pinghua

Historically, Pinghua is associated with the earliest Han Chinese migrants who entered Guangxi via Hunan in the 1st millennium AD. The name is said to derive from the Pingnan Jun (平南軍, "Pacify the South Army"), a Northern Song-era army led by Di Qing in the 11th century.de Sousa, Hilário. 2020. On Pinghua, and Yue: Some historical and linguistic perspectives. Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Asian Interactions 19(2). 257–295.

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{{Cite book |last=Hsing |first=Fu-I 邢福义 |title=Xiàndài Hànyǔ |date=1991 |publisher=Gaodeng jiaoyu chubanshe |isbn=7-04-002652-X |location=Beijing |language=zh |script-title=zh:现代汉语 |trans-title=Modern Chinese}}{{Rp|15}} and since then has been treated as a separate dialect in textbooks and surveys.{{cite book

| given = Maria | surname = Kurpaska

| title = Chinese Language(s): A Look Through the Prism of "The Great Dictionary of Modern Chinese Dialects"

| publisher = Walter de Gruyter | year = 2010 | isbn = 978-3-11-021914-2

| pages = 55–56, 76

}}

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.{{Cite web |title=[cass report by 王宏宇] |url=http://www.cass.net.cn/file/20080415120275.html |url-status= |language=zh-Hans}}{{deadlink|date=September 2023}} April 2008

In the 1980s the number of speakers was listed as over 2 million;{{Page reference|21}} and by 2016 as 7 million.{{Cite book |last=Yu |first=Jin 余瑾 |title=Guǎngxī Pínghuà yánjiū |date=2016 |publisher=Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe |isbn=978-7-5161-8896-5 |location=Beijing |pages=24 |language=zh |script-title=zh:广西平话研究}}

Pinghua is generally divided into two mutually unintelligible languages:{{Cite book |last1=Chappell |first1=Hilary |title=The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Chinese Language |last2=Li |first2=Lan |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-38249-2 |editor-last=Chan |editor-first=Sin-Wai |location=Oxon |page=624 |chapter=Mandarin and Other Sinitic Languages}}

• Northern Pinghua ({{zhi|p=Guìběi}} {{lang|zh|桂北平话}}) is spoken in northern Guangxi, around the city of Guilin, in close proximity with Southwest Mandarin dialects.
• and also in a some places in Hunan, such as Tongdao.
• Younian dialect (ethnically Yao)
• Southern Pinghua ({{zhi|p=Guìnán}} {{lang|zh|桂南平话}}) 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).{{cite book

| given = Hilário | surname = de Sousa

| chapter = Language contact in Nanning: Nanning Pinghua and Nanning Cantonese | pages = 157–189

| title = Diversity in Sinitic Languages

| editor-given = Hilary M. | editor-surname = Chappell

| publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2016 | isbn = 978-0-19-872379-0

}} p. 162. Yu Jin subdivides this group into three types:de Sousa (2016), p. 160.

• Yongjiang, spoken along the Yong River around Nanning.
• Guandao ({{zhi|c=官道|l=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.

The Zheyuan people of Funing County, Yunnan speak a form of Pinghua. They are located in Dongbo and Guichao, and they migrated from Nanning.

Nanning Pinghua has a voiceless lateral fricative {{IPAblink|ɬ}} for Middle Chinese {{IPA|/s/}} or {{IPA|/z/}}, for example in the numbers {{IPA|/ɬam/}} "three" and {{IPA|/ɬi/}} "four".{{cite book | surname = Yan | given = Margaret Mian | title = Introduction to Chinese Dialectology | publisher = LINCOM Europa | year = 2006 | isbn = 978-3-89586-629-6 | page = 204 }}{{cite web|url=http://ai.glossika.com/|title=Learn a language the most natural way - Glossika|website=Ai.glossika.com|access-date=16 January 2019}} This is unlike Standard Cantonese but like some other Yue varieties such as Taishanese.

Southern Pinghua has six contrasting tones in open syllables, and four in checked syllables,{{cite book

| title = Nánníng Pínghuà cídiǎn | script-title = zh:南宁平话词典 | trans-title = Nanning Pinghua Dictionary

| surname1 = Tan | given1 = Yuanxiong 覃远雄

| surname2 = Wei | given2 = Shuguan 韦树关

| surname3 = Bian | given3 = Chenglin 卞成林

| location = Nanning | publisher = Jiangsu jiaoyu chubanshe | year = 1997 | isbn = 978-7-5343-3119-0

| page = 6

}} (part of the Great Dictionary of Modern Chinese Dialects, edited by Li Rong) as found in neighbouring Yue varieties such as the Bobai dialect.

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

| given = Gina | surname = Lee

| title = Comparative, Diachronic and Experimental Perspectives on the Interaction Between Tone and the Vowel in Standard Cantonese

| degree = Ph.D. | publisher = Ohio State University | year = 1993

| pages = 75–76

| url = https://linguistics.osu.edu/sites/linguistics.osu.edu/files/Lee_dissertation_1993.pdf

}}

Genetically, Pinghua speakers have more in common with non-Han ethnic groups in southern China, as opposed to other Han groups.

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{{Reflist}}

• 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].
• 《广西通志·汉语方言志》(续编)课题组 (2013). 广西通志·汉语方言志：续编．第二篇，平话. Nanning: 广西人民出版社.
• 《广西通志·汉语方言志》(续编)课题组 (2013). 广西通志·汉语方言志：续编．第五篇，桂北土话. Nanning: 广西人民出版社.
• {{cite book |surname1=Sousa |given1=Hilário de |chapter=Pínghuà 平話 Dialects |year=2017 |chapter-url=http://hilario.bambooradical.com/downloadables/de-Sousa-2016-Pinghua-of-Guangxi-draft-20120820.pdf |doi=10.1163/2210-7363_ecll_COM_00000332 |editor-surname1=Sybesma |editor-given1=Rint |editor-surname2=Behr |editor-given2=Wolfgang |editor-surname3=Gu |editor-given3=Yueguo |editor-surname4=Handel |editor-given4=Zev |editor-surname5=Huang |editor-given5=C.-T. James |editor-surname6=Myers |editor-given6=James |title=Encyclopedia of Chinese language and linguistics |volume=3 |pages=425–431 |location=Leiden |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-18643-9 }}
• {{cite book |surname1=Sousa |given1=Hilário de |chapter=The Far Southern Sinitic languages as part of Mainland Southeast Asia |year=2015 |doi=10.1515/9781501501685-009 |chapter-url=http://hilario.bambooradical.com/downloadables/de-Sousa-2015-Far-Southern-Sinitic-as-MSEA-draft-20140919.pdf |editor-surname1=Enfield |editor-given1=N.J. |editor-surname2=Comrie |editor-given2=Bernard |title=Languages of Mainland Southeast Asia: The state of the art |series=Pacific Linguistics |volume=649 |pages=356–439 |location=Berlin |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |isbn=978-1-5015-0169-2 }}

{{Incubator|csp|lang=Southern Pinghua}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090911021434/http://language.glossika.com/category/sino-tibetan/ping-%E5%B9%B3%E8%A9%B1/ Classification of Pinghua Dialects]

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Category:Varieties of Chinese

Category:Languages of Guangxi

Category:Languages of Hunan