Maihua

Maihua
邁話
Native toChina
RegionHainan (Sanya)
Native speakers
15,000 (2007)
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
GlottologNone

Maihua (simplified Chinese: 迈话; traditional Chinese: 邁話; pinyin: Màihuà, meaning 'Mai speech') or Mai dialect is a variety of Chinese of uncertain affiliation spoken in the area of 崖县 Yáxiàn (Sanya) in southern Hainan, China. It was classified as Yue in the Language Atlas of China. Ouyang, Jiang & Zou (2019) consider Mai to be a divergent Yue Chinese variety with Hakka and other mixed influences. There are just over 10,000 speakers of Mai in southern Hainan.

A comprehensive description of Mai was published in a monograph by Ouyang, Jiang & Zou (2019).

Names

Mai speakers refer to themselves as mai¹³nɔn⁵⁵ (迈人).

Classification

Jiang et al. (2007) considers Mai to be a mix of Yue Chinese, Hakka-Gan, and Hainanese Min.

Distribution

Mai is spoken in the following four villages in southern Hainan.

The Utsat language is spoken just to the west of the Mai area. Just to the southwest is Haibo Village (海波村), where Danzhouhua (儋州话) is spoken.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Jiang, Huo 江荻; Ouyang, Jueya 欧阳觉亚; Zou, Heyan 邹嘉彦 (2007). "Hǎinán Shěng Sānyà Shì Màihuà yīnxì" 海南省三亚市迈话音系. Fāngyán 方言 (in Chinese). 2007 (1): 23–34.
  2. ↑ Liu, Chuntao (2022). "The Inheritance and Evolution of Early Cantonese in Shuinan Maihua". Linguistic Sciences. 21 (5). ISSN 1671-9484. Shuinan Maihua, spoken in Yazhou District of Sanya. There are two origins of the differences between Maihua and modern Cantonese. One is the conservation of early Cantonese, and the other is the independant innovation after its arrival in Hainan.
  3. ↑ Jiang, Di; Ouyang, Jueya; Zou, Jiayan. "The Homophony Syllabary of Maihua in Sanya City,Hainan Province". Dialect. 2007 (1). ISSN 0257-0203. This paper discusses the phonology and lists the homophony syllabary of Maihua, an unclassified dialect with some features similar to Yue group and Hakka, in Sanya city, Hainan province.
  4. ↑ Liu, Chuntao (2021). "On the Origin of the Mai People and the Mai Dialect on Hainan Island". Minority Languages of China. 2021 (6). ISSN 0257-5779. The Mai dialect is the speech of the sedentary Tanka people, which is a variety of Cantonese.
  5. 1 2 3 Ouyang, Jueya 欧阳觉亚; Jiang, Huo 江荻; Zou Jiayan 邹嘉彥. 2019. Sanya maihua diaocha baogao 三亚迈话调查报告. Beijing: Minzu University Publishing House 中国民族大学出版社.