Raoping Hakka

This article is about a dialect of Hakka Chinese. For the variety of Teochew spoken in Raoping, see Teochew dialect.

Raoping
饒平客家話
Native to	Southern China, Taiwan
Region	Raoping County (Guangdong), Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Miaoli, Taichung (Taiwan)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Hakka–Gan? Hakka–She? Hakka (unclassified) Raoping
Writing system	Chinese characters Pha̍k-fa-sṳ
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None

Raoping Hakka (traditional Chinese: 饒平客家話; simplified Chinese: 饶平客家话; Taiwanese Hakka Romanization System: ngiau pin kagˋ gaˇ faˋ), also known as Shangrao Hakka (traditional Chinese: 上饒客家話; simplified Chinese: 上饶客家话), is a dialect of Hakka Chinese spoken in Raoping, Guangdong, as well as Taiwan.

Distribution

In Raoping County, Hakka is spoken in the north, including the towns of Shangshan, Shangrao, Raoyang, Jiucun, Jianrao, and Xinfeng, as well as some villages in Hanjiang Forest Farm. As of 2005, there are 190,000 Hakka speakers in Raoping County (19% of the county's population).

The distribution of Raoping Hakka in Taiwan is scattered. It is mainly spoken in Taoyuan City (Zhongli, Pingzhen, Xinwu, Guanyin, Bade), Hsinchu County (Zhubei, Qionglin), Miaoli County (Zhuolan), and Taichung City (Dongshi). In 2013, only 1.6% of Hakka people in Taiwan were reported to be able to communicate in the Raoping dialect.

Contact with surrounding varieties

Raoping Hakka has some phonological and lexical features that appear to come from contact with Teochew. Some nasalized vowels come from Teochew, such as 鼻 'nose' /pʰĩ˧˥/ (Teochew /pʰĩ˩/), 好 'to like' /hãũ˥˧/ (Teochew /hãũ˨˩˧/). Some characters that were pronounced with a 溪 initial (/kʰ/) in Middle Chinese but with /f/ or /h/ in the Meixian dialect are pronounced with /kʰ/, just like in Teochew, such as 苦 'bitter' /kʰu˥˧/ (Meixian /fu˧˩/, Teochew /kʰɔ˥˧/), 去 'to go' /kʰiəu˥˧/ (Meixian /hi˥˧/, Teochew /kʰɯ˨˩˧/). There is also many shared lexical items with Teochew:

English	Chinese characters	Teochew	Raoping Hakka (Raoping County)
cigarette	薰	/huŋ˧/	/fun˩/
peanut	地豆	/ti˩ tau˩/	/tʰi˧˥ tʰeu˧˥/
congee	糜	/mue˥/	/moi˥/
comfortable	心適	/sim˧ sek˨˩/	/sim˩ set˨˩/
just; exactly	堵堵	/tu˥˧ tu˥˧/	/tu˥˧ tu˥˧/

In Taiwan, Raoping Hakka is in contact with other varieties of Hakka, notably Sixian and Hailu dialects. There are some phonological and morphological features that appear to originate in these surrounding varieties. For example, in Taoyuan near Sixian-speaking areas, the diminutive suffix is pronounced /e˧˩/ as it is pronounced in Sixian, while in Hailu-dominant Hsinchu, the suffix is pronounced as the Hailu /ə˥/.

See also

• Taiwanese Hakka

References

• Hakka Affairs Council, ed. (November 2013). 101-102年度台灣客家民眾客語使用狀況 (PDF) (in Chinese). New Taipei: Hakka Affairs Council. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
• Hakka Affairs Council (16 July 2018). "Distribution and resurgence of the Hakka language". Hakka Affairs Council. New Taipei. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
• Hsu, Kuei-jung (2005). 台灣饒平客家話調查及其語言接觸現象. 臺灣語言與語文教育 臺灣語言與語文教育 (in Chinese) (6): 64–80. doi:10.6759/TYYYYWCU.200512.0064.
• Local Gazetteer Editorial Committee of Raoping County, ed. (2011). 饶平县志（1979～2005） [Gazetteer of Raoping County (1979–2005)] (in Chinese). Guangzhou: Guangdong People's Publishing House. ISBN 978-7-218-07074-2.
• Zhan, Bohui (1992). 饒平上饒客家話語言特點說略 (PDF). Studies in Chinese Linguistics (in Chinese) (10): 153–158.