# Shaxian dialect

Shaxian dialect (Central Min: 沙縣事, Mandarin Chinese: 沙縣話) is a dialect of Central Min Chinese spoken in Sha County, Sanming in Western Fujian Province of China.

## Phonology

Shaxian dialect has 17 initials, 36 rimes and 6 tones.

### Initials

| | | Bilabial | Bilabial | Alveolar | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Postalveolar | Velar | Velar |
| | | Voiceless | Voiced | Voiceless | Voiced | Voiceless | Voiced | Voiceless | Voiced |
| Nasal | Nasal | | (m) 罵慢 | | (n) 鈴南 | | | | (ŋ) 雅眼 |
| Stop | Tenuis | p 布婆 | b 母毛 | t 東大 | | | | k 哥間 | g 蟻額 |
| Stop | Aspirated | pʰ 普抱 | | tʰ 通頭 | | | | kʰ 溪欠 | |
| Affricate | Tenuis | | | ʦ 酒曹 | | ʧ 朱足 | | | |
| Affricate | Aspirated | | | ʦʰ 秋春 | | ʧʰ 出穿 | | | |
| Fricative | Fricative | | | s 心沙 | | ʃ 水船 | | x 好興 | |
| Lateral | Lateral | | | | l 納力 | | | | |
| Zero consonant | Zero consonant | zero consonant 影黃 | zero consonant 影黃 | zero consonant 影黃 | zero consonant 影黃 | zero consonant 影黃 | zero consonant 影黃 | zero consonant 影黃 | zero consonant 影黃 |
Notes:
* /tʃ/, /tʃʰ/, /ʃ/ only connected with round mouth rimes (撮口呼韻母);
* /b/, /l/, /g/ cannot be connected with nasal vowel rimes;
* /m/, /n/, /ŋ/ only connected with nasal vowel rimes.

### Rimes

| ɯ / ɤ 資 / 子 | i / e 西 / 死 |
| u / o 故 / 古 | y / ø 居 / 舉 |
| iu / io 抽 / 丑 | ui / ue 追 / 嘴 |
| yɯ / yɤ 威 / 偉 | o / ɔ 波 / 保 |
| io / iɔ 腰 / 約 | e / ɛ 排/八 |
| ye / yɛ 吹 / 血 | a 家 |
| ia 遮 | ua 瓜 |
| ya 蟻 | ai 猜 |
| uai 乖 | au 交 |
| iau 曉 | ŋ̍ 光 |
| aŋ 講 | uaŋ 望 |
| ɛiŋ 心 | iɛiŋ 英 |
| yɛiŋ 永 | ɔuŋ 風 |
| œyŋ 鍾 | iŋ 廠 |
| ĩ / ẽ 仙 / 險 | uĩ / uẽ 翻/粉 |
| yĩ / yẽ 根 / 卷 | ɔ̃ 爭 |
| iɔ̃ 驚 | ɔ̃i 燈 |
Some rimes come in pairs in the above table, and they are closely related with the tones: the one to the left only exist in dark level (陰平), light level (陽平), light rising (陽上) and departing (去聲); while the other only exist in dark rising (陰上) and entering (入聲). It can be compared with close and open rimes of Fuzhou dialect, Eastern Min.

### Tones

| No. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| Tone name | dark level 陰平 | light level 陽平 | dark rising 陰上 | light rising 陽上 | departing 去聲 | entering 入聲 |
| Tone contour | ˧ 33 | ˧˩ 31 | ˨˩˨ 21 | ˥˧ 53 | ˨˦ 24 | ˨˩˨ 212 |
| Example Hanzi | 詩 | 南 | 始 | 是 | 四 | 失 |
The entering tones in Sanming dialect don't have any entering tone coda (入聲韻尾) such as /-ʔ/, /-p̚/, /-t̚/ and /-k̚/. It's quite different from many other Chinese dialects.

### Tone sandhi

Shaxian 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):
| | dark level 33 | light level 31 | dark rising 21 | light rising 53 | departing 24 | entering 212 |
| dark level 33 | 44 | 44 | 44 | 44 | 44 | 44 |
| light level 31 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 | 33 |
| dark rising 21 | 55 | 55 | 55 | 55 | 55 | 55 |
| light rising 53 | dark rising (21) | dark rising (21) | dark rising (21) | dark rising (21) | dark rising (21) | dark rising (21) |
| departing 24 | dark rising (21) | dark rising (21) | dark rising (21) | 44 | 44 | dark rising (21) |
| entering 212 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
Some rimes may change their pronunciation because they are closely related with the tones (see above).