Weitou dialect

{{Short description|Dialect of Yue Chinese}}

{{Use American English|date = February 2019}}

{{Infobox language

|name=Weitou dialect

|nativename={{lang|yue-Hant|圍頭話}}

|states=Guangdong

|speakers=?

|familycolor=Sino-Tibetan

|fam2=Sinitic

|fam3=Chinese

|fam4=Yue

|fam5=Yuehai

|fam6=Guan–Bao

|isoexception=dialect

|glotto=none

|notice=IPA

}}

{{Chinese|t=圍頭話|j=wai4 tau4 waa6-2|w=Wei-tʻou-hua|p=Wéitóuhuà}}

The Weitou dialect or Wai Tau dialect{{cite book |editor1-last=Cheung |editor1-first=Sidney C. H. |last=Dupré |first=Jean-François |title=The Routledge Handbook of Gastronomic Tourism |date=2019 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon, Oxon New York, NY |isbn=9781315147628 |page=49-67 |chapter=Urban Development and Land Controversies in Rural Hong Kong: An Indigenous Rights Perspective}}{{cite book |last1=Tsang |first1=Sik Wah Patrick |title=Hakka immigrants' identity and allegiance: Cultural dualism and missiological outreach |date=2002 |publisher=Fuller Theological Seminary, School of World Mission}} ({{zh|t

c=圍頭話|l=walled (village) language|j=wai4 tau4 waa2}}) is a dialect of Yue Chinese. It forms part of the Guan–Bao (Kuan-pao; {{zh|c=莞寶片|labels=no|w=Kuan-pao-pʻien}}, Tungkuan–Paoan) branch of Yuehai. It is spoken by older generations in Lo-hu and Fu-tʻien districts in Shenzhen, and by those in the New Territories, Hong Kong.

The Weitou dialect can be heard in Hong Kong TV dramas and movies, and is usually used to depict characters who come from walled villages. For example, in the 1992 movie Now You See Love, Now You Don't, the chief character, played by Chow Yun-fat who himself grew up in Lamma Island, consistently speaks the Weitou dialect.

In a more general sense, Wei-tou-hua can refer to any variety of Chinese spoken in the villages of Hong Kong, including Hakka and rural Yue dialects. In contrast, most Hong Kong residents speak standard Cantonese, while most Shenzhen residents speak Mandarin.