History of Gan Chinese

Thehistory of Gan Chinese,avariety of Chinesespoken in modern-day China, stretches back to the beginning of theQin dynasty.This long stretch of time is divided into Old Gan, late Old Gan, and Middle Gan periods.

Old Gan

Old Gan (Thượng cổ cống ngữ,Song-gu Gon-ngi) or Proto-Gan ( nguyên thủy cống ngữ,Ngien-si Gon-ngi) was spoken between the beginning of theQin dynastyto the latter part of theHan dynasty.

In the year of 221 BC, General Tu Sui (Đồ tuy) was sent on behalf of the Qin dynasty to the south ofChinain order to conquer the territory ofBaiyue.500,000 soldiers then settled down atYugan,Nankangand three other places. This formed the initial Chinese population inJiangxi.In 202 BC, Yuzhang Prefecture (Chinese:Dự chương quận) was set up by the Han dynasty. Following this, the local population increased rapidly.

Late Old Gan

Late Old Gan ( trung cổ cống ngữ,Zung-gu Gon-ngi) was spoken between the 3rd and 6th centuries. It was largelysinicizedby new settlers from theCentral Plain.Some scholars consider late Old Gan, together withHakka Chineseand the Tongtai dialect ofJianghuai Mandarinto have been thelingua francaof theSouthern Dynasties.

However, late Old Gan was still distinctly different from the official language.History of Southern Dynastiesrecords that

Hu Xiezhi ( hồ hài chi ) ofNanchang,the Emperor wants to bestow a noble marriage on him. He sends several persons of the Palace in order to teach his children the [official] language. Two years later, the Emperor asks him if the language has been standardized in his family, and Hu answers that his family hasn't acquired the official language while those imperial envoys have already been Ganized.

Middle Gan

Middle Gan ( trung thế cống ngữ,Zung-si Gon-ngi) is the variety of Gan spoken between theTangandSongdynasties (from the 6th to the 13th century). The last time of large-scale settlement in Jiangxi by people from the Central Plain took place as a result of theAn Lushan Rebellion.Gan also became stabilized following this period.

Research on the rhyming system of Jiangxi poets of this period has been made in order to reconstruct the linguistic form of Middle Gan. Scholars have found that modern Gan still keeps many linguistic characteristics of this historical layer. For example,

• rime vưu hầu corresponds to rime tiêu hào;
• rime chi hơi corresponds to rime cá mô;
• rime cá mô corresponds to rime gia ma;
• rime toàn tới corresponds to rime chi hơi;
• rime giam liêm corresponds to rime hàn trước;
• rime canh thanh corresponds to rime giang dương.

Late Middle Gan

Late Middle Gan ( cận đại cống ngữ,Qin-si Gon-ngi) was the form of Gan spoken between theYuanandMingdynasties (from the 13th to the 17th century). Some linguistic characteristics of late Middle Gan are:

• Semi-coronal[l]differentiates from alveolar stops[n]
• Muddyconsonants are merged withaspiratedconsonants
• Syllable coda[-m]merges into[-n]

Early Modern Gan

Early Modern Gan ( cận đại cống ngữ,Qin-tai Gon-ngi) was the form of Gan spoken from theQing dynasty(17th century) up to the beginning of modern times.

The textbookLei Zi Meng Qiu(Loại tự mông cầu) published in the middle of the 19th century has been used to understand the linguistic form ofNanchang dialect;scholars have found that Gan has stayed relatively stable from this time. For example, the nasal ending[-m]merged into[-n],and 7 tones were used.

Westerners also began to study Gan during this period.Britishdiplomatic officialEdward Harper Parkerwas the first westerner to recorded Gan speech. He noticed his friend Wen-yuan ofFuzhoumergedmuddyconsonants withaspirateconsonants.

Biblesin some Gan dialects were also published at this time.

See also

• Gan Swadesh list

Further reading

• Chen Changyi (Trần xương nghi),Summary of Gan's dialects(Cống phương ngôn điểm chính)
• Li Jun (Lý quân) and Chen Changfang (Trần xương phương),Characteristics of the rhyming, tonal system of Nanchang dialect of the middle 19th century(19 thế kỷ trung kỳ Nam Xương lời nói vận mẫu cùng âm điệu hệ thống đặc điểm )
• Li Shali (Lý Sally),On the rhyming system of Jiangxi poets of Ming dynasty(Đời Minh Giang Tây thi nhân dùng vận nghiên cứu)
• Liu Lunxin (Lưu luân hâm),On the history of Gan-Hakka(Khách cống phương ngôn sử giản luận)
• Laurent Sagart,Les dialectes Gan
• Sagart, Laurent. 2002.Gan, Hakka and the Formation of Chinese Dialects.Dialect Variations in Chinese,129–153. Papers from the Third International Conference on Sinology, Linguistics Section.
• Shao Baiming (Thiệu trăm minh) and Ge Lili (Cát lực lực),The formation of Gan's dialects(Lược luận cống phương ngôn hình thành)
• Tian Yezheng (Điền nghiệp chính),On the rhyming system of Jiangxi poets of Yuan dynasty(Nguyên đại Giang Tây thi nhân thơ cổ dùng vận nghiên cứu)
• You Rujie (Du nhữ kiệt), Tây Dương người truyền giáo Hán ngữ phương ngôn học làm thư mục khảo thuật