Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 12, 2026

Nanlang dialect

The Nanlang dialect is a variant of the Eastern Min Chinese predominantly spoken in Nanlang a town within Zhongshan in the Pearl River Delta of Guangdong, China. Despite its close proximity, Nanlang is not very closely related to the surrounding dialects in the region, which belong to the Yue group. As such, Nanlang forms a "dialect island" of Min speakers. It is one of three enclaves of Min in Zhongshan, the others being Longdu and Sanxiang.

Last revised
Jun 12, 2026
Read time
≈ 1 min
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Wikipedia ↗
Nanlang
南蓢話
Namlong
Native toChina
RegionMainly in Nanlang, southern Guangdong province.
Early forms
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
Glottolognanl1234
  Nanlang dialect, at the eastern edge of Zhongshan City

The Nanlang dialect is a variant of the Eastern Min Chinese predominantly spoken in Nanlang a town within Zhongshan in the Pearl River Delta of Guangdong, China.4 Despite its close proximity, Nanlang is not very closely related to the surrounding dialects in the region, which belong to the Yue group. As such, Nanlang forms a "dialect island" of Min speakers. It is one of three enclaves of Min in Zhongshan, the others being Longdu and Sanxiang.5

Notes

Notes

  1. Min is believed to have split from Old Chinese, rather than Middle Chinese like other varieties of Chinese.123
References

References

  1. Mei, Tsu-lin (1970), "Tones and prosody in Middle Chinese and the origin of the rising tone", Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 30: 86–110, doi:10.2307/2718766, JSTOR 2718766
  2. Pulleyblank, Edwin G. (1984), Middle Chinese: A study in Historical Phonology, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, p. 3, ISBN 978-0-7748-0192-8
  3. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (2023-07-10). "Glottolog 4.8 - Min". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. doi:10.5281/zenodo.7398962. Archived from the original on 2023-10-13. Retrieved 2023-10-13.
  4. Campbell, James. "Zhongshan Nanlang Dialect Phonology". Glossika. Archived from the original on 2010-08-20. Retrieved 2009-03-26.
  5. Bodman, Nicholas C. (1982). "The Namlong Dialect, a Northern Min Outlier in Zhongshan Xian and the Influence of Cantonese on its Lexicon and Phonology". Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies. 14 (1): 1–19. pp. 1–2.