Hainanese

For the Hainanese people, see Hainan people. For the Kra-Dai languages, see Hlai languages and Be language.

Hainanese (Hainan Romanised: Hái-nâm-oe, Hainanese Pinyin: Hhai3 nam2 ue1, simplified Chinese: 海南话; traditional Chinese: 海南話; pinyin: Hǎinánhuà), also known as Qiongwen (simplified Chinese: 琼文话; traditional Chinese: 瓊文話), Qiongyu (琼语; 瓊語) or Hainan Min (海南闽语; 海南閩語) ^[5] is a group of Min Chinese varieties spoken in the far southern Chinese island province of Hainan and regional Overseas Chinese communities such as in Singapore and Thailand.

Hainanese
Qiongwen, Hainan Min
海南話, Hhai3 nam2 ue1, Hái-nâm-oe
Pronunciation	[hai˨˩˧ nam˨˩ ue˨˧] (Haikou dialect)
Native to	China, Singapore, Thailand
Region	Hainan
Ethnicity	Hainanese
Native speakers	Around 5 million in China (2002)[1]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Min Coastal Min Qiong–Lei Hainanese
Early forms	Proto-Sino-Tibetan Old Chinese[a] Proto-Min
Dialects	Haikou Wenchang Qionghai Wanning Lingshui Sanya
Writing system	Chinese characters[citation needed] Hainanese Pinyin Hainan Romanized
Language codes
ISO 639-3	hnm
Glottolog	hain1238
Linguasphere	79-AAA-k
Hainanese
Varieties of the Hainanese spoken in Hainan.
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The Book of Genesis in Bǽh-oe-tu, published by the Bible Society of Great Britain

In the classification of Yuan Jiahua, it was included in the Southern Min group, being mutually unintelligible with other Southern Min varieties such as Hokkien–Taiwanese and Teochew.^[6] In the classification of Li Rong, used by the Language Atlas of China, it was treated as a separate Min subgroup.^[7] Hou Jingyi combined it with Leizhou Min, spoken on the neighboring mainland Leizhou Peninsula, in a Qiong–Lei group.^[8] "Hainanese" is also used for the language of the Li people living in Hainan, but generally refers to Min varieties spoken in Hainan.

Phonology

The phonologies of the different varieties of Hainanese are highly divergent,^[9] with the Wenchang dialect being the prestige dialect, and often used as a reference.^[10]

Consonants

Below is a table for the consonants of Hainanese across the dialects of Wenchang, Haikou and Banqiao.^[9] For more information on a specific variety, please consult the relevant article.

		Labial	Dental		Alveolo- palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	/p/[i] 爸 pa	/t/ 洗 toi			/k/ 公 kong	/ʔ/ 啊 a
	aspirated	/pʰ/[i][ii] 婆 pho	/tʰ/[i]			/kʰ/[i][ii] 去 khu
	voiced	/b/[iii]	/d/[iii]			/g/[iv] 我 gua
	implosive	/ɓ/[iii][ii] 北 ɓak	/ɗ/[iii][ii] 茶 ɗei			(/ɠ/)[v]
Affricate	voiceless			/ts/[i][ii]	/tɕ/[iv] 食 tsia
	aspirated			/tsʰ/[i]
	voiced			/dz/[i]	/dʑ/[iv] 日 jit
Fricative	voiceless	/ɸ/[iv] 皮 fi	/θ/[i]	/s/ 事 sei	/ɕ/[iv][ii]	/x/	/h/ 海 hai
	voiced	/v/[i][ii] 文 vun		/z/[ii] 欲 zok			/ɦ/[iv]
Nasal		/m/ 目 mak	/n/ 念 niam			/ŋ/ 乐 ngak
Approximant		/w/[iv] 发 wat	/l/ 老 lao		/j/[iv] 肉 yok

1. Present in the Banqiao dialect.
2. Present in the Haikou dialect.
3. Present in the Wenchang dialect, where there is a phonemic distinction between voiced and implosive stop consonants.
4. Present in the Wenchang dialect.
5. Not usually transcribed as /ɠ/, and not phonemically distinct from /g/ in the Wenchang dialect or from /ŋ/ in other Hainanese varieties.^[11]

Many of the most widely spoken varieties of Hainanese notably have a series of implosive consonants, /ɓ/ and /ɗ/, which were acquired through contact with surrounding languages, probably Hlai. However, more conservative varieties of Hainanese such as Banqiao remain closer to Teochew and other varieties of Southern Min, lack them.^[9]

The consonant system of Hainanese corresponds well with that of Hokkien, but it has had some restructuring. In particular:^[9]

• Etymological plain stops have undergone implosivization (*p > [ɓ], *t > [ɗ]) in the more innovative varieties such as Wenchang and Haikou.
• Etymological aspirated stops have spirantized (*pʰ > [ɸ], *tʰ > [h], *tsʰ > [ɕ], *kʰ > [h~x]) in more innovative varieties.
• The lenition of an historic *b into [v] in Banqiao and Haikou, though not in Wenchang.
• Former *s has hardened into a stop (*s > [t]), although in the more conservative Banqiao dialect some instances have only undergone fortition to (*s > [θ]), and others have remained [s].
• Former *h has become [ɦ] in Wenchang.

Additionally, [ʑ] is an allophone of /j/.

These changes also make Hainanese fairly close to Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary.

Chinese character	Mandarin	Taiwanese Hokkien	Haikou Hainanese	Sino-Vietnamese
邪	xié	siâ	dia2	da
仙	xiān	sian	din1	tiên
散	sàn	suànn	dan4	tàn
跡	jì	jiak	di1	tích
神	shén	sîn	din2	thần
痴	chī	chi	si1	si

Vowels

Hainanese has seven phonemic vowels ^{[citation needed]}.

	Front	Central	Back
Close	/i/		/u/
Close-mid	/e/		/o/
Open-mid	/ɛ/		/ɔ/
Open		/a/

Tones

Tone chart of the Hainan dialect

Tone number	Tone name	Tone contour	Example
1	yin ping (阴平)	˨˦ (24)	诗
2	yang ping (阳平)	˨˩ (21)	时
3	yin shang (阴上)	˨˩˩ (211)	死
4	yin qu (阴去)	˧˥ (35)	四
5	yang qu (阳去)	˧ (33)	是
6	yin ru (阴入)	˥ (5)	失
7	yang ru (阳入)	˧ (3)	实
8	chang ru (长入)	˥ (55)	视

Romanization

Hainanese Pinyin

Main article: Hainanese Transliteration Scheme

Not to be confused with Hainan Romanized.

Hainanese Pinyin (海南话拼音方案) is a phonetic system announced by the Education Administration Department of Guangdong Province in September 1960. It marks tones with numbers.

Initials

IPA	Hainanese Pinyin	Bǽh-oe-tu	Example
/ɓ/	b	b	北
/p/	b	p	波
/pʰ/	p	ph	坡
/ɸ/	p	f	皮
/m/	m	m	摩
/b/	v	b	?
/v/	v	v	无
/t/	d	t	装
/ɗ/	dd	d	刀
/n/	n	n	挪
/l/	l	l	罗
/k/	g	k	哥
/ŋ/	ng	g	俄
/x/	h	kh	可
/h/	hh	h	号
/ɠ/	gh	g	我
/ts/	z	c	支
/s/	s	s	妻
/z/	y	j	余

Finals

IPA	Hainanese Pinyin	Bǽh-oe-tu	Example
/a/	a	a	亚
/o/	o	o	荷
/ɛ/	e	e	摩
/i/	i	i	医
/u/	u	u	呜
ai	ai	ai	哀
ɔi	oi	oi	鞋
au	ao	au	喉
ia	ia	ia	也
iɔ	io	io	腰
ua	ua	oa	换
ue	ue	oe	话
ui	ui	oi	威
uai	uai	oai	坏
ɔu	ou	ou	黑
iu	iu	iu	柚
iau	iao	iau	妖
iam	iam	iam	厌
im	im	im	音
am	am	am	暗
an	an	an	安
in	in	in	烟
un	un	un	温
uan	uan	oan	弯
aŋ	ang	ag	红
eŋ	eng	eg	英
ɔŋ	ong	og	翁
iaŋ	iang	iag	央
uaŋ	uang	oag	汪
iɔŋ	iong	iog	匈
ip	ib	ib	邑
iap	iab	iab	协
at	ad	at	遏
it	id	it	乙
ut	ud	ut	核
uat	uad	oat	挖
ak	ag	ak	鹤
ek	eg	ek	益
ok	og	ok	喔
iok	iog	iok	育
uak	uag	oak	廓
-ʔ	-h	-h	不

See also

• Hainanese culture
• Hainanese people

Notes

1. Min is believed to have split from Old Chinese, rather than Middle Chinese like other varieties of Chinese.^[2][3][4]