Quanzhou dialects
The Quanzhou dialects (), also rendered Chin-chew or Choanchew, are a collection of Hokkien dialects spoken in southern Fujian (in southeast China), in the area centered on the city of Quanzhou. Due to migration, various Quanzhou dialects are spoken outside of Quanzhou, notably in Taiwan and many Southeast Asian countries, including Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. Classification. The Quanzhou dialects are classified as Hokkien, a group of Southern Min varieties. In Fujian, the Quanzhou dialects form the northern subgroup () of Southern Min. The dialect of urban Quanzhou is one of the oldest dialects of Southern Min, and along  with urban Zhangzhou dialect, it forms the basis for all modern varieties. When compared with other varieties of Hokkien, urban Quanzhou dialect has an intelligibility of 87.5% with the Amoy dialect and 79.7% with urban Zhangzhou dialect. Cultural role. Before the 19th century, the dialect of Quanzhou proper was the representative dialect of Southern Min in Fujian because of Quanzhou's historical and economic prominence, but as Xiamen developed into the political, economic and cultural center of southern Fujian, the Amoy dialect gradually took the place of the Quanzhou dialect as the representative dialect. However, the Quanzhou dialect is still  considered to be the standard dialect for Liyuan opera and "nanyin" music. Phonology. This section is mostly based on the variety spoken in the urban area of Quanzhou, specifically in Licheng District. Initials. There are 14 phonemic initials, including the zero initial (not included below): When the rhyme is nasalized, the three voiced phonemes , and are realized as the nasal stops , and , respectively. The inventory of initial consonants in the Quanzhou dialect is identical to the Amoy dialect and almost identical to the Zhangzhou dialect. The Quanzhou dialect is missing the phoneme found in the Zhangzhou dialect due to a  merger of into . The distinction between () and () was still made in the early 19th century, as seen in "Huìyīn Miàowù" () by Huang Qian (), but "Huìyīn Miàowù" already has nine characters categorized into both initials. Rev. Carstairs Douglas has already observed the merger in the late 19th century. In some areas of Yongchun, Anxi and Nan'an, there are still some people, especially those in the older generation, who distinguish from , showing that the merger is a recent innovation. Rimes. There are 87 rimes: The actual pronunciation of the vowel has a wider opening, approaching . For some speakers, especially younger ones, the  vowel is often realized as , e.g. pronouncing / (, "to fly") as , and the vowel is either realized as , e.g. pronouncing / (, "pig") as , or as , e.g. pronouncing (, "woman") as . Tones. For single syllables, there are seven tones: In addition to these tones, there is also a neutral tone. Tone sandhi. As with other dialects of Hokkien, the tone sandhi rules are applied to every syllable but the final syllable in an utterance. The following is a summary of the rules: