Haikou dialect

Min Chinese dialect of Hainan, China

Haikou
海口話
Pronunciation	[hai˨˩˧ xau˨˩˧ ue˨˧]
Native to	Southern China
Region	Haikou, Hainan
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Min Coastal Min Qiong–Lei Hainanese Haikou
Early forms	Proto-Sino-Tibetan Old Chinese^[a] Proto-Min
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	`hain1237`
Linguasphere	`79-AAA-ked`
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The Haikou dialect is a topolect of Chinese and a subvariety of Hainanese spoken in Haikou, the capital of the Hainan province and island of China.

Phonology

The Haikou dialect has the following initials:^[4]

		Labial	Dental	Sibilant	Velar	Glottal
Stop / Affricate	voiceless		t	ts	k	ʔ
Stop / Affricate	voiced implosive	ɓ	ɗ
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Fricative	voiceless	f		s	x	h
Fricative	voiced	v		z
Lateral			l

The finals are:^[5]

There are also two syllabic nasals, /m̩/ and /ŋ̍/.^[5]

The tone categories (described using Chao tone letters) are:^[5]^[6]

	level	rising	departing	entering
upper	24	213	35	5
lower	21	33		3
lower	21	55ʔ		3

^ Min is believed to have split from Old Chinese, rather than Middle Chinese like other varieties of Chinese.^[1]^[2]^[3]

^ Mei, Tsu-lin (1970), "Tones and prosody in Middle Chinese and the origin of the rising tone", Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 30: 86–110, doi:10.2307/2718766, JSTOR 2718766
^ Pulleyblank, Edwin G. (1984), Middle Chinese: A study in Historical Phonology, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, p. 3, ISBN 978-0-7748-0192-8
^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (2023-07-10). "Glottolog 4.8 - Min". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. doi:10.5281/zenodo.7398962. Archived from the original on 2023-10-13. Retrieved 2023-10-13.
^ Chen (1996), p. 4.
^ ^a ^b ^c Chen (1996), p. 5.
^ Yan (2006), p. 142.

Chen, Hongmai (1996), Hǎikǒu fāngyán cídiǎn 海口方言詞典 [Haikou dialect dictionary], Great Dictionary of Modern Chinese Dialects, vol. 16, Nanjing: Jiangsu Education Press, ISBN 978-7-5343-2886-2.
Yan, Margaret Mian (2006), Introduction to Chinese Dialectology, LINCOM Europa, ISBN 978-3-89586-629-6.

Languages

Houguan	Fuzhou dialect Fuqing dialect Changle dialect Gutian dialect Matsu dialect
Funing	Xiapu dialect Fu'an dialect Ningde dialect
Others	Manjiang dialect Zhongshan Min Longdu dialect Nanlang dialect

Teochew Min	Swatow dialect
Hokkien	Amoy dialect Quanzhou dialects Hui'an dialect Yongchun dialect Zhangzhou dialects Longyan dialect Taiwanese Banana colloquial speech Northern Malacca Straits Hokkien Penang Hokkien Medan Hokkien Hokkien Kelantan Philippine Hokkien Southern Malacca Straits Hokkien Southern Peninsular Malaysian Hokkien Singaporean Hokkien
Others	Datian Min Houlu dialect Haklau Min Zhenan Min Zhongshan Min Sanxiang dialect

Logographic	Chinese characters
Alphabetic	Pe̍h-ōe-jī Pe̍h-ūe-jī Hainan Romanized Foochow Romanized Hinghwa Romanized Kienning Colloquial Romanized Taiwanese Romanization System Taiwanese Language Phonetic Alphabet Daighi tongiong pingim Bbánlám pìngyīm Peng'im Fuzhou Transliteration Scheme Hainanese Transliteration Scheme
Mixed	Hàn-lô