checked tone

Middle Chinese entering tone syllables ending in [k] whose vowel clusters have become front high vowels like [i] and [ɛ] shifts to syllables with [t] finals in modern Hakka as seen in the following table.

Character	Guangyun Fanqie	Middle Chinese reconstruction	Hakka	Main meaning in English
職	之翼切	tɕĭək	tsit˩	vocation, profession
力	林直切	lĭək	lit˥	strength, power
食	乗力切	dʑʰĭək	sit˥	eat, consume
色	所力切	ʃĭək	sɛt˩	colour, hue
德	多則切	tək	tɛt˩	virtue
刻	苦得切	kʰək	kʰɛt˩	carve, engrave, a moment
北	博墨切	pək	pɛt˩	north
國	古或切	kuək	kuɛt˩	country, state

Tone sandhi

For Moiyen Hakka, the yin ping and qu tone characters exhibit sandhi when the following character has a lower pitch. The pitch of the yin ping tone changes from ˦ (44) to ˧˥ (35) when sandhi occurs. Similarly, the qu tone changes from ˥˧ (53) to ˦ (55) under sandhi. These are shown in red in the following table.

Moiyen tone sandhi

	+ ˦ Yin Ping	+ ˩ Yang Ping	+ ˧˩ Shang	+ ˥˧ Qu	+ ˩ʔ Yin Ru	+ ˥ʔ YangRu	+ Neutral
˦ Yin Ping +	˦.˦	˧˥.˩	˧˥.˧˩	˧˥.˥˧	˧˥.˩ʔ	˦.˥ʔ	˧˥.˧
˥˧ Qu +	˥˧.˦	˥.˩	˥.˧˩	˥.˥˧	˥.˩ʔ	˥˧.˥ʔ	˥.˧

The neutral tone occurs in some postfixes. It has a mid pitch.