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Weitou dialect
Dialect of Yue Chinese From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Weitou dialect or Wai Tau dialect[1][2] (Jyutping: wai4 tau4 waa2; lit. 'walled (village) language') is a dialect of Yue Chinese. It forms part of the Guan–Bao (Kuan-pao; 莞寶片; Kuan-pao-pʻien, Tungkuan–Paoan) branch of Yuehai. It is spoken by older generations in Lo-hu and Fu-tʻien districts in Shenzhen, and by those in the New Territories, Hong Kong.
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The Weitou dialect can be heard in Hong Kong TV dramas and movies, and is usually used to depict characters who come from walled villages. For example, in the 1992 movie Now You See Love, Now You Don't, the chief character, played by Chow Yun-fat who himself grew up in Lamma Island, consistently speaks the Weitou dialect.
In a more general sense, Wei-tou-hua can refer to any variety of Chinese spoken in the villages of Hong Kong, including Hakka and rural Yue dialects. In contrast, most Hong Kong residents speak standard Cantonese, while most Shenzhen residents speak Mandarin.
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Phonology
Zhang & Zhuang (2003:21-4) records the phonological systems of three varieties of the Weitou dialect spoken in Hong Kong. Following is Fan Tin's (蕃田), San Tin (in IPA).
| p | pʰ | b | f | w |
| t | tʰ | d | l | |
| tʃ | tʃʰ | ʃ | j | |
| k | kʰ | ɡ | h | |
| kʷ | kʷʰ | ɡʷ |
| a | œ | ɔ | ɛ | i | u | y | ||
| ai | ɐi | ɵy | ||||||
| au | ɐu | eu | ||||||
| am | ɐm | em | m | |||||
| æŋ | ɐŋ | œŋ | ɛŋ | yœŋ | ŋ | |||
| ɵŋ | oŋ | eŋ | ||||||
| ap | ɐp | ep | ||||||
| æk | ɐk | œk | ɛk | yœk | ||||
| ɵk | ok | ek |
There are four tone contours, when the "entering tones" (stopped syllables) are ignored:
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References
External links
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