Hainanese

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Hainanese
Qiongwen, Hainan Min
海南話, Hhai3 nam2 ue1, Hái-nâm-oe
Pronunciation	[hai˨˩˧ nam˨˩ ue˨˧] (Haikou dialect)
Native to	China, Singapore, Thailand
Region	Hainan
Ethnicity	Hainanese
Native speakers	Around 5 million in China (2002)[1]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Min Coastal Min Qiong–Lei Hainanese
Early forms	Proto-Sino-Tibetan Old Chinese[a] Proto-Min
Dialects	Haikou Wenchang Qionghai Wanning Lingshui Sanya
Writing system	Chinese characters[citation needed] Hainanese Pinyin Hainan Romanized
Language codes
ISO 639-3	hnm
Glottolog	hain1238
Linguasphere	79-AAA-k
Hainanese
Varieties of the Hainanese spoken in Hainan.
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Hainanese (Hainan Romanised: Hái-nâm-oe, Hainanese Pinyin: Hhai3 nam2 ue1, simplified Chinese: 海南话; traditional Chinese: 海南話; pinyin: Hǎinánhuà), also known as Qiongwen (simplified Chinese: 琼文话; traditional Chinese: 瓊文話), Qiongyu (琼语; 瓊語) or Hainan Min (海南闽语; 海南閩語) ^[5] is a group of Min Chinese varieties spoken in the far southern Chinese island province of Hainan and regional Overseas Chinese communities such as in Singapore and Thailand.

In the classification of Yuan Jiahua, it was included in the Southern Min group, being mutually unintelligible with other Southern Min varieties such as Hokkien–Taiwanese and Teochew.^[6] In the classification of Li Rong, used by the Language Atlas of China, it was treated as a separate Min subgroup.^[7] Hou Jingyi combined it with Leizhou Min, spoken on the neighboring mainland Leizhou Peninsula, in a Qiong–Lei group.^[8] "Hainanese" is also used for the language of the Li people living in Hainan, but generally refers to Min varieties spoken in Hainan.

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The phonologies of the different varieties of Hainanese are highly divergent,^[9] with the Wenchang dialect being the prestige dialect, and often used as a reference.^[10]

Below is a table for the consonants of Hainanese across the dialects of Wenchang, Haikou and Banqiao.^[9] For more information on a specific variety, please consult the relevant article.

Many of the most widely spoken varieties of Hainanese notably have a series of implosive consonants, /ɓ/ and /ɗ/, which were acquired through contact with surrounding languages, probably Hlai. However, more conservative varieties of Hainanese such as Banqiao remain closer to Teochew and other varieties of Southern Min, lack them.^[9]

The consonant system of Hainanese corresponds well with that of Hokkien, but it has had some restructuring. In particular:^[9]

• Etymological plain stops have undergone implosivization (*p > [ɓ], *t > [ɗ]) in the more innovative varieties such as Wenchang and Haikou.
• Etymological aspirated stops have spirantized (*pʰ > [ɸ], *tʰ > [h], *tsʰ > [ɕ], *kʰ > [h~x]) in more innovative varieties.
• The lenition of an historic *b into [v] in Banqiao and Haikou, though not in Wenchang.
• Former *s has hardened into a stop (*s > [t]), although in the more conservative Banqiao dialect some instances have only undergone fortition to (*s > [θ]), and others have remained [s].
• Former *h has become [ɦ] in Wenchang.

Additionally, [ʑ] is an allophone of /j/.

These changes also make Hainanese fairly close to Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary.

Hainanese has seven phonemic vowels ^{[citation needed]}.

Hainanese Pinyin (海南话拼音方案) is a phonetic system announced by the Education Administration Department of Guangdong Province in September 1960. It marks tones with numbers.

• Hainanese culture
• Hainanese people

• Chang, Kuang-yu (1986). Comparative Min phonology (PhD thesis). University of California, Berkeley.
• Chen, Hongmai (1996). Hǎikǒu fāngyán cídiǎn 海口方言詞典 [Haikou dialect dictionary]. Great Dictionary of Modern Chinese Dialects. Vol. 16. Nanjing: Jiangsu Education Press. ISBN 978-7-5343-2886-2.
• Huang, Karen. "Contact-induced changes in the languages of Hainan". Annual Student Conference of the College of Languages, Linguistics, and Literature. University of Hawaii.
• Kwok, Bit-chee (2006). "The role of language strata in language evolution: three Hainan Min dialects". Journal of Chinese Linguistics. 34 (2): 201–291. JSTOR 23754124.
• Miyake, Marc. 2008. Hainanese articles.
• Miyake, Marc. 2008. Hainanese -om and -op.
• Norman, Jerry Lee (1969). The Kienyang Dialect of Fukien (PhD thesis). University of California, Berkeley. includes a description of the phonology of the Ding'an dialect.
• Solnit, David B. (1982). "Linguistic Contact in Ancient South China: The Case of Hainan Chinese, Be, and Vietnamese". Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society. 8: 219–230. doi:10.3765/bls.v8i0.2041.
• Woon, Wee-Lee (1979a). "A synchronic phonology of Hainan dialect: Part I". Journal of Chinese Linguistics. 7 (1): 65–100. JSTOR 23753034. describes Wenchang dialect.
• Woon, Wee-Lee (1979b). "A synchronic phonology of Hainan dialect: Part II". Journal of Chinese Linguistics. 7 (2): 268–302. JSTOR 23752923.
• Yan, Margaret Mian (2006). Introduction to Chinese Dialectology. LINCOM Europa. ISBN 978-3-89586-629-6.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hainanese language.

Wikivoyage has a phrasebook for Hainanese.

• Learn hainanese Archived 2018-07-01 at the Wayback Machine