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Matsu dialect
The Matsu dialect (Eastern Min: Mā-cū-uâ / 馬祖話) is the local dialect of Matsu Islands, Taiwan. Native speakers also call it Bàng-huâ (平話), meaning the language spoken in everyday life. It is recognised as one of the statutory languages for public transport announcements in Lienchiang County, Taiwan.
The dialect is a sub[clarify]dialect of the Fuzhou dialect of Eastern Min. The Matsu dialect is quite similar to the Changle dialect, another subdialect of the Fuzhou dialect.
Previously, the Eastern Min varieties in the Matsu Islands were seen as a part of a general Fuzhounese group. It is under the name 'Northern Fujian (Fuzhou) Dialect' (Chinese: 閩北（福州）語) that the 2000 Act of Broadcasting Language Equality Protection in Public Transport mandated the use of the Matsu dialect on public transportation in the Matsu Islands.
The establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 severed the Matsu Islands from the rest of Fujian province, and as during the Cold War communications and transit were cut off between the Republic of China (now including the island of Taiwan and without mainland China) and the PRC, the identity of the Matsu Islands became established as separate to that of Fuzhou. The varieties of Eastern Min on the Matsu Islands have subsequently come to be seen as the Matsu dialect, which the ROC recognized as a 'native language' in 2017.
The Matsu dialect has 17 initials, 46 rimes and 7 tones, as reported by Tu (2006) based on elderly informants from Beigan:
/β/ and /ʒ/ exist only in connected speech.
There are 46 rimes in the Matsu dialect.
Many rimes come in pairs: in the table above, the one to the left represents a close rime (緊韻), while the second represents an open rime (鬆韻). The close/open rimes are closely related with the tones (see below).
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Matsu dialect
The Matsu dialect (Eastern Min: Mā-cū-uâ / 馬祖話) is the local dialect of Matsu Islands, Taiwan. Native speakers also call it Bàng-huâ (平話), meaning the language spoken in everyday life. It is recognised as one of the statutory languages for public transport announcements in Lienchiang County, Taiwan.
The dialect is a sub[clarify]dialect of the Fuzhou dialect of Eastern Min. The Matsu dialect is quite similar to the Changle dialect, another subdialect of the Fuzhou dialect.
Previously, the Eastern Min varieties in the Matsu Islands were seen as a part of a general Fuzhounese group. It is under the name 'Northern Fujian (Fuzhou) Dialect' (Chinese: 閩北（福州）語) that the 2000 Act of Broadcasting Language Equality Protection in Public Transport mandated the use of the Matsu dialect on public transportation in the Matsu Islands.
The establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 severed the Matsu Islands from the rest of Fujian province, and as during the Cold War communications and transit were cut off between the Republic of China (now including the island of Taiwan and without mainland China) and the PRC, the identity of the Matsu Islands became established as separate to that of Fuzhou. The varieties of Eastern Min on the Matsu Islands have subsequently come to be seen as the Matsu dialect, which the ROC recognized as a 'native language' in 2017.
The Matsu dialect has 17 initials, 46 rimes and 7 tones, as reported by Tu (2006) based on elderly informants from Beigan:
/β/ and /ʒ/ exist only in connected speech.
There are 46 rimes in the Matsu dialect.
Many rimes come in pairs: in the table above, the one to the left represents a close rime (緊韻), while the second represents an open rime (鬆韻). The close/open rimes are closely related with the tones (see below).