Xiguan dialect
| Xiguan | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Mainland China |
| Region | Xiguan, Liwan District, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province |
|
Native speakers
|
Nearly none (date missing) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | None |
Xiguan accent (Chinese: 西關口音), or Xiguan dialect (Chinese: 西關話), 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 (Chinese: 廣州話字典; literally: "Guangzhou Dialect Dictionary") includes Xiguan alongside Nanhai and Hong Kong.
People living in Xiguan have generally lost a Xiguan accent; what they are actually speaking with is the relaxed pronunciation (Chinese: 懶音) of Xiguan Dialect.
Due to Xiguan's near geographical position to Nanhai, the problem of the confusion of consonants n & l consists in both Xiguan Accents and Nanhai Accents. They mispronounce n as l. Nevertheless, compared with Nanhai Accents, this problem is relatively mild.
Speakers of Xiguan Accents pronounce zero consonant (Chinese: 零聲母) as the consonant ng, for instance, "屋(uk7)" as "nguk7" and "壓(aat8)" as "ngaat8".
Speakers of Xiguan Accents pronounce vowels ei and ai as i. The phenomenon also lies in Nanhai Accents, such as:
Additionally, speakers of Xiguan Accents enhance dental consonants (Chinese: 舌尖齒音). That is to say, downtown people pronounce "知", "雌" and "斯" as [tɕi], [tɕʰi] and [ɕi] (comparatively relaxed in the oral area, close to [tɕ], [tɕʰ] and [ɕ] in IPA; and yet Speakers of Xiguan Accents pronounce [tsi], [tsʰi] and [si] (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., [ts], [tsʰ] and [s]) in Downtown Accents. In summary, speakers of Xiguan Accents pronounce [tɕ], [tɕʰ] and [ɕ] as [ts], [tsʰ] and [s]. A saying representing Xiguan Accents goes that Servant, take some money to buy some seadless kaki fruits (Chinese: 亞"四"，擰幾毫"紙"，去買啲水"柿").
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