# Fangcheng Yue Dialect

The Fangcheng dialect (Chinese: 防城白話; local Jyutping: Fong$^4$sing$^4$ baak$^4$waa$^4$; IPA: [fɔŋ˩˨ ɕeɪŋ˩˨ pak̚˨ ʋa˩˨], lit. 'Fangcheng plain speech') also rendered Fongsing Jyut dialect, is a dialect of Yue (Cantonese), spoken in the southern area closer to the sea of former Fangcheng County(防城縣), which was divided present-day Dongxing City(東興市), Fangcheng District(防城區) and Gangkou District(港口區).
As a variety of Cantonese, it is intelligible with Guangzhou Cantonese.
Due to the policy on the promotion of Putonghua and the influx of foreign population who doesn't speak Yue Chinese, the level of dialect use among local young people is declining.

## Phonology
### Initials

Except for most of the consonants that are the same as in Standard Cantonese, there are also several other consonants in Fangcheng Yue Dialect. The extended Jyutping(Jyut++) will be used to transcribe the phonemes as follows.
| | | Labial | Dental | Dental | Palatal | Velar | Velar | Glottal |
| | | Labial | Dental | Dental | Palatal | Normal | Labialized | |
| Nasal | Nasal | /m/ ⟨m⟩ | /n/ ⟨n⟩ | /n/ ⟨n⟩ | [ɲ] ⟨nj⟩ | /ŋ/ ⟨ng⟩ | | |
| Plosive | tenuis | /p/ ⟨b⟩ | /t/ ⟨d⟩ | /t/ ⟨d⟩ | | /k/ ⟨g⟩ | /kʷ/ ⟨gw⟩ | (ʔ) |
| Plosive | aspirated | /pʰ/ ⟨p⟩ | /tʰ/ ⟨t⟩ | /tʰ/ ⟨t⟩ | | /kʰ/ ⟨k⟩ | /kʰʷ/ ⟨kw⟩ | |
| Affricate | tenuis | | | | /tɕ/ ⟨z⟩ | | | |
| Affricate | aspirated | | | | /tɕʰ/ ⟨c⟩ | | | |
| Fricative | Fricative | /f/ ⟨f⟩ | | | /ɕ/ ⟨s⟩ | | | /h/ ⟨h⟩ |
| Approximant | Approximant | /ʋ/ ⟨v⟩ | /l/ ⟨l⟩ | /ɬ/ ⟨sl⟩ | /j/ ⟨j⟩ | | | |

### Rimes

Fangcheng Yue has six vowels, a, ɐ, ɛ, i, ɔ, and u.
| | Front | Central | Back |
| Close | /i/ ⟨i⟩ | | /u/ ⟨u⟩ |
| Mid | /ɛ/ ⟨e⟩ | /ɐ/ ⟨a⟩ | /ɔ/ ⟨o⟩ |
| Open | | /a/ ⟨aa⟩ | |
And two diphthongs only exist before -ŋ and -k, each pair of sounds of theirs has almost equal weight respectively, which do not lend themselves to analysis as ending analyzed to ending as -j or -w phonemely.
* /e͡ɐ/ ⟨e⟩
* /ø͡ɔ/ ⟨oe⟩ Some speakers pronounce /ø͡ɔ/ as /e͡ɐ/, just like the younger speakers of neighboring Qinzhou Dialect.

### Finals

Moreover, Fangcheng Yue finals exhibit the final consonants found in Middle Chinese, namely [m, n, ŋ, p, t, k]. Which are romanized as m, n, ng, p, t, and k respectively.
Finals of Fangcheng Yue dialect :
| nucleus | note | coda | coda | coda | coda | coda | coda | coda | coda | coda |
| nucleus | note | -∅ | -i | -u | -m | -n | -ŋ | -p | -t | -k |
| -a- | IPA | a | ai | au | am | an | aŋ | ap | at | ak |
| -a- | e.g. | 花 faa$^1$ | 買 maai$^2$ | 鬧 naau$^4$ | 藍 laam$^4$ | 山 saan$^1$ | 冷 laang$^2$ | 鴨 aap$^3$ | 襪 maat$^4$ | 白 baak$^4$ |
| -a- | meaning | flower | to buy | to scold | blue | mountain | cold | duck | sock | white |
| -ɛ- | IPA | ɛ | | ɛu | ɛm | ɛn | e͡ɐŋ | ɛp | ɛt | e͡ɐk |
| -ɛ- | e.g. | 車 ce$^1$ | | 貓 meu$^1$ | 鉗 kem$^4$ | 剪 zen$^2$ | 贏 jeng$^4$ | 碟 dep$^4$ | 裂 let$^3$ | 赤 cek$^3$ |
| -ɛ- | meaning | car | | cat | plicer | to cut(use scissors) | to win | (small)dish | to split | red |
| -ø͡ɔ- | IPA | | | | | | | ø͡ɔŋ | ø͡ɔt | ø͡ɔk |
| -ø͡ɔ- | e.g. | | | | | | | 梁 loeng$^4$ | 噦 oet$^4$ | 脚 goek$^3$ |
| -ø͡ɔ- | meaning | | | | | | | lintel; a surname Leung, Liang etc. | yuck$_{(anonomatopoeiaforvomiting)}$ | foot |
| -i- | ∅- | i | | iu | im | in | eɪŋ | ip | it | eɪk |
| Syllabics | Syllabics | | | | | | ŋ̩ | | | |

### Tone

Fangcheng Yue dialect has 6 or 7 tones.
| Name | Tone contour | Description | Example | Number | five-scale IPA |
| Yin-level (jam$^1$-ping$^4$ 陰平) | ˦˥ | high rising | 衣 | 1 | 45 |
| Rising tone (soeng$^2$-seng$^1$ 上聲) | ˩˧ | middle level | 子 | 2 | 13 |
| Yin-departing (jam$^1$-hi$^3$ 陰去) | ˧˧ | middle level | 貢 | 3 | 21 |
| Upper Yin-entering (soeng$^4$-jam$^1$-jap$^4$ 上陰入) | ˥ | high stopped | 谷 | 1 | 5 |
| Lower Yin-entering (haa$^4$-jam$^1$-jap$^4$ 下陰入) | ˧ | middle stopped | 百 | 3 | 3 |
| Yang-level (joeng$^4$-ping$^4$ 陽平) | ˩˨ | low falling | 群 | 4 | 21 |
| Yang-entering (joeng$^4$-jap$^4$ 陽入) | ˨ | low stopped | 物 | 4 | 2 |
| High rising (gau$^1$-gong$^3$-diu$^4$ 高降調) | ˥˧ | high rising | 乜 | `53 | 53 |