*** Welcome to piglix ***

Huizhou Chinese

Huizhou
徽州話 / 徽州话
Native to China
Region Huizhou, southern Anhui, neighbouring portions of Zhejiang and Jiangxi
Native speakers
 4.6 million (2000)
Language codes
ISO 639-3
Glottolog huiz1242
Linguasphere 79-AAA-da
Idioma hui.png
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.
Huizhou Chinese
Traditional Chinese 徽州話
Simplified Chinese 徽州话
Hanyu Pinyin Huīzhōu Huà
Alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese 徽語
Simplified Chinese 徽语
Hanyu Pinyin Huī Yu

Huizhou (simplified Chinese: 徽州话; traditional Chinese: 徽州話; pinyin: Huīzhōu-huà) or Hui (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Huī-yǔ), is a group of closely related varieties of Chinese spoken over a small area in and around the historical region of Huizhou (for which it is named), in about ten or so mountainous counties in southern Anhui, plus a few more in neighbouring Zhejiang and Jiangxi.

Although the Hui area is small compared with other Chinese dialect groups, it displays a very high degree of internal variation. Nearly every county has its own distinct dialect unintelligible to a speaker from a few counties away. For this reason, bilingualism and multilingualism are common among speakers of Hui. It is estimated that there are around 4.6 million speakers of Huizhou varieties.

Huizhou Chinese was originally classified as Lower Yangtze Mandarin but it is currently classified separately from it. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences supported the separation of Huizhou from Lower Yangtze Mandarin in 1987. Its classification is disputed, with some linguists such as Matisoff classifying it as Wu Chinese, others such as Bradley (2007) as Gan, and still others setting it apart as a primary branch of Chinese.


...
Wikipedia

...