Xiguan dialect
The Xiguan accent () or Xiguan dialect (), is a sub-dialect of the Guangzhou dialect of Cantonese, spoken in Xiguan. Cantonese takes Guangzhou dialect as its standard and Guangzhou dialect once took Xiguan as its standard. With an increasing number of outsiders moving in, Xiguan dialect can only be heard among the older population and it is near extinction. The "Guangzhouhua Zidian" () includes Xiguan alongside Nanhai and Hong Kong. Speakers. People living in Xiguan have generally lost a Xiguan accent; what they are actually speaking with is the relaxed pronunciation () of Xiguan Dialect. Differences with downtown accent. Confusion of  consonants "n" & "l". Due to Xiguan's near geographical position to Nanhai, both accents spoken in Xiguan and Nanhai feature n-l merger, in which /n/ and /l/ are merged into /l/. However, the feature is less prominent in the Xiguan accent. Consonant "ng". Speakers of Xiguan Accents pronounce zero consonant () as the consonant "ng", for instance, "屋(uk7)" as "nguk7" and "壓(aat8)" as "ngaat8". Vowels "i" & "ei" / "ai". Speakers of Xiguan Accents pronounce vowels "ei" and "ai" as "i". The phenomenon also lies in Nanhai Accents, such as: Dental consonant. Additionally, speakers of Xiguan Accents enhance dental consonants (). That is  to say, downtown people pronounce "知", "雌" and "斯" as , and (comparatively relaxed in the oral area, close to , and in IPA; and yet Speakers of Xiguan Accents pronounce , and (The tip of tongue pushes up against upper teeth and blocks up air current. Tense in the oral area, similar to "zh", "ch" and "sh" in Mandarin without rolling tongue). To be precise, dental consonants are similar to the consonants of 左", "初" and "所" (i.e., , and ) in Downtown Accents. In summary, speakers of Xiguan Accents pronounce , and as , and . A saying representing Xiguan Accents goes that "Servant, take some  money to buy some seadless kaki fruits" (). Status. Relationship with downtown accents (especially Dongshan accents). Xiguan lies to the west of Taiping Gate (). Xiguan is the suburb of Guangzhou and it was administrated by Nanhai County rather than Panyu County (covering former Yuexiu District and former Dongshan District). Therefore, it was not regarded as part of the capital of Guangdong Province. Therefore, Xiguan Dialect should be regarded as suburban accents, distinguished from Downtown Accent (), esp. Dongshan Accents (). Notwithstanding, Xiguan lies close to the provincial capital, so the gap is narrow.