Manjiang dialect

Manjiang (simplified Chinese: 蛮讲; traditional Chinese: 蠻講; pinyin: Mánjiǎng), also known as Manhua (simplified Chinese: 蛮话; traditional Chinese: 蠻話; pinyin: Mánhuà; lit. 'Man speech'), is an Eastern Min dialect spoken mainly in Taishun and Cangnan Counties in Wenzhou, as well as parts of Qingyuan County in Lishui, in southeastern Zhejiang province.^[1]

Manjiang
蠻講, 蠻話
Native to	China
Region	southeastern Zhejiang
Native speakers	500,000 (2012)[1]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Min Coastal Min Eastern Min Manjiang
Early forms	Proto-Sino-Tibetan Old Chinese[a] Proto-Min
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None
Linguasphere	79-AAA-ia

As a dialect of Eastern Min, Manjiang is very distant from major Chinese varieties such as Mandarin and Cantonese, and displays very significant elements of a substratal indigenous language, perhaps belonging to the Austroasiatic or Tai–Kadai language families.

Notes

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