Qin-Lian dialects

Qin-Lian Yue
Hamlim Yuht
Native to	China
Region	Guangxi
Native speakers	About 3,900,000 (2013)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Chinese Yue Qin-Lian Yue
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
ISO 639-6	qnli
Glottolog	qinl1235
Linguasphere	79-AAA-mf
Qin-Lian (lower left), among other Yue and Pinghua groups in Guangxi and Guangdong

Qin–Lian (Hamlim, 欽廉方言) is a southern branch of Yue Chinese spoken in the coastal part of Guangxi, which is represented by four traditional cities Qinzhou, Lianzhou, Lingshan and Fangcheng ("欽廉靈防") or by three modern prefecture-level cities Qinzhou, Beihai and Fangcheng ("欽北防").

Middle Chinese had a series of voiced initials, but voicing has been lost throughout Yue and most other modern Chinese varieties apart from Wu and Old Xiang. The reflexes of the voiced stops and affricates are often used to classify Chinese varieties.

In most Qin–Lian varieties, these consonants develop into aspirates in all tones, a pattern also found in Wu–Hua Yue and Hakka, which is also the traditional criterion of Qin-Lian Yue. However, in urban Qin–Lian varieties they yield aspirates in the level and rising tones, and non-aspirates in the departing and entering tones, the same pattern found in the Guangfu, Siyi and Gao-Yang branches of Yue.

There are several branches of Qin-Lian.

Urban varieties, informally called "plain speech" (^s白话; ^t白話), are spoken in the cities of Qinzhou (Hamzau), Beihai (Bakhoi), Fangcheng (Pongsing), Dongxing (Dunghing) and Lingcheng (Lingsing) and some nearby towns. They are close to Standard Cantonese, with the same consonant shifting pattern, and only partly mutually intelligible with other Qin-Lian Yue varieties.