Leizhou or Luichew Min (simplified Chinese: 雷州话; traditional Chinese: 雷州話; pinyin: Léizhōuhuà, [lěɪʈʂóʊ xwâ]) is a branch of Min Chinese spoken in Leizhou city, Xuwen County, Mazhang District, most parts of Suixi County and also spoken inside of the linguistically diverse Xiashan District. In the classification of Yuan Jiahua, it was included in the Southern Min group, though it has low intelligibility with other Southern Min varieties. In the classification of Li Rong, used by the Language Atlas of China, it was treated as a separate Min subgroup.[6] Hou Jingyi combined it with Hainanese in a Qiong–Lei group.[7]

Quick Facts Pronunciation, Native to ...
Leizhou Min
Leizhounese
[lɔi˩ uɛ˨˦]
Pronunciation[lɔi˩ uɛ˨˦] (Lei city dialect)
Native toChina, Hong Kong and Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, United States (California)
RegionLeizhou Peninsula in southwestern Guangdong
Native speakers
around 2.8 million in China (2004)[1]
Early forms
Dialects
Language codes
ISO 639-3(luh is proposed[5])
Glottologleiz1236
Linguasphere79-AAA-jj
  Leizhou Min
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Phonology

Leizhou Min has 17 initials, 47 rimes and 8 tones.

Initials

The phoneme given here as /b/ is described by Li and Thompson instead as /v/.[8]

Rimes

iu
aiaua
ɛ
ɔ 漿
aiuai
auiau
ɛuiu
ɔiui
amiam
emim
ŋ̩
iaŋuaŋ
ieŋ
ɔŋiɔŋ
apiap
epip
ikuk
akiakuak
ekiekuek
ɔkiɔk

Tones

Leizhou has six tones, which are reduced to two in checked syllables.

More information Tone number, Tone name ...
Tone chart of the Leizhou dialect
Tone numberTone nameTone contourDescription
1 yin ping (陰平)˨˦ (24)rising
2 yin shang (陰上)˦˨ (42)falling (high falling)
3 yin qu (陰去)˨˩ (21)bottom (low falling)
4 yin ru (陰入)˥̚ (5)high checked
5 yang ping (陽平)˨ (2)low
6 yang shang (陽上)˧ (3)mid
7 yang qu (陽去)˥ (5)high
8 yang ru (陽入)˩̚ (1)low checked
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See also

Notes

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

References

Further reading

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