The Fangcheng dialect (; local Jyutping: Fong4sing4 baak4waa4; IPA: , ) also rendered Fongsing Jyut dialect, is a dialect of Yue (Cantonese), spoken in the southern area closer to the sea of former Fangcheng County(防城縣), which was divided present-day Dongxing City(東興市), Fangcheng District(防城區) and Gangkou District(港口區).
As a variety of Cantonese, it is intelligible with Guangzhou Cantonese.
Due to the policy on the promotion of Putonghua and the influx of foreign population who doesn't speak Yue Chinese, the level of dialect use among local young people is declining.
Phonology
Initials
Except for most of the consonants that are the same as in Standard Cantonese, there are also several other consonants in Fangcheng Yue Dialect. The extended Jyutping(Jyut++) will be used to transcribe the phonemes as follows.
+LabialDentalPalatalVelarGlottalNormalLabializedNasal// // [] // Plosive// // // // ()// // // // Affricate// // Fricative// // // Approximant// // // //
Rimes Fangcheng Yue has six vowels, , , , , , and . FrontCentralBackClose// // Mid// // // Open// And two diphthongs only exist before -ŋ and -k, each pair of sounds of theirs has almost equal weight respectively, which do not lend themselves to analysis as ending analyzed to ending as -j or -w phonemely.
Some speakers pronounce as , just like the younger speakers of neighboring Qinzhou Dialect.
Finals
Moreover, Fangcheng Yue finals exhibit the final consonants found in Middle Chinese, namely . Which are romanized as m, n, ng, p, t, and k respectively.
+Finals of Fangcheng Yue dialectnucleusnotecoda-∅-a-IPAe.g.花 faa1買 maai2鬧 naau4藍 laam4山 saan1冷 laang2鴨 aap3襪 maat4白 baak4meaningflowerto buyto scoldbluemountaincoldducksockwhite-ɛ-IPAɛɛuɛm e͡ɐŋe͡ɐke.g.車 ce1 貓 meu1鉗 kem4剪 zen2贏 jeng4碟 dep4裂 let3赤 cek3meaningcar catplicerto cut(use scissors)to win(small)dishto splitred-ø͡ɔ-IPAø͡ɔŋø͡ɔtø͡ɔke.g.梁 loeng4噦 oet4脚 goek3meaninglintel; a surname Leung, Liang etc.yuck(an onomatopoeia for vomiting)foot-i-∅- eɪŋiteɪkSyllabics
Tone Fangcheng Yue dialect has 6 or 7 tones. NameTone contourDescriptionExampleNumberfive-scale IPAYin-level (jam1-ping4 )high rising145Rising tone (soeng2-seng1 )middle level213Yin-departing (jam1-hi3 )middle level321Upper Yin-entering (soeng4-jam1-jap4 )high stopped15Lower Yin-entering (haa4-jam1-jap4 )middle stopped33Yang-level (joeng4-ping4 )low falling 421Yang-entering (joeng4-jap4 )low stopped42High rising (gau1-gong3-diu4 )˥˧high rising`5353
References
Further reading