Pinghua

For the type of story, see Pinghua (storytelling).

Pinghua
平話, 廣西平話
Pinghua written in Chinese characters
Native to	China
Region	Guangxi
Native speakers	3–4 million (2013)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Ping–Yue Pinghua
Dialects	Bendi
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
ISO 639-6	(none)
Glottolog	ping1244

Pinghua
Traditional Chinese	平話
Simplified Chinese	平话
Hanyu Pinyin	Píng Huà
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Píng Huà Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization pìhng wah Jyutping ping4 waa6
Alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	廣西平話
Simplified Chinese	广西平话
Hanyu Pinyin	Guǎngxī Píng Huà
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Guǎngxī Píng Huà Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Gwóngsaì Pìhng wah

Pinghua (simplified Chinese: 平话; traditional Chinese: 平話 Pínghuà, sometimes disambiguated as 廣西平話/广西平话 Guǎngxī Pínghuà) is a Chinese language spoken mainly in parts of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, with some speakers in Yunnan province. Pinghua is a trade language in some areas of Guangxi, where it is spoken as a second language by speakers of Zhuang languages. Some speakers of Pinghua are officially classified as Zhuang, and many are genetically distinct from the Han majority of Chinese speakers. The northern subdialect of Pinghua is centered on Guilin and the southern subdialect around Nanning. Pinghua has several notable features such as having four distinct checked tones, and using various loanwords from Zhuang, such as the final particle "wei" for imperative sentences.

History and classification

Language surveys in Guangxi during the 1950s noted a variety of Chinese different from those in Guangdong that had been previously considered by default as a subdivision of Yue Chinese. Pinghua was designated as a separate dialect from Yue by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in the 1980s and since then has been treated as a separate dialect in textbooks and surveys, though it is not at present noted in Ethnologue.

Since designation as a separate dialect there has been increased research into Pinghua. In 2008 a report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences of research into Chinese varieties noted an increase in research papers and surveys of Pinghua, from 7 before the 1987 publication of the Language Atlas of China based on the revised classification, and about 156 between then and 2004.

In the 1980s the number of speakers was listed as over 2 million.

Phonology

Pinghua has a "voiceless l" or [ɬ], for example in the numbers /ɬam/ "three" and /ɬi/ "four". This is unlike Standard Cantonese but like some other Yue varieties such as Taishanese.

Tones

Pinghua has 6 phonemic tones, reportedly reduced to four in checked tones, and there is regional variation of tone pitch. The table below shows the tones for Nanning Pinghua.

Tone name		平	上	去	入
陰	高	52 or ˥˨	33 or ˧˧	55 or ˥˥	5 or ˥
	低				3 or ˧
陽	高	21 or ˨˩	24 or ˨˦	22 or ˨˨	23 or ˨˧
	低				2 or ˨

However, Lee (1993) concludes that the alleged split in 陰入 is a changed tone analogous to the diminutive in Cantonese and that only 陽入 has a historical split. It depends on whether the initial consonant is a sonorant or obstruent, as in yang-tone splits in other Chinese varieties.

Anthropological

Genetically, Pinghua speakers have more in common with non-Han ethnic minorities in southern China than with other Han groups.

Further reading

• Xie Jianyou [谢建猷], et al. 2007. Studies on the Han Chinese dialects of Guangxi [广西汉语方言研究]. Nanning: Guangxi People's Publishing House [广西人民出版社].

External links

• Classification of Pinghua Dialects