Chaoshanese (Shantou)

Chaoshanese is the Southern Min language of the Chaoshan region in eastern Guangdong province. The name for this region comes from its two most prominent cities, Chaozhou and Shantou. Also known as Teochew among the Southeast Asian Chinese diaspora, this language has long been one of the most commonly spoken Chinese languages in Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia, Malaysia, and southern Vietnam. The spelling Teochew is derived from the Chaoshanese pronunciation of Chaozhou (潮州); the Cantonese-based spelling “Chiuchow” is also commonly seen in Hong Kong.

Chaoshanese developed over the centuries through migrations of people from parts of southern Fujian such as Putian, Quanzhou, and Zhangzhou. Over time, the language developed differences from the Hokkien and Puxianese languages that can cause difficulties in understanding, though there is still some degree of partial intelligibility with Hokkien.  

The traditional cultural center of the Chaoshan region is Chaozhou, while Shantou plays the role of the main city and economic hub for the region. The Shantou dialect is generally viewed as the common dialect for Chaoshanese, though Chaozhou still retains some prestige. The Shantou dialect originates as a mix of dialects and accents from between Chaozhou and Jieyang, reflecting the composite nature of a metropolis drawing people from various surrounding towns and cities. Dialects start to differ more significantly as one travels southwest from Shantou towards Chaoyang and Puning, and it should be noted that varieties of Shanweinese (Hailufeng) in Shanwei prefecture exhibit a spectrum of Chaoshanese features mixed in with a Zhangzhou-style Hokkien brought by another group of Fujianese migrants who arrived by boat from Zhangzhou. While Shanwei prefecture is often lumped in with the Chaoshan region due to its overall similarity with Chaoshanese (especially compared to the starkly different neighboring languages Cantonese and Hakka), some speakers prefer to identify separately, and some Chaoshanese do not see Shanwei as being quite the same as the rest of the Chaoshan region in sensu stricto, though this seems to be changing over time with younger generations.

Initials

Initials

The initial /dz ~ z/ has two forms in free variation but has become more commonly pronounced [z] nowadays; for the sake of cross-compatibility with Hokkien ㆡ and dz (j in Peh-oe-ji) will be used.

The initials /b/ and /ɡ/ may carry some optional pre-nasalization becoming [ᵐb] and [ᵑɡ].

Rimes

Plain Rimes

Glide /u/ is also traditionally written as <u> instead of <o> in Chaoshanese Peh-oe-ji (becoming Peh-ue-ji), but here we will use the <o> style glide as is typical of Hokkien-Taiwanese.

Nasalized Rimes

These nasalized rimes are contrastive with the oral rimes in the previous section except for if the initial consonant is one of the three nasal initials /m/, /n/, and /ŋ/. The three nasal initials are considered to carry implicit nasalization in the attached rime, so whenever they are attached to a rime that doesn't carry a nasal coda consonant (-m, -n, -ng), the rime is counted as a nasalized rime. Subsequently, as there is no contrast between oral and nasal rimes after a nasal initial, the nasalized part of the rime is omitted from the spelling, so ㄇㆮ = ㄇㄞ (mainn > mai).

Nasal Coda Rimes

While Chaoshanese /e/ and /o/ exhibit relatively free variation between /e ~ e̞ ~ ɛ/ and /o ~ o̞ ~ ɔ/ respectively (depending on the accent/idiolect of the speaker), with the velar coda -ŋ the range is higher, towards /eŋ ~ ɪŋ/ and /oŋ ~ ʊŋ/ respectively, in stark contrast to the separate rimes /iŋ/ and /uŋ/, which cannot be pronounced as [ɪŋ] and [ʊŋ]. For this reason, the Lexx Rom system transcribes them as <eing>, <oung> respectively, matching to the Cantonese rimes for 興 (heing)、空 (houng) rather than to 輕 (heng)、腔 (hong).

Checked Rimes

As with coda -ŋ, when /e/ and /o/ pair with velar coda -k the range is leans higher towards /ek ~ ɪk/ and /ok ~ ʊk/ respectively, in contrast to the separate rimes /ik/ and /uk/, which cannot be pronounced as [ɪk] and [ʊk]. For this reason, the Lexx Rom system transcribes them as <eik>, <ouk> respectively, matching to the Cantonese rimes for 息 (seik)、叔 (souk) rather than to 錫 (sek)、索 (sok).

Nasalized Checked Rimes

The nasalized checked rimes are found in the vernacular register of Chaoshanese, and liked all checked rimes, can only be pronounced in the Ru tones (Yinru and Yangru, tones 4 and 8). As with normal nasalized rimes, when coming after nasal initials m-, n-, ng-, the nasalized part of the rime is omitted from the spelling, so minh > mih.

Tones

Citation Tones

The Shantou dialect of Chaoshanese contrasts six tones in unchecked syllables and two tones for checked syllables, for a total of eight tones. The Ru tones (Yinru and Yangru) are for checked syllables (syllables with ending -p, -t, -k, -h), the other six tones (Ping, Shang, Qu tones) are for non-checked syllables.

The neutral tone can occur as an indistinct, neutralized low tone in non-initial position.

Tone Sandhi

Whenever in non-final position of an utterance, the tone of a syllable is subject to changing into another tone contour. While the exact tone change may differ depending on accent/idiolect, in general for Shantou, the changes are as follows:

Yinping (Tone 1) does not change.

Yinshang (Tone 2) changes to Yangshang (Tone 6).

Yinqu (Tone 3) changes to Yangping (Tone 5).

Yangping (Tone 5), Yangshang (Tone 6), and Yangqu (Tone 7) all merge together into Yangqu (therefore, Yangqu/Tone 7 does not change).

Yinru (Tone 4) and Yangru (Tone 8) swap tone values with each other (Yinru turns into Yangru and Yangru turns into Yinru).

If a syllable is followed by all neutral tone syllables, then it is counted as the final syllable of its utterance, and therefore will be in the original citation tone.