Pinghua

Abstract Pinghua is one of the major dialects in China and the fourth-largest Chinese dialect in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, with approximately 4 million speakers. In contrast to other Chinese dialects that are also widely spoken in large cities, it is mainly spoken in the suburbs and numerous rural areas in the southern and northern parts of Guangxi. It is also spoken in adjacent areas in the southern part of Hunan and Yunnan Provinces. Pinghua is classified into the Guinan and Guibei subgroups, which are approximately distributed in the southern and northern parts of Guangxi, respectively. The two subgroups exhibit not only remarkable differences in their geographical distribution but also significant differences in linguistic characteristic. Overall, Guinan Pinghua exhibits closer affinities with the Yue dialect, whereas Guibei Pinghua demonstrates stronger parallels to the Southern Hunan vernacular and the Northern Guangdong vernacular. The term “Pinghua” was initially employed by speakers of some Chinese dialects in the Lingnan area to refer to their native tongues. They are mainly concentrated in the southern part of Gaugnxi, such as the suburbs of Nanning and the counties distributed along the Zuojiang and Youjiang rivers. Additionally, the speakers in the northern part of Guangxi, especially in the suburbs of Guilin and several surrounding counties, also refer to their native languages as “Pinghua.” However, the dialectological sense of “Pinghua” differs significantly from the term “Pinghua” used by native speakers. The former encompasses the latter, along with other dialects with diverse names. The above-mentioned “Pinghua” with diverse names is regarded as modern Pinghua, which has evolved from the “Ancient Pinghua.” The Ancient Pinghua likely took shape during the Tang and Song dynasties and subsequently became the predominant language spoken among various ethnic groups in Guangxi. Consequently, it had a profound interaction with the local non-Han aboriginal languages, such as the Kam-Tai languages and the Hmong–Mien languages. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Yue dialect and Southwestern Mandarin have replaced Pinghua and emerged as the dominant dialects in Guangxi. Pinghua was forced to retreat to isolated urban suburbs and rural areas. Owing to its small speaker population and restricted speaking area, Pinghua has long received little attention in the field of Chinese dialectology. Thus, it was not until the 1980s that Pinghua was established as a major branch of Chinese dialect, alongside the Wu, Min, and Yue dialects. Only one phonological feature has been proposed as its decisive criterion, namely, the Ancient voiced stop and affricate initial consonants have become voiceless unaspirated initials in all tonal categories. In addition, linguists propose some other phonological, lexical, and grammatical criteria as complementary evidence for Pinghua being an individual dialect group. However, due to the lack of sufficient internal consistency and external exclusivity in these criteria, the dialectal affiliations of Pinghua have triggered extensive discussion. The main focuses of the debate are as follows: Can Guinan Pinghua and Guibei Pinghua be regarded as the same dialect group? What is the relationship between Pinghua and the Yue dialect? Some scholars hold the view that Pinghua should be distinguished from the Yue dialect based on the sufficient evidence in linguistics and immigration history. Some scholars hold the opposite opinion, contending that the evidence from various sources suggests that Pinghua, especially Guinan Pinghua, should be classified as a sub-group within the Yue dialect group. Other scholars suggest that since Pinghua has not been fully investigated and studied, and its status needs to be verified at a later stage.