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Xiang Summary

Xiang

The term "Xiang" refers to the people and the local sublanguage used in Hunan, a province in southeast-central China; Xiang is derived from the older literary name of Hunan. It is estimated that more than 25 million Chinese (most of them living in Hunan Province) speak Xiang today. Several early leaders of the Chinese Communist Party came from Hunan, and the linguistic influence of people thinking in Xiang or in Xiang-accented Mandarin appears to have affected the forms selected to simplify the characters used in the Chinese language.

The Xiang are one of the three subgroups of Han Chinese (the other two are the Gan and the Wannan) who settled south of the Mandarin-speaking people in China but not on the coast. The sublanguage spoken by the Xiang has not been considered as significant as the Mandarin forms spoken in the north, and the Xiang have not contributed in a major way to Chinese migration overseas. The Xiang, like the Gan and Wannan, have generally been considered to be Chinese who speak Mandarin, but pronounce it very badly.

Xiang is a complex language with numerous dialects. While it has similarities with Mandarin, it differs from other sublanguages of Han Chinese mainly because of the way the dialects and subdialects relate to each other. The dialects that have similarities with Mandarin are grouped together as the New Xiang or the Xinxianghua. Local histories suggest that the complexity of the Xiang sublanguage arose in part because most of the population now living in Hunan Province originated in other provinces. Migration has thus contributed greatly to the complex pattern of subgroups in Hunan Province.

Linguists find it easier to divide the sublanguage in terms of time into New Xiang and Old Xiang, rather than describing the geographical distribution of the various forms. Old Xiang, or Laoxianghua, has been described as a conservative form of the Xiang sublanguage and hence much closer to the Middle Chinese of the Tang dynasty (618–907) than is new Xiang. Some linguists have suggested that there are ties between Old Xiang and the Wu dialects of the region around Shanghai. It is not surprising that Old Xiang is spoken only in rural districts and some of the smaller cities of central Hunan Province. New Xiang, on the other hand, is spoken mainly in most of the larger cities and towns.

New Xiang

Linguists consider that New Xiang has evolved much further from the Middle Chinese norm than has Old Xiang. The development of New Xiang has generally paralleled that of southwestern Mandarin. Indeed, this form of Mandarin is supposed to have been the strongest influence on New Xiang, partly because southwestern Mandarin is spoken in Hubei Province, located directly to the north of Hunan Province. New Xiang is therefore phonetically much closer to Standard Mandarin than is Old Xiang. Yet both Old and New Xiang have been in use together and coexist in many towns. Complicating the geographical distribution of the speakers of Old and New Xiang are the divisions seen generationally: elderly speakers usually speak Old Xiang, and their younger family members speak New Xiang.

New Xiang that is spoken in Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province, has generally lost the voicing of the initials b-, d-, dz-, dzh-, and gh-, like the other surrounding

**TABLE 1**
**Corresponding Terms in English, Standard Chinese, and New Xiang (Changsha)**
English	Standard Chinese	New Xiang (Changsha)
SOURCE: Moser (1985)
Tomorrow	Mingtian	min-zi
This year	Jinnian	chin-nie
We	Women	ngo-men
This	Zhege	ko-ko
What	Shenme	mo-tsi
Cold	Leng	Len
Person	Ren	Zen

forms of Han Chinese. These initials have been retained in the Old Xiang spoken in the smaller city of Shuangfeng. Therefore, linguists consider Old Xiang an island of linguistic conservatism. New Xiang is expected to change Old Xiang in time, bringing it more into conformity with Standard Mandarin and Mandarin-like speech forms.

The nature of spoken New Xiang can be seen in the list of words used in the provincial capital of Changsha. In new Xiang subdialects, the personal pronouns used are similar to those used in Mandarin. Hence, him or he, t'a, is similarly pronounced in New Xiang and Mandarin. Similarly, you, ni, is pronounced in the same way in New Xiang and Mandarin. According to scholar Leo Moser, the Changsha vernacular as described in the Hanyu Fangyan Cihui has, compared with Standard Mandarin, first of all, no retroflex series of consonants. Second, there are no words ending in -ng, although some people in Changsha do use retroflex consonants as well as some syllables ending in -ng. Third, there are words beginning with ng- and z-. Fourth, there are six tones rather than four. Fifth, there are nasalized vowels and, sixth, there is a pattern of consonant liaison that may modify medial sounds in two-syllable phrases. Finally, there are different grammatical particles somewhat differently employed. Words in the Changsha subdialect can also start with an h- and an f- . These characteristics make the Changsha dialect different from most forms of Xiang. (See Table 1.)

In northern Hunan Province, the Yiyang subdialect is another form of New Xiang. It shares many characteristics with the Changsha subdialect but has five tones and words ending in ng-. The subdialect has also developed a pattern of inserting l-like sounds in many words.

Linguists have observed that the Xiang sublanguage differs from most other Sinitic sublanguages. Hunanese do not appear to take pride in their local dialect, since

**TABLE 2**
**Corresponding Pronouns in English, Standard Chinese, Old and New Xiang**
English (and	Old Xiang	New Xiang
Standard Chinese)	(Shuangfeng)	(Changsha)
SOURCE: Moser (1985)
I, me (wo)	Ang	Ngo
we, us (wo-men)	ang-nga	ngo-men
he, him (ta)	To	Ta
is not (bushi)	pu dzih	pu-sih
boy (nanhaizi)	ngo-chi	nga-tsih
skin (pi)	Bi	Pi
time (shihou)	dzih-ghie	sih-heu

there does not seem to be uniform pronunciation of, say, Changsha, even within the city itself.

Old Xiang

Linguists consider Shuangfeng dialect a good example of Laoxianghua, or Old Xiang. The vernacular of Shuangfeng lacks the f- and the initial j-, although there are the initial consonants n-, ng-, and the voiced h or gh-. According to Wade-Giles Standard Chinese, the word "liang" ("two," or "a couple") is niang in Shuangfeng, while jou (meat) becomes ñiu. The tendency to conserve old forms with voiced consonants and other ancient language habits has led to the comparison of Old Xiang and the Wu dialects.

Pronouns in Shuangfeng differ widely from Standard Chinese in both sound and formation. Several pronouns do not share the pluralizing element, men, of Standard Chinese. (See Table 2.)

In the far south of Hunan Province, a zone of eleven counties, the Southern Xiang, or Xiangnan, dialect is spoken. Some have assumed that this dialect was influenced by Cantonese, the sublanguage spoken south of the border, but in fact the pronunciation shows a heavy influence of southwestern Mandarin.