Proto-Hakka

Proto-Hakka (also called Common Neo-Hakka, CNH) is the reconstructed proto-language from which all Hakka varieties descend. Like all branches of the Sinitic language family, proto-Hakka is difficult to reconstruct through the comparative method due to its multistratal lexicon.

It is believed that Sinitic migration into what is now Southern China started in the Qin dynasty, after which a slow yet steady population continued to migrate southwards, up until the early Tang dynasty. The part of the population who lived in the highlands then underwent frequent amicable cultural exchange with the She people (as opposed to the Ho-nte, also classified by the Chinese government under the She ethnonym), who are believed to have descended from an indigenous people. The aforementioned Sinitic migrants likely spoke an early Sinitic language, and through this cultural exchange, the Sinitic language was transmitted to the ancestral She.

Later large migration waves due to the An-Shi Chaos and the fall of the Northern Song dynasty to the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty led to large increases of population, and conflicts between the migrants and pre-existing Highlanders of Sinitic ethnicity. Once the conflict had calmed down, the two groups intermingled, and the language of these migrants provided superstrata on one of the pre-existing Highlander languages, which became the multi-stratal proto-Hakka.

While Neo-Hakka and She share common innovations, there are She-internal innovations that are not shared with Neo-Hakka. This implies that Neo-Hakka is the sister branch to She Chinese, forming a bifurcating tree from their common ancestor. This proto-language is in turn closely related to the paraphyletic group of stem Hakka, or "Paleo-Hakka".

To reconstruct proto-Hakka, the language varieties to be included must first be decided. O'Connor's earlier reconstruction only utilizes data on Moiyan-like Hakka varieties, which Coblin calls "Mainstream Hakka". The dialects included in Coblin's reconstruction are known as "Neo-Hakka", which includes Mainstream Hakka, but also varieties in southern Jiangxi which are not mutually intelligible with Mainstream Hakka and whose speakers do not consider themselves Hakka people.

The following criteria are used to determine Neo-Hakka varieties:

Given the varieties to be included, the comparative method can then be applied to arrive at a reconstruction of this language. This reconstruction is described below.

The following consonants are reconstructed for Common Neo-Hakka: