Wuhua dialect

Wuhua
五華話
Native to	Southern China
Region	Wuhua
Native speakers	6,260,000 (date missing)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Chinese Gan–Hakka Hakka Yue-Tai (Meixian) Wuhua
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None

Wuhua (simplified Chinese: 五华话; traditional Chinese: 五華話; pinyin: Wǔhuá huà) is a major dialect of Hakka Chinese. It is characterized by the pronunciation of many voiced Middle Chinese qu-sheng (4th Tone) syllables of Moiyen dialect in the shang-sheng (3rd Tone). The tone-level of the yang-ping is a rising /13/ instead of the low-level /11/ usually found in Meixa. In Wuhua-dialect-related areas of Northern Bao'an and Eastern Dongguan the same Meixian dialect tone level of the yang-ping is found, 2 sets of fricatives and affricates (z, c, s, zh, ch, sh, s / ts’ / s and “see note”) appear, similar to Mandarin. Also distinctive are the "y" final found in the Yuebei (Northern Guangdong) Hakka group and Sichuan group, and retroflexed initials in 知 (Zhi series) “Knowledge”, 曉 (Xiao group) “Dawn”, part of 溪 (Xi) “Brook”, poor usage of medials in Grade III and closed finals. Wuhua dialect exhibits “latter-word” tone sandhi. Phonologically Wuhua exhibits a north–south separation while lexically it also exhibits an east- and middle-Guangdong separation, showing relatedness to inland and coastal Hakka dialects. “Lexically it shows east-west separation in Wuhua, which is quite different from the phonological point of view. And outwardly, lexicons in Wuhua show that Wuhua dialect is on the diglossia that separates east and middle Guangdong, and that distinguishes coast-side dialects from inland ones.” Wuhua dialect is transitional, no matter how we see it historically or geographically. Otherwise the Wuhua Hakka dialect is very similar to the prestige Moiyen (Meixian) Hakka dialect.

Wuhua can be found in Wuhua County, Jiexi County, Northern Bao'An (formerly Xin'An (Sin-On), presently called Shenzhen), Eastern Dongguan, in Yuebei or Northern Guangdong around Shaoguan, in Sichuan and Tonggu, Jiangxi. All of these places have the tonal characteristics of Wuhua.

Taiwan as well abides Wuhua Hakka people who came from south Wuhua County in the Qing dynasty. Taiwan Wuhua has changed much in initials, finals, and lexicons, possessing much similarity with neighboring Sixian(四縣) and Hailu(海陸)Dialects. Only tones conserve as in Guangdong. Languages tend to assimilate with authoritative ones, and we see this in Wuhua dialect of Taiwan.

Yuebei group, which is the most dominant dialect in the rural area in Northern Guangdong around Shaoguan. (Ca. 2M speakers)

Jiexihua, spoken by the inhabitants in the Jiexi county, Jiangxi Province. (Ca. 0.5M speakers)

Dongguan Hakka, spoken by Hakka inhabitants in the Eastern part of Dongguan county and extreme North of Bao’an county. This accent has the Yangping as a level tone of value 11. (Ca. 60T speakers)

Sichuan group or “Tu-Guangdonghua”, spoken by the “Guangdong migrants” in Sichuan (Ca. 1-2M speakers)

Tongguhua, spoken by the people in and around the Tonggu county. (Ca. 1M speakers)

Wuhua tones

Tone number	Hakka Tone name	Chinese characters	IPA	Description
1	yin ping	陰平	˦	high
2	yang ping	陽平	˩˧	low rising
3	shang	上	˧˩	low falling
4	qu	去	˥˧	high falling
5	yin ru	陰入	˩	extra low
6	yang ru	陽入	˥	extra high

Wuhua finals

Most finals are the same with Moiyen, except for:

Moiyen	Wuhua
uon	on
ian	an
	ien
i	ui
in	un
uan	has lost the "u" medial, example: "kan"
uai
uon
ien	en