Dialect map of Hunan. Waxiang is dark blue on the map.
Classificationedit
As noted by Laurent Sagart (2011)[5] and others,[6][7][8] Waxiang appears to share some words with the Caijia language of western Guizhou. Sagart (2011) considers Caijia to be a sister of Waxiang. Currently, Waxiang is classified as a divergent Chinese variety rather than a non-Sinitic language.[3][4] Similarities among Old Chinese, Waxiang, Caijia, and Bai have also been pointed out by Wu & Shen (2010).[9]
Qu & Tang (2017) show that Waxiang and Miao (Qo Xiong) have had little mutual influence on each other.[10]
Liubaohua 六保话 , a dialect closely related to Waxianghua, is spoken in several villages in southeastern Guzhang County (including in Shaojitian Village 筲箕田村, Shanzao Township 山枣乡 ) and parts of Luxi County.[11] Liubaohua is spoken in the following locations (Zou 2013).
The Nanshan dialect of Waxianghua (Chinese: 南山乡话) is spoken in parts of Chengbu County, Hunan and Longsheng County, Guangxi by about 1,100 Waxiang people who had originally migrated from Yuanling County. Their villages include:[12]
Sagart (2011) argues that Waxiang and Caijia together constitute the earliest branching of Chinese. However, Sagart later retracted this proposal, saying that he is no longer sure whether Waxiang and Caijia actually form a subgroup together.[5]
Like Waxiang, Caijia preserves Old Chinese *l-, has a voiced fricative reflex of *r-, and retains the Old Chinese word 字 'love', which has been replaced by 愛 in all other Chinese varieties. Waxiang and Caijia also share two words not found in other Chinese varieties:[5]
'two': Caijia ta⁵⁵, Waxiang tso⁵³, from Old Chinese 再 *tsˤəs 'twice'
'milk': Caijia mi⁵⁵, Waxiang mi⁵⁵, which Sagart suggests is a non-Sinitic word
Referencesedit
^Waxiang at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ abKurpaska, Maria (2010). Chinese Language(s): A Look Through the Prism of "The Great Dictionary of Modern Chinese Dialects". Walter de Gruyter. p. 73. ISBN 978-3-11-021914-2.
^ abcSagart, Laurent. 2011. Classifying Chinese dialects/Sinitic languages on shared innovations. Talk given at Centre de recherches linguistiques sur l’Asie orientale, Norgent sur Marne.
^de Sousa, Hilário. 2015. The Far Southern Sinitic Languages as part of Mainland Southeast Asia. In Enfield, N.J. & Comrie, Bernard (eds.), Languages of Mainland Southeast Asia: The state of the art (Pacific Linguistics 649), 356–439. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. doi:10.1515/9781501501685-009.
^Zou, Xiaoling 邹晓玲. 2012. Classification of "Siklehua" in Guzhang County in Western Hunan 湘西古丈县“六保话”的系属. Journal of Jishou University (Social Science Edition) 吉首大学学报(社会科学版) 33(1).
^Zheng, Yanxia [郑焱霞]; Peng, Jianguo [彭建国]. 2016. Hunan Chengbu Xuntou Xianghua yanjiu [湖南城步巡头乡话研究]. Hunan Normal University Press [湖南师范大学出版社].
^Zheng, Yanxia 郑焱霞. 2010. Xiang-Gui bianjie Nanshan Xianghua yanjiu 湘桂边界南山乡话研究. Doctoral dissertation. Changsha: Hunan Normal University 湖南师范大学.
Wiktionary has a Macro-Bai comparative vocabulary list
Waxiang Chinese test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator
Hilary Chappell (2012), "Typology of an isolated Sinitic language: Waxiang, a language of northwestern Hunan, China" (presentation slides), keynote at 45th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics.
Chappell, Hilary; Peyraube, Alain; Wu, Yunji (2011). "A comitative source for object markers in Sinitic languages: 跟 kai55 in Waxiang and 共 kang7 in Southern Min". Journal of East Asian Linguistics. 20 (4): 291–338. doi:10.1007/s10831-011-9078-z. PMC3837201. PMID 24273384.
Zheng, Yanxia [郑焱霞]; Peng, Jianguo [彭建国]. 2016. Hunan Chengbu Xuntou Xianghua yanjiu [湖南城步巡头乡话研究]. Hunan Normal University Press [湖南师范大学出版社].
Chen, Hui [陈晖]. 2016. Hunan Luxi Liangjiatan Xianghua yanjiu [湖南泸溪梁家潭乡话研究]. Hunan Normal University Press [湖南师范大学出版社].
Chen, Hui [陈晖]. 2019. Hunan Luxi Xianghua [湖南泸溪乡话]. Beijing: The Commercial Press [商务印书馆]. ISBN 9787100179850.
Deng, Jie [邓婕]. 2020. Xiangxi Xianghua jiechu yu yanbian yanjiu [湘西乡话的接触与演变研究]. Beijing: The Commercial Press.
Li, Jiaolei [李姣雷]. 2021. Xiangxi Xianghua yuyin cengci ji yanbian yanjiu [湘西乡话语音层次及演变研究] / Phonological Strata and Evolution of Xianghua Dialects of Western Xiang. Beijing: The Commercial Press.