Gàn (赣语) is one of the major divisions of spoken Chinese, a member of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages, concentrated in and typical of Jiangxi Province. Jiangxi (Chinese: 江西; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chiang-hsi; Postal System Pinyin: Kiangsi) is a southern province of the Peoples Republic of China, spanning from the banks of the Yangtze River in the north into hillier areas in the south. ...   (Chinese: ; pinyin: ) is a province of China, located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting (hence the name Hunan, meaning south of the lake). Hunan is sometimes called 湘 (pinyin: Xiāng) for short, after the Xiang River which runs through the province. ...   (Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Fu-chien; Postal map spelling: Fukien, Foukien; local transliteration Hokkien from Min Nan Hok-kiàn) is one of the provinces on the southeast coast of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Anhui (Chinese: 安徽; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: An-hui; Postal System Pinyin: Ngan-hui, Anhwei or An-hwei) is a province of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Hubei (Chinese: 湖北; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Hu-pei; Postal System Pinyin: Hupeh) is a central province of the Peoples Republic of China. ... This is a list of languages placed in order by the number of native-language speakers, with some data for second-language use. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families A language family is a group of related languages said to have descended from a common proto-language. ... The Sino-Tibetan languages form a putative language family composed of Chinese and the Tibeto-Burman languages, including some 250 languages of East Asia. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning sound, voice) is the study of the sounds of human speech. ... Unicode is an industry standard designed to allow text and symbols from all of the writing systems of the world to be consistently represented and manipulated by computers. ... Sino-Tibetan languages form a language family of about 250 languages of East Asia, in number of speakers worldwide second only to Indo-European. ... Jiangxi (Chinese: 江西; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chiang-hsi; Postal System Pinyin: Kiangsi) is a southern province of the Peoples Republic of China, spanning from the banks of the Yangtze River in the north into hillier areas in the south. ...

Different dialects of Gan exist, and the representative dialect is the Nanchang dialect. Nanchang dialect (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ; pinyin: ) is a dialect of the Gan language family, which in turn constitutes one of the Sinitic language families. ...

The name "Gàn" comes from the shortened name of Jiangxi Province (through which the Gan River flows). Jiangxi (Chinese: 江西; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chiang-hsi; Postal System Pinyin: Kiangsi) is a southern province of the Peoples Republic of China, spanning from the banks of the Yangtze River in the north into hillier areas in the south. ... The Gan River (Chinese: 赣江; pinyin: ) of southern China travels 885 km north through Jiangxi before flowing into Lake Poyang and thence into the Yangtze River. ...

Classification

Like all other varieties of Chinese, there is large amount of dispute as to whether Gan is a language or a dialect. A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language characteristic of a particular group of the languages speakers. ...

Please see Identification of the varieties of Chinese for the issues surrounding this dispute. Chinese forms part of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. ...

Geographical distribution

Gan is spoken by 20-50 million people, over most of the northern two-thirds of Jiangxi Province, as well as the northwest of Fujian; and some parts of Anhui and Hubei in mainland China. Jiangxi (Chinese: 江西; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chiang-hsi; Postal System Pinyin: Kiangsi) is a southern province of the Peoples Republic of China, spanning from the banks of the Yangtze River in the north into hillier areas in the south. ...

The area coloured in light yellow shows the Gan-speaking region in the PRC.

Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (449x942, 48 KB) ShareAlike by en:user:Nishishei, from en:Image:Sinitic Languages0. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (449x942, 48 KB) ShareAlike by en:user:Nishishei, from en:Image:Sinitic Languages0. ...

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. Qin empire in 210 BC Capital Xianyang Language(s) Chinese Religion Taoism Government Monarchy History  - Unification of China 221 BC  - Death of Qin Shi Huang 210 BC  - Surrender to Liu Bang 206 BC The Qin Dynasty (Chinese: ; Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chin Chao) (221 BCE - 206 BCE) was preceded... Yue (Traditional Chinese: ; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Yüeh4; also seen as Yueh, Yuet, Việt) refers to ancient semi-Sinicized or non-Sinicized Chinese peoples of southern China, originally those along the eastern coastline of present-day Zhejiang province and Shanghai. ...   (Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Fu-chien; Postal map spelling: Fukien, Foukien; local transliteration Hokkien from Min Nan Hok-kiàn) is one of the provinces on the southeast coast of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Guangdong, often spelt as Kwangtung, is a province on the south coast of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Languages Chinese languages Religions Predominantly Taoism, Mahayana Buddhism, traditional Chinese religions, and atheism. ... Jiangxi (Chinese: 江西; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chiang-hsi; Postal System Pinyin: Kiangsi) is a southern province of the Peoples Republic of China, spanning from the banks of the Yangtze River in the north into hillier areas in the south. ... Han Dynasty in 87 BC Capital Changan (202 BC–9 AD) Luoyang (25 AD–190 AD) Language(s) Chinese Religion Taoism, Confucianism Government Monarchy History  - Establishment 206 BC  - Battle of Gaixia; Han rule of China begins 202 BC  - Interruption of Han rule 9 AD - 24 AD  - Abdication to Cao... Nanchang (Chinese: 南昌; Hanyu Pinyin: ) is the capital of Jiangxi Province in southeastern China. ... Commandry (British English), or commandery (American English), was the smallest division of the European landed estate or manor under the control of a commendator, or commander, of an order of knights. ... The Gan River (Chinese: 赣江; pinyin: ) of southern China travels 885 km north through Jiangxi before flowing into Lake Poyang and thence into the Yangtze River. ... Jiangxi (Chinese: 江西; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chiang-hsi; Postal System Pinyin: Kiangsi) is a southern province of the Peoples Republic of China, spanning from the banks of the Yangtze River in the north into hillier areas in the south. ... Yangzhou (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ; former spellings: Yang-chou, Yangchow; literally Rising Prefecture) is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu province, Peoples Republic of China. ...

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 contempory 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. Mandarin (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ; Hanyu Pinyin: ; literally speech of officials), or Beifanghua (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; Hanyu Pinyin: ; literally Northern Dialect(s)), is a category of related Chinese dialects spoken across most of northern and south-western China. ... The Southern dynasties 南朝 (nanchao in pinyin: nán cháo) include Liu Song, Southern Qi, Liang Dynasty and Chen Dynasty whose capital were largely all at Jiankang (although the Southern Qi capital was briefly at Jiangling (江陵, in modern Jingzhou, Hubei) during the reign of Emperor He of Southern Qi, and... China under the Tang Dynasty (yellow) and its sphere of influence Capital Changan (618–904) Luoyang (904-907) Language(s) Middle Chinese Religion Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism Government Monarchy Emperor  - 618-626 Emperor Gaozu  - 684, 705-710 Emperor Zhongzong  - 684, 710-712 Emperor Ruizong  - 904-907 Emperor Ai History  - Li... Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (Traditional Chinese: 五代十國 Simplified Chinese: 五代十国 Hanyu pinyin: Wǔdàishíguó) (907-960) was a period of political upheaval in China, between the Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty. ... Jiangxi (Chinese: 江西; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chiang-hsi; Postal System Pinyin: Kiangsi) is a southern province of the Peoples Republic of China, spanning from the banks of the Yangtze River in the north into hillier areas in the south. ...   (Chinese: ; pinyin: ) is a province of China, located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting (hence the name Hunan, meaning south of the lake). Hunan is sometimes called 湘 (pinyin: Xiāng) for short, after the Xiang River which runs through the province. ... Hubei (Chinese: 湖北; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Hu-pei; Postal System Pinyin: Hupeh) is a central province of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Anhui (Chinese: 安徽; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: An-hui; Postal System Pinyin: Ngan-hui, Anhwei or An-hwei) is a province of the Peoples Republic of China. ...   (Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Fu-chien; Postal map spelling: Fukien, Foukien; local transliteration Hokkien from Min Nan Hok-kiàn) is one of the provinces on the southeast coast of the Peoples Republic of China. ...

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. Mandarin (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ; Hanyu Pinyin: ; literally speech of officials), or Beifanghua (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; Hanyu Pinyin: ; literally Northern Dialect(s)), is a category of related Chinese dialects spoken across most of northern and south-western China. ... Standard Mandarin – also known as Standard Chinese or Standard spoken Chinese – is the official Chinese spoken language used by the Peoples Republic of China, the Republic of China (Taiwan), and Singapore. ... Jiangxi (Chinese: 江西; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chiang-hsi; Postal System Pinyin: Kiangsi) is a southern province of the Peoples Republic of China, spanning from the banks of the Yangtze River in the north into hillier areas in the south. ... Alternative meaning: Hunan Xiang (Chinese: 相) is the name of a Xia dynasty ruler who reigned during the third millennium BC. Categories: People stubs | China-related stubs ... Henan, Shanxi, Guangdong, Jiangxi and Fujian provinces The Hakka are a subgroup of the Han Chinese people who live predominantly in the provinces of Guangdong, Jiangxi, and Fujian in China. ...

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. ... Standard Mandarin – also known as Standard Chinese or Standard spoken Chinese – is the official Chinese spoken language used by the Peoples Republic of China, the Republic of China (Taiwan), and Singapore. ...

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.

Main Characters

Sounds

The Gan dialect, (e.g. the Nanchang Hua, etc.) has 19 syllable onsets （聲母）, 65 syllable rimes （韻母） and 7 tones. It does not have the retroflex consonant （捲舌音） or R Finals (兒化音 Erhua) which abundantly exist in Mandarin. These syllables were formed following the Middle Ages, and Gan did not make this linguistic evolutionary shift along with Mandarin. Nanchang dialect (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ; pinyin: ) is a dialect of the Gan language family, which in turn constitutes one of the Sinitic language families. ... In phonetics and phonology, a syllable onset is the part of a syllable that precedes the syllable nucleus. ... In the study of phonology in linguistics, the rime or rhyme of a syllable consists of a nucleus and an optional coda. ... The word tone is used in several different fields with different meanings. ... Sub-apical retroflex plosive In phonetics, retroflex consonants are consonant sounds used in some languages. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... Mandarin (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ; Hanyu Pinyin: ; literally speech of officials), or Beifanghua (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; Hanyu Pinyin: ; literally Northern Dialect(s)), is a category of related Chinese dialects spoken across most of northern and south-western China. ...

Citation tones

Grammar Tones in Chinese derive from the traditional Middle Chinese tone classes, known as Ping Sheng (平聲), Shang Sheng (上聲), Qu Sheng (去聲), and Ru Sheng (入聲), which in English in the linguistic literature, are sometimes called the level, rising, departing and entering tones. ... The tone contours of Standard Mandarin Tone contours are numbers that represent the way pitch varies over a syllable. ...

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）.

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. Middle Chinese (中古漢語, pinyin: zhōnggǔ Hànyǔ), or Ancient Chinese as used by linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese language spoken during Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties (6th century - 10th century). ... Chu could refer to: The Chu river valley in modern Kyrgyzstan. ... The Spring and Autumn Period (Chinese: ; Pinyin: ) was a period in Chinese history, which roughly corresponds to the first half of the Eastern Zhou dynasty (from the second half of the 8th century BC to the first half of the 5th century). ...

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

Dialects

The Nanchang dialect is the canonical representative of the group. The mountainous geography of Jiangxi has resulted in a high degree of fragmentation, with many mutually unintelligible varieties. Speakers typically identify their speech as being that of a particular county, e.g., Wannianese, rather than Gan in general. Nanchang dialect (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ; pinyin: ) is a dialect of the Gan language family, which in turn constitutes one of the Sinitic language families. ... Wannian is a county under Shangrao city in Jiangxi, China. ...

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.

（29,000,000 in Jiangxi; 4,500,000 in Anhui; 5,300,000 in Hubei; 9,000,000 in Hunan; 270,000 in Fujian)

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

1. Chang-Jing （昌靖片）, of which Nanchang Dialect is representative. Nanchang dialect (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ; pinyin: ) is a dialect of the Gan language family, which in turn constitutes one of the Sinitic language families. ...

2. Yi-Liu （宜瀏片）, of which Yichun Dialect is representative.

3. Ji-Cha （吉茶片）, of which Ji’an Dialect is representative.

4. Fu-Guang （撫廣片）, of which Fuzhou Dialect is representative.

5. Ying-Yi （鷹弋片）, of which Yingtan dialect is representative.

6. Da-Tong （大通片）

7. Lei-Zi （耒資片）

8. Dong-Sui （洞綏片）

9. Huai-Yue （懷嶽片）

Writing system

Gan speakers usually use Vernacular Chinese as the written form, which is used by all Chinese speakers.^[1] Vernacular Chinese (pinyin: báihuà; Wade-Giles: paihua) is a style or register of the written Chinese language essentially modeled after the spoken language and associated with Standard Mandarin. ...

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》

See also

• Spoken Chinese
• Identification of the varieties of Chinese

Spoken Chinese Spoken Chinese comprises many regional variants. ... Chinese forms part of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. ...

External links

The Gan test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Gan

• Classification of Gan Dialects
• Ethnologue report on Gan

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (800x1000, 64 KB) Summary The chosen logo for Wikimedia Incubator, in SVG format and without text. ... Wikipedia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Incubator logo The Wikimedia Incubator is a wiki run by Wikimedia Foundation. ... Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... The Wikimedia Commons (also called Wikicommons) is a repository of free content images, sound and other multimedia files. ...