Putian dialect

Putian dialect (Pu-Xian Min: Pó-chéng-uā / 莆田話) is a dialect of Pu-Xian Min Chinese spoken in urban area of Putian, which is a prefecture-level city in the southeast coast of Fujian province.

Putian
Pó-chéng-uā / 莆田話
Native to	Southern China
Region	Putian, Fujian
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Min Pu-Xian Min Putian
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	puti1238
Linguasphere	79-AAA-idb

Phonology

Putian dialect has 15 initials, 40 rimes and 7 tones.

Initials

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Lateral	Velar	Glottal
Stop	Unaspirated voiceless	/p/ 巴	/t/ 打		/k/ 家	/ʔ/ 烏
	Aspirated voiceless	/pʰ/ 彭	/tʰ/ 他		/kʰ/ 卡
Nasal		/m/ 麻	/n/ 拿		/ŋ/ 雅
Fricative	Voiceless			/ɬ/ 沙		/h/ 下
	Voiced	/β/*			/ɣ/*
Affricate	Unaspirated voiceless		/ts/ 渣
	Aspirated voiceless		/tsʰ/ 査
Approximant				/l/ 拉

Rimes

	Open syllable		Nasal Coda /-ŋ/	Glottal Coda /-ʔ/
open mouth	a 鴉	au 拗	aŋ 江	aʔ 壓
	ɒ 奥		ɒŋ 王	ɒʔ 屋
	o 科	ɔu 烏	ɔŋ 温	ɔʔ 熨
	e 裔	ai 愛	ɛŋ 煙	ɛʔ 黑
	ø 改		œŋ 熊	œʔ 郁
			ŋ 伓
even teeth	i 衣	iu 油	iŋ 引	iʔ 益
	ia 夜	iau 要	iaŋ 鹽	iaʔ 葉
closed mouth	u 夫	ui 位	uŋ 廣
	ua 画	uai 歪	uaŋ 碗	uaʔ 活
round mouth	y 余		yŋ 恩	yʔ 役
	yɒ 安		yɒŋ 羊	yɒʔ 藥

Tones

No.	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Tones	dark level 陰平	light level 陽平	rising 上聲	dark departing 陰去	light departing 陽去	dark entering 陰入	light entering 陽入
Tone contour	˥˧˧ (533)	˩˧ (13)	˦˥˧ (453)	˦˨ (42)	˩ (11)	ʔ˨˩ (21ʔ)	ʔ˦ (4ʔ)
Example Hanzi	詩巴	時爬	始把	試霸	寺罷	濕北	實拔

Assimilation

	Coda of the Former Syllable	Initial of the Latter Syllable	Assimilation	Coda of the Former Syllable	Initial of the Latter Syllable
Group A	Open syllable	/p/, /pʰ/	→	remain unchanged	/β/, /ɣ/
		/t/, /tʰ/, /ts/, /tsʰ/, /ɬ/			/l/
		/k/, /kʰ/, /h/			/ɣ/
		/m/, /n/, /l/, /ŋ/, null initial			remain unchanged
Group B	/-ŋ/ (nasal coda)	/p/, /pʰ/		/-m/	/m/
		/t/, /tʰ/, /ts/, /tsʰ/, /l/, /ɬ/		/-n/	/n/, remain unchanged
		/k/, /kʰ/, /h/, null initial		remain unchanged	/ŋ/
		/m/, /n/, /ŋ/		/-m/, /-n/, /-ŋ/	remain unchanged
Group C	/-ʔ/ (glottal Coda)	/p/, /pʰ/, /m/		/-p̚/	remain unchanged
		/t/, /tʰ/, /ts/, /tsʰ/, /ɬ/, /l/, /n/		/-t̚/
		/k/, /kʰ/, /ŋ/, /h/		/-k̚/
		null initial		/-ʔ/

Tone sandhi

Putian dialect has extremely extensive tone sandhi rules: in an utterance, only the last syllable pronounced is not affected by the rules.

The two-syllable tonal sandhi rules are shown in the table below (the rows give the first syllable's original citation tone, while the columns give the citation tone of the second syllable):

Tone sandhi of first syllable

	dark level 533	light level 13	rising 453	dark departing 42	light departing 11	dark entering ʔ21	light entering ʔ4
dark level 533	11			13			11
light level 13	11			55	42		11
rising 453	13		11	13			11
dark departing 42	55	42	55		42		55
light departing 11	11			55	42		55
dark entering ʔ21	ʔ4
light entering ʔ4	ʔ21

References

• Compilation Commission of Chorography of Putian City 福建省莆田市地方志编纂委员会 (2001). Pu tian shi zhi 莆田市志 ["Chorography of Putian City"]. 43. Beijing: Fangzhi chubanshe 方志出版社 ["Chorography Press"]. ISBN 7-80122-669-0. Archived from the original on 2017-02-10. Retrieved 2018-04-06.