Xiang (linguistics)
Categories: Sino-Tibetan language stubs | Chinese language
| Xiang (湘语) | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in: | China |
| Region: | Hunan |
| Total speakers: | 36 million |
| Ranking: | 30 |
| Genetic classification: | Sino-Tibetan Chinese Xiang |
| Official status | |
| Official language of: | --- |
| Regulated by: | --- |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | zh |
| ISO 639-2 | chi (B), zho (T) |
| SIL | HSN |
| See also: Language – List of languages | |
Xiang (湘語/湘语), also Hunan, Hunanese, or Hsiang, is a subdivision of spoken Chinese.
Xiang is spoken by over 36 million people in China, primarily in Hunan province, and also in over 20 counties in Sichuan, and parts of Guangxi and Guangdong provinces. Many scholars divide Xiang into two distinct varieties: Old Xiang, which is spoken in the southern parts of the Xiang-speaking area, and New Xiang, which can be heard in the northern Xiang-speaking area and is significantly closer to Mandarin due to the influence of Mandarin.
Linguistically, Xiang is between Mandarin and Wu Chinese and marginally intelligible with them. The written form is standard Chinese.
Like all other varieties of Chinese, there is plenty of dispute as to whether Xiang is a language or a dialect. See here for the issues surrounding this dispute.
Dialects
Xiang can be divided into three dialects:
- Changyi
- Luoshao
- Jishu
| Chinese: spoken varieties | |
| Categories: |
Gan | Hakka | Hui | Jin | Mandarin | Min | Pinghua | Xiang | Wu | Yue |
| Subcategories of Min: | Min Bei | Min Dong | Min Nan | Min Zhong | Pu Xian | Qiong Wen | Shao Jiang |
| Note: The above is only one classification scheme among many. The categories in italics are not universally acknowledged to be independent categories. | |
| Comprehensive list of Chinese dialects | |
| Official spoken varieties: | Standard Mandarin | Standard Cantonese |
| Historical phonology: | Old Chinese | Middle Chinese | Proto-Min | Proto-Mandarin | Haner |
| Chinese: written varieties | |
| Official written varieties: | Classical Chinese | Vernacular Chinese |
| Other varieties: | Written Vernacular Cantonese |