# Longyan dialect

The Longyan dialect (simplified Chinese: 龙岩话; traditional Chinese: 龍巖話; pinyin: Lóngyánhuà), also known as Longyan Minnan (simplified Chinese: 龙岩闽南语; traditional Chinese: 龍巖閩南語; pinyin: Lóngyán Mǐnnányǔ) or Liong$^{11}$lã$^{11}$guɛ$^{334}$, is a dialect of Hokkien spoken in the urban city area of Eastern Longyan in the province of Fujian, China, while Hakka is spoken in rural villages of Western Longyan. The Longyan Min people had settled in the region from southern Fujian Province as early as the Tang dynasty (618–907). Due to its close proximity to rural Hakka villages, Longyan Min has some influence from Hakka albeit to a limited extent. The Longyan dialect has a limited degree of intelligibility with other Southern Min dialects. Today, Longyan Minnan is predominantly spoken in Longyan's urban district Xinluo District while Zhangzhou Minnan is spoken in Zhangping City excluding Chishui and Shuangyang towns where Longyan Minnan is spoken. Hakka on the other hand is spoken in the non-urban rest of the rural areas of Longyan prefecture: Changting County, Liancheng County, Shanghang County, Wuping County, and Yongding District.
Branner suggests that the Xinluo and Zhangping dialects should be grouped with the Datian dialect as a coastal Min group separate from both Southern Min and Eastern Min. However, he argues that the dialect of Wan'an township, in the northern part of Xinluo district, is a coastal Min variety separate from all of these.

## Phonology

The Longyan dialect has 14 initials, 65 rimes, and 8 tones.

### Initials

p, pʰ, m, b, pʰ, t, tʰ, n, l, ts, tsʰ, s, k, kʰ, ŋ, h.

### Rimes

l, i, u, iu, ui
a, ia, ua, iua, o, io, ei, ie
ue, ɛ, iɛ, uɛ, ai, uai, au, iau
m, im, am, iam, iep, ap, iap
in, un, an, ian, uan
it, at, iat, uat, uot, ŋ
aŋ, iaŋ, uaŋ, oŋ, ioŋ, ak, iak, uak, ok, iok
ĩ, ũ, ũi, ã, iã, uã, iuã, iãt, õ, iõ, ɛ̃, iɛ̃, uɛ̃, ãi, ãu, iãu.

### Tones

| No. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| Tones | dark level 陰平 | light level 陽平 | dark rising 陰上 | light rising 陽上 | dark departing 陰去 | light departing 陽去 | dark entering 陰入 | light entering 陽入 |
| Tone contour | ˧˧˦ (334) | ˩ (11) | ˨˩ (21) | ˥˨ (52) | ˨˩˧ (213) | ˥ (55) | ˥ (5) | ˧˨ (32) |
| Example Hanzi | 邊 | 寒 | 碗 | 近 | 漢 | 尺 | 曲 | 白 |

### Tone sandhi

The Longyan 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, 334 | light level, 11 | dark rising, 21 | light rising, 52 | dark departing, 213 | light departing, 55 | dark entering, 5 | light entering, 32 |
| dark level, 334 | remain unchanged | remain unchanged | remain unchanged | remain unchanged | remain unchanged | remain unchanged | remain unchanged | remain unchanged |
| light level, 11 | remain unchanged | remain unchanged | remain unchanged | remain unchanged | remain unchanged | remain unchanged | remain unchanged | remain unchanged |
| dark rising, 21 | remain unchanged | dark departing, 213 | dark departing, 213 | remain unchanged | remain unchanged | remain unchanged | remain unchanged | remain unchanged |
| light rising, 52 | light level, 11 | light level, 11 | light level, 11 | light level, 11 | light level, 11 | light level, 11 | light level, 11 | light level, 11 |
| dark departing, 213 | dark rising, 21 | remain unchanged | remain unchanged | dark rising, 21 | dark rising, 21 | dark rising, 21 | dark rising, 21 | dark rising, 21 |
| light departing, 55 | dark level, 334 | remain unchanged | remain unchanged | dark level, 334 | dark level, 334 | dark level, 334 | dark level, 334 | dark level, 334 |
| dark entering, 5 | dark level, 334 | remain unchanged | remain unchanged | dark level, 334 | dark level, 334 | dark level, 334 | dark level, 334 | dark level, 334 |
| light entering, 32 | dark rising, 21 | dark rising, 21 | dark rising, 21 | dark rising, 21 | dark rising, 21 | dark rising, 21 | dark rising, 21 | dark rising, 21 |