Dialects in the Meizhou area of ??Guangdong

Hakka

The Hakka ancestors are a multi-ethnic fusion. During the five great migrations in the past thousand years, they finally To form a new ethnic group, they cannot just come from one or two counties or a narrow piece of old land. With the integrity of their later systems and the preservation of cultural customs, they must be independent from the Central Plains. They must originate from a people with profound The large number of regional groups with cultural foundations also shows that the region is relatively vast and cultural events tend to be integrated. This cultural phenomenon in the Central Plains can be briefly evidenced by the language and preserved cultural customs practiced by the Hakka people today. One of the important factors for the establishment of an ethnic group is a common language. The most common language of the Hakka ethnic group is the Hakka dialect. Hakka dialect, also known as Hakka dialect, Hakka dialect, is one of the seven major dialects of Chinese. Based on internal differences, Hakka can be roughly divided into three types: Western Fujian Hakka represented by Changting dialect, Eastern Guangdong Hakka represented by Meixian dialect, and Southern Gansu Hakka represented by Ganxian Panlong dialect. talk. Furthermore, it can be divided into the following eight pieces: Tingzhou piece (also known as Minke piece), Guangdong-Taiwan piece, central Guangdong piece, Huizhou piece, northern Guangdong piece, Ninglong piece, Yugui piece, and Tonggu piece. At present, it is generally believed that the biggest difference between modern Hakka and other tribes of the Han nationality is the unique Hakka dialect. In fact, according to research by linguists, the Hakka dialect is closest to the phonology of the Central Plains, and it preserves some ancient words and sounds that other dialects do not have. Yang Gongheng, a native of Jiaying Prefecture in the Qing Dynasty, said in his article "An Examination of the Phonology of the Central Plains in Many Books on the Origin of Hakka": "... the phonology of many languages ??in the examination is particularly accurate and characteristic of the Central Plains. This means that the Hakka dialect is consistent with the ancient Chinese pronunciation. The word "Tang Tie" is originally written in Chinese. Hakka women and children are most accustomed to speak with this accent. Foreigners often laugh at it. For example, "Tang Tie" is a local dialect unique to guests. Little do they know that this guest language is the most common and the most naive, and they don’t understand how outsiders understand it, but guests can still speak Chinese.” In addition, there are seven dialect chapters in Wen Zhonghe's "Jiaying Prefecture Chronicles", Zhang Binglin's "New Dialects" with "Lingwai Three Prefecture Dialects", Huang Xie's "A Journey to the Grottoes", Luo Aiqi's "Hakka Dialects" and Linda Zhuquan "Ke Shuo" and other articles strongly prove the origin relationship between the Hakka dialect and the ancient sounds of the ancient languages ??of the Central Plains. From the above comparison of the phonetic system of ancient and medieval Chinese with Hakka, it can be seen that Hakka has preserved a large number of ancient sounds. It can be said that its formation should have started when the Chinese Han language existed. As for the development and finalization of Hakka, it has passed through for a long time. The guests migrated from north to south and lived in several provinces and regions. They originally belonged to the ancestral language of the Central Plains. The Hakka accent they spoke was influenced by the spoken Chinese dialect along the way and absorbed foreign dialects. After arriving in the mountainous area of ??Meixian County, Guangdong, the accent gradually became finalized. This is how Today's Meixian Hakka dialect was formed. Professor Xu Yunqiao, an expert on Southeast Asian studies, said in the article "Research on Hakka Phonology": The dialects of Chinese in Southeast Asia are often divided into seven dialects: Minnan, Fuzhou, Hakka, Hainan and Waijiang. Except for the Waijiang Gang, "there are two major factions among the other six gangs: one is Cantonese (Cantonese); the other is Min dialect, including Hokkien, Chaozhou and Hainanese. Fuzhou dialect is between Wu and Min A dialect between languages. Hakka is the most special. It has nothing to do with Cantonese and Fujian, but has many similarities with Zhongzhou phonology. "The most special thing here mainly refers to two points: first, preservation. Secondly, it is different from the pronunciation of Cantonese and Fujian, and has nothing to do with Cantonese and Fujian. Professor Han Tingdon of Yale University in the United States said in the book "The Character of Race": "The Hakka people originally came from the north, and their dialect is actually a kind of Mandarin, like the dialect of Zhongzhou and Henan." The so-called Zhongzhou phonology and Zhongzhou dialect are Zhengzhou dialects , very similar to the current Hakka dialect. The book "Junyun Kao" written by Chen Lanfu of the Qing Dynasty said: "The guest language is consistent with Zhou Deqing's "Zhongyuan Phonology"." Zhang Taiyan, the master of phonology, also wrote in "Hakka Dialects." "Zi" says: "Guangdong is called Hakka, with Jiaying counties as its ancestors. It is probably from Henan, and its sound is similar to Lingbei." The above shows that the views of Chinese and foreign scholars are consistent. From a linguistic perspective, it proves that Hakka The dialect originates from the Central Plains and retains the phonology of Zhongzhou, Henan. It is the official dialect of Henan and is also the Shang dialect. The Hakka dialect based on Meixian dialect is closer to Mandarin. It also proves that the Hakka people originate from the Central Plains and are a branch of the Han nationality. It also proves that this Hakka dialect is unique and relatively stable. Although the long-term integration with ethnic minorities (such as the Baiyue people) has resulted in the diversity of the Hakka dialect, which is mixed with dialects of She, Yao, Li and other ethnic minorities to varying degrees, on the whole, the subjectivity of the Hakka language is still maintained.

This is because the Hakka people have a unique historical origin as a stable group of Han people. Especially since Fujian and Guangdong are blocked by the Lingnan Mountains and are less affected by penetration, it is possible to preserve some older dialects and form the characteristics of the Hakka dialect. , and it has been passed down from generation to generation.