Pinghua

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

Pinghua
平話 / 平话
Pinghua written in Chinese characters
Native to	China
Region	Guangxi
Native speakers	over 2 million (2016)
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
Cantonese Yale	Pìhng Wá
Hanyu Pinyin	Píng Huà
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Píng Huà Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Pìhng Wá
Alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	廣西平話
Simplified Chinese	广西平话
Cantonese Yale	Gwóngsāi Pìhng Wá
Hanyu Pinyin	Guǎngxī Píng Huà
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Guǎngxī Píng Huà Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Gwóngsāi Pìhng Wá

Pinghua (simplified Chinese: 平话; traditional Chinese: 平話; pinyin: Pínghuà; Yale: Pìhng Wá; sometimes disambiguated as 廣西平話/广西平话) is a group of related varieties of Chinese 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 subgroup of Pinghua is centered on Guilin and the southern subgroup around Nanning. Southern 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 recorded varieties of Chinese that had been included in the Yue dialect group but were different from those in Guangdong. Pinghua was designated as a separate dialect group 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. However, it is not at present noted in Ethnologue.

Since designation as a separate dialect group, Pinghua has been the focus of increased research. 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.

Pinghua is divided into two mutually unintelligible subgroups:

• The northern subgroup (Guìběi 桂北) is spoken in northern Guangxi, around the city of Guilin, in close proximity with Southwest Mandarin dialects.
• The southern subgroup (Guìnán 桂南) is spoken in southern Guangxi, around the city of Nanning. These varieties form a dialect continuum with Yue varieties spoken in that part of Guangxi (excluding enclaves of Cantonese, such as in Nanning). Yu Jin subdivides this group into three types:
  • Yongjiang, spoken along the Yong River around Nanning.
  • Guandao (官道 "official road"), spoken to the east of Nanning in Laibin and the counties of Heng and Binyang, around the road to the Southwest Mandarin-speaking city of Liuzhou.
  • Rongjiang, spoken along the Rong River to the north of Liuzhou.

Phonology

Nanning Pinghua has a voiceless lateral fricative [ɬ] for Middle Chinese /s/ or /z/, 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

Southern Pinghua has six contrasting tones in open syllables, and four in checked syllables, as found in neighbouring Yue varieties such as the Bobai dialect:

Tones of Nanning Pinghua

Tone name		Level píng 平	Rising shàng 上	Departing qù 去	Entering rù 入
Upper yīn 陰	高	52 or ˥˨	33 or ˧˧	55 or ˥˥	5 or ˥
	低				3 or ˧
Lower yáng 陽	高	21 or ˨˩	24 or ˨˦	22 or ˨˨	23 or ˨˧
	低				2 or ˨

The split of the lower entering tone is determined by the initial consonant, with the low rising contour occurring after sonorant initials.

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