Dialect Culture

source: Updated: 2016-10-31

 

There are mainly 7 dialects in China: Beijing dialect (official language), dialect of Chu, Xiang, Gan, south Fujian, Cantonese and Hakkanese. Hakkanese is considered as the living fossil to study ancient Chinese for academic circle. Compared with the Hakkanese in western Fujian and eastern Guangdong, the one in Gannan attracts more interest of scholars. There are two main reasons. The first is that Gannan is the junction of Gan dialect and Hakka dialect; the relation and difference of the two can be easily found here. The second is its ancient and diversified. Quite a few Hakkas have lived here for generations since Tang Dynasty. In early Qing dynasty, a large number of Hakkas in eastern Guangdong and western Fujian moved back to Gannan. People in either the two places speak almost the same dialect while dialects of Gannan Hakkanese are even different among villages. From these we can see that Gannan Hakkanese is of higher value in academic study.