Tianjin dialect
Chinese dialect spoken in Tianjin
The Tianjin dialect (simplified Chinese: 天津话; traditional Chinese: 天津話; pinyin: Tiānjīnhuà) is a Mandarin dialect spoken in the city of Tianjin, China. It is largely comprehensible to speakers of other varieties Mandarin, especially those who also know Standard Mandarin, though its greatest deviation from the others lies in the specific values of the tones, the way tones affect each other, and the lack of retroflex consonants. These regional characteristics make the variety an important part of the identity of the people of Tianjin, and sharply contrasts with the variety spoken in nearby Beijing, despite relatively similar phonology.
Classification
Tianjin dialect dialectologist Li Shih-yu (Chinese: 李世瑜) compared the characteristics of the Tianjin dialect with those of surrounding varieties and believed that it was unique to its area, part of a language enclave. In 1991, he proposed a theory called the "Tianjin Dialect Island". It posited that the Tianjin dialect was not directly related to any of its surrounding varieties and instead was an independent variety. Using the level tone as a standard for analysing the Tianjin dialect, Li found that the boundary between where the Tianjin dialect is spoken and where its surrounding varieties are spoken does not coincide with the current administrative, geopolitical boundaries of the city of Tianjin. The varieties spoken in the northeast of the enclave, such as the Ninghe dialect, belong to the Jilu Mandarin language group, the varieties spoken in the northwest, such as the Wuqing dialect, belong to the Beijing Mandarin language group, whilst the varieties spoken in the southwest and southeast belong to the Jinghai language group, which itself also belongs to the Jilu Mandarin language group. The Tianjin language enclave is surrounded by Jilu Mandarin varieties and Beijing Mandarin varieties.
Characteristics
The Tianjin dialect is classified under Jilu Mandarin, a subdivision of Mandarin Chinese dialects also spoken in Hebei and Shandong provinces.
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