File:Xiang_in_China.png · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Xiang Chinese
Sign in to saveAlso known as Hunanese, Sionglish, Xiang language, Hsiang, Xiang
Chinese language spoken mainly in Hunan province
Key facts
- Pronunciation
- Xiang Chinese pronunciation: [ sian˧ y˦˩ ]
- Native to
- China
- Region
- Central and southwestern Hunan , northern Guangxi , parts of Guizhou , Guangdong , Sichuan , Jiangxi and Hubei provinces
- Ethnicity
- Hunanese
- Native speakers
- 38 million (2021)
- Language family
- Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Xiang
- Varieties
- Old Xiang (Lou–Shao) New Xiang (Chang–Yi) Chen–Xu Xiang (Ji–Xu) Hengzhou Xiang Yong–Quan Xiang
- Writing system
- Chinese characters
- Iso 639 3
- hsn
- Glottolog
- xian1251
- Linguasphere
- 79-AAA-e
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- modern language
- Subclass of
- Sinitic
- Country
- China
- Image
- Xiangyu.png
Show 8 more facts
- writing system
- Chinese characters
- topic's main category
- Category:Xiang Chinese
- Commons category
- Xiang Chinese language
- linguistic typology
- subject–verb–object
- indigenous to
- Hunan
- replaces
- Middle Chinese
- number of speakers, writers, or signers
- 36000000
via Wikidata · CC0
~13 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Hunanese Traditional Chinese湖南話 Simplified Chinese湖南话
Xiang or Hsiang (Chinese: 湘; Changsha Xiang: [sian˧ y˦˩], Mandarin: [ɕi̯aŋ˥ y˨˩˦]), also known as Hunanese, is a group of linguistically similar and historically related Sinitic languages, spoken mainly in Hunan province but also in northern Guangxi and parts of neighboring Guizhou, Guangdong, Sichuan, Jiangxi and Hubei provinces. Scholars divided Xiang into five subgroups: Lou–Shao (Old Xiang), Chang–Yi (New Xiang), Chen–Xu or Ji–Xu, Hengzhou, and Yong–Quan. Among those, Lou–Shao, or Old Xiang, still exhibits the three-way distinction of Middle Chinese obstruents, preserving the voiced stops, fricatives, and affricates. Xiang has also been heavily influenced by Mandarin, which adjoins three of the four sides of the Xiang-speaking territory, and Gan in Jiangxi Province, from where a large population immigrated to Hunan during the Ming dynasty.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Xiang Chinese” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.