Hakka dialect, referred to as Hakka dialect for short, is a kind of tonal language in the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is one of the languages of Han Hakka people and one of the tools of identity recognition. It is also one of the seven major dialects of Chinese. Hakka dialect can be divided into Meizhou dialect, Huiyang dialect, Huizhou dialect, Heyuan dialect, Gannan dialect and Tingzhou dialect according to different accents. Some areas are also called Tukan dialect, Shuiyuanyin, Yayu dialect, Xinmin dialect, Yaoge dialect and Huaiyuan dialect.
The characteristics of Hakka dialect are mainly reflected in tone, phonetic system, phonology, vocabulary, grammar and archaic features, etc. Most of them have entering tones, and * * * has 6~7 tones; Yinmei dialect has 18 initials and 75 finals. Meixian dialect has six tones, namely, flat tone, rising tone, falling tone, entering yin and entering yang.
Language relations
Hakka dialect has inherited many characteristics of ancient Chinese, such as [-p], [-t] and [-k]. It is generally believed that the inheritance relationship between Hakka dialect and the middle and late period (Tang and Song Dynasties) is obvious. Memorizing ancient Chinese in Hakka dialect, such as Tang poetry and Song poetry, is much more consistent in rhythm than Mandarin and Mandarin.
Cantonese also retains the entering tones IPA [-p], [-t] and [-k] of Middle Chinese. Comparatively speaking, Hakka dialect is older than Cantonese and closer to Middle Chinese.
Take the initials as an example. It is suspected that the initials are IPA[ [? -] That is, the word (ng-) completely disappeared in Putonghua, while the word "suspected mother" remained in Hakka dialect. The most obvious example is "fish", and the word "suspicious mother" has been lost in both Mandarin and Cantonese. -] and read (Yu) (IPA [JY]), but still read [? I] (or marked as [? I]).
In Cantonese, it is difficult to judge whether it is archaic because there is no distinction between doubtful mother and metaphorical mother. For another example, the non-vowel [f-] did not appear before the end of the Tang Dynasty, which is the so-called "no light lip sound in ancient times". Most Hakka dialects have [f-] sounds, and the list is endless.