Chang-Du Gan
Chang-Du or Chang-Jing, sometimes called Nanchang after its principal dialect, is one of the Gan Chinese languages. It is named after Nanchang and Duchang County, and is spoken in those areas as well as in Xinjian, Anyi, Yongxiu, De'an, Xingzi, Hukou, and bordering regions in Jiangxi and in Pingjiang County, Hunan.Phonology
The Nanchang dialect has 19 syllable onsets or initials, 65 finals and 5 tones.Initials
In each cell below, the first line indicates IPA transcription, the second indicates pinyin.Finals
The finals of the Nanchang dialect are:
- The codas in italic are at present only reserved in several Gan dialects.
Tone
Like other Chinese varieties, tones in Gan make phonemic distinctions. There are five phonemic tones in Gan, which are reduced to two 'entering tones' before stop consonants. In the traditional classification, these are considered separately:
Tone number | Tone name | Pitch numbers | IPA transcription |
1 | upper level | | or |
2 | lower level | | or |
3 | rising | | or |
4 | upper departing | | or |
5 | lower departing | | or |
6 | upper entering | | or |
7 | lower entering | | or |
The 6th and 7th tones are the same as the 4th and 5th tones, except that the syllable ends in a stop consonant, or.Example
A poem of Meng Haoran :