Gan Chinese

language
name=Gan
nativename= _zh. 赣语
states=China
region=central and northern Jiangxi, eastern Hunan, parts of Fujian, Anhui, Hubei
speakers=20 million~50 million
rank=38
familycolor=Sino-Tibetan
fam2=Chinese
iso1=zh|iso2b=chi|iso2t=zho|iso3=gan

Gàn ( _zh. 赣语), alternatively Jiangxihua (zh-c|c=江西话) is one of the major divisions of spoken Chinese, a member of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. Gan speakers are concentrated in and typical of Jiangxi Province, as well as the northwest of Fujian; and some parts of Anhui and Hubei in mainland China.

Different dialects of Gan exist, and the representative dialect is the Nanchang dialect.

The name "Gàn" comes from the shortened name of Jiangxi Province (through which the Gan River flows).

Classification

The classification of Gan is a subject of ongoing debate. Like all other varieties of Chinese, there is large amount of dispute as to whether Gan is a language or a dialect. It could be generally divided into three viewpoints:

*The first viewpoint considers Gan to be a dialect of Chinese, which is supported by the scholars in mainland China. Actually Gan, with Xiang, were carved out of the region of the Mandarin language until 1937, and there are some Gan speakers that think Gan to be a dialect, mostly owing to the political factors or national emotion, also because Gan has more similarities with Mandarin, than compared with Cantonese or Min.

*The second viewpoint considers Gan to be the same language with Hakka, called “Gan-Hakka”, or to be a group of languages with Hakka and Cantonese, because there are quite many similarities among the three.

*The third viewpoint considers Gan to be an independent language. Because Gan is not intelligible with other Chinese languages, and linguistically, it should be divided into different languages in case of intelligibility.

Please see Identification of the varieties of Chinese for the issues surrounding this dispute.

Name

* Gan: the formal name.

* Jiangxinese: the most common name. But there are several languages in Jiangxi, and there also many Gan speakers out of Jiangxi, so this name is not very exact.

* Xi: ancient name. Now it is seldom used.

* Gan dialect: the name used by the scholars in mainland China. And “Gan” is also used.

* Right-river language: because most of Gan speakers live in the south of Yangtze River, so this name was used in ancient China.

Relation with other Chinese languages

In ancient times, Jiangxi was divided into the same politic division with its neighboring provinces. Large numbers of people immigrated into Jiangxi naturally resulted in some similarities with the surrounding languages, Gan and Hakka are the most similar.

Geographical distribution

Region

Gan speakers almost live in the middle and lower reaches of Gan River, the drainage area of Fu River and the region of Poyang Lake, there are also many Gan speakers living in eastern Hunan, eastern Hubei, southern Anhui and northwest Fujian, etc.

According to the《Diagram of Divisions in the People’s Republic of China》(《中華人民共和國行政區劃簡冊》)(2004), Gan is spoken by approximately 48,000,000 people, while 29,000,000 in Jiangxi [http://www.pprd.org.cn/renkou/200509090015.htm] ,4,500,000 in Anhui [http://www.sh.xinhuanet.com/2005-01/07/content_3522506.htm] 、5,300,000 in Hubei [http://www.chinapop.gov.cn/rkkx/gdkx/t20040326_8746.htm] 、9,000,000 in Hunan [http://news.rednet.com.cn/Articles/2005/01/651873.HTM] 、270,000 in Fujian [http://www.chinapop.gov.cn/rkkx/gdkx/t20050107_18667.htm ] .

History

Ancient Ages

During the Qin Dynasty (221 BC), a large number of troops were sent to southern China in order to conquer the Baiyue (百越) territories in Fujian and Guangdong, as a result, numerous Han Chinese immigrated to Jiangxi in the years following.In the early years of the Han Dynasty (202 BC), Nanchang was established as the capital of the Yuzhang Commandery (豫章郡) (this name stems from the original name of Gan River), along with the 18 counties (縣) of Jiangxi Province. The population of the Yuzhang Commandery increased to 1,670,000 (by AD 140) from 350,000 (in AD 2), with a net growth of 1,320,000. The Yuzhang Commandery ranked forth in population among the more than 100 contemporary commanderies of China. As the largest commandery of YangZhou (揚州), Yuzhang accounted for two fifths of the population and Gan gradually took shape during this period.

Middle Ages

As a result of continuous warfare in the region of central China, the first large-scale immigration in the history of China took place. Large numbers of people in central China relocated to southern China in order to escape the bloodshed and at this time, Jiangxi played a role as a transfer station. Also, during this period, ancient Gan began to be exposed to the northern Mandarin Guan-hua (官話) dialects. After centuries of rule by the Southern Dynasties, Gan still retained many original characteristics despite having absorbed some elements of Guan-Hua.Up until the Tang Dynasty, there was little difference between old Gan and the contemporary Gan of that era. Beginning in the Five Dynasties period, however, inhabitants in the central and northern parts of Jiangxi Province began to migrate to eastern Hunan, eastern Hubei, southern Anhui and northwest Fujian. During this period, following hundreds of years of migration, Gan spread to its current areas of distribution.

Recent History

Guan-hua evolved into a language based on Beijing Mandarin, owing largely to political factors. At the same time, the differences between Gan and Guan-hua continued to become more pronounced. However, because Jiangxi borders on Jianghuai, a Guan-hua, Xiang, and Hakka speaking region, Gan proper has also been influenced by these surrounding languages, especially in its border regions.

Modern Times

After 1949, as a “dialect” in Mainland China, Gan faced a critical period. The impact of Mandarin is quite evident today as a result of official governmental linguistic campaigns. Currently, many youths are unable to master Gan expressions, and some are no longer able speak Gan at all.

Recently, however, as a result of increased interest in protecting the local language, Gan now has begun to appear in various regional media, and there are also newscasts and television programs broadcast in the Gan language.

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Dialects

According to 《Atlas of Chinese languages》(《中國語言地圖集》)(1987), there are 9 dialects in Gan.

Initials

In each cell below, the first line indicates IPA, the second indicates pinyin.

entering finals(20):

Example

Grammar

In Gan, there are 9 principal grammatical tenses – initial （起始）, progressive （進行）, experimental （嘗試）, durative （持續）, processive （經歷）, continuative （繼續）, repeating （重行）, perfect （已然）, complete （完成）.

The grammar of Gan is similar to southern Chinese languages. The sequence 'subject verb object’ is most typical, but ' subject object verb ' or the passive voice (with the sequence ' 'object subject verb') is possible with particles. Take a simple sentence for example: "I hold you." The words involved are: ngo ("I" or "me"), tsot dok ("to hold"), ň ("you").
* Subject verb object (typical sequence): The sentence in the typical sequence would be: ngo tsot dok ň. ("I hold you.")
* Subject lat object verb: Another sentence of roughly equivalent meaning is ngo lat ň tsot dok, with the slight connotation of "I take you and hold" or "I get to you and hold."
* Object den subject verb (the passive voice): Then, ň den ngo tsot dok means the same thing but in the passive voice, with the connotation of "You allow yourself to be held by me" or "You make yourself available for my holding."

Vocabulary

In Gan, there are a number of archaic words and expressions originally found in ancient Chinese, and which are now seldom or no longer used in Mandarin. For example, the noun ‘clothes’ in Gan is ‘衣裳’ while ‘衣服’ in Mandarin, the verb ‘sleep’ in Gan is ‘睏覺’ while ‘睡覺’ in Mandarin. Also, to describe something dirty, Gan speakers use ‘下里巴人’, which is a reference to a song from the Chu （楚國） region dating to China's Spring and Autumn Period.

Additionally, there are numerous interjections in Gan （e.g. 哈、噻、啵）, which can largely strengthen sentences, and better express different feelings.

Writing system

Gan is written with Chinese characters, though it does not have a strong written tradition. There are also some romanization schemes, but none is widely used. Gan speakers usually use Vernacular Chinese as the written form, which is used by all Chinese speakers. [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=KNN Ethnologue report on Gan] ]

Note

References

* CHEN Chang-yi 《Summary of Gan》
* CHEN Chang-yi 《Chorography of languages in Jiangxi》
* LI Ru-long 《Investigation of Gan-Hakka》
* XIONG Zheng-hui 《Dictionary of Nanchang Dialect》
* YAN Sen 《Division of languages in Jiangxi》
* YAN Sen 《Summary of modern Chinese·Gan》

ee also

* Spoken Chinese
* Identification of the varieties of Chinese

External links

* [http://www.glossika.com/en/dict/classification/gan/index.php Classification of Gan Dialects]
* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=KNN Ethnologue report on Gan]