Swatow dialect

The Swatow dialect, also known as the Shantou dialect, is a variety of Chinese mostly spoken in Shantou in Guangdong, China. It is typically classified in the Teochew group of dialects.^[3]

Swatow dialect
Shantou
汕頭話 Suan¹tao⁵ uê⁷
Native to	China
Region	Mainly in Shantou, southeastern Guangdong province.
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Min Coastal Min Southern Min Teochew Min Swatow dialect
Early forms	Proto-Sino-Tibetan Old Chinese[a] Proto-Min
Writing system	Peng'im
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	shan1244
Linguasphere	79-AAA-jif
Swatow dialect

Phonology

Swatow dialect has 18 initials, over 60 rimes, and 8 tones.

Initials

		Bilabial	Alveolar		Velar	Glottal
			plain	sibilant
Nasal		/m/ 毛	/n/ 腦		/ŋ/ 俄
Plosive/ Affricate	tenuis	/p/ 波	/t/ 刀	/ts/ 之	/k/ 哥	/ʔ/ 烏
	aspirated	/pʰ/ 抱	/tʰ/ 天	/tsʰ/ 此	/kʰ/ 戈
	voiced	/b/ 無			/g/ 鵝
Continuant	voiceless			/s/ 思
	voiced		/l/ 羅	/z/ 入		/h/ 何

Rimes

Swatow dialect has at least the following rimes:

Nucleus		-a-			-ɛ̝-		-o̞-		-ɯ-	-i-	-u-	-ai-		-au-		-oi-	-ou-	-ui-	-iu-	∅-
Medial		∅-	i-	u-	∅-	u-	∅-	i-	∅-	∅-	∅-	∅-	u-	∅-	i-	∅-	∅-	∅-	∅-
Coda	-∅	a 亞	ia 呀	ua 娃	e 啞	ue 鍋	o 窩	io 腰	ɯ 余	i 衣	u 污	ai 哀	uai 歪	au 歐	iau 夭	oi 鞋	ou 烏	ui 威	iu 憂
	-◌̃	ã 噯	ĩã 營	ũã 鞍	ẽ 楹	ũẽ 橫		ĩõ 羊	ɯ̃ 秧	ĩ 丸		ãĩ 愛	ũãĩ 懸			õĩ 閑			ĩũ 幼
	-ʔ	aʔ 鴨	iaʔ 益	uaʔ 呴	eʔ 厄	ueʔ 襪	oʔ 學	ioʔ 約		iʔ 裂	uʔ 呴					oiʔ 狹
	-m	am 庵	iam 淹	uam 犯						im 音										m̩ 唔
	-ŋ	aŋ 按	iaŋ 央	uaŋ 汪	eŋ 英		oŋ 翁	ioŋ 雍	ɯŋ 恩	iŋ 因	uŋ 溫									ŋ̩ 䘼
	-p	ap 盒	iap 壓	uap 法						ip 邑
	-k	ak 惡	iak 躍	uak 獲	ek 液		ok 屋	iok 育		ik 乙	uk 熨

Tones

No.	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Tones	dark level 陰平	dark rising 陰上	dark departing 陰去	dark entering 陰入	light level 陽平	light rising 陽上	light departing 陽去	light entering 陽入
Tone contour	˧ (33)	˥˧ (53)	˨˩˧ (213)	˨ (2)	˥ (55)	˧˥ (35)	˩ (11)	˥ (5)
Example Hanzi	詩	死	四	薛	時	是	示	蝕

Tone sandhi

Swatow dialect has extremely extensive tone sandhi rules: in an utterance, only the last syllable pronounced is not affected by the rules. The two-syllable tonal sandhi rules are shown in the table below:

Tone sandhi of first syllable

Original citation tone	Tone sandhi
dark level 33	23
light level 55	21
dark rising 53	35
light rising 35	21
dark departing 213	55
light departing 11	12
dark entering 2	5
light entering 5	2

Notes

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