Different dialects of Gan exist, and the representative dialect is the Nanchang dialect.
The name "Gàn" comes from the shortened name of Jiangxi Province .
Classification
The classification of Gan is a subject of ongoing debate. Like all other varieties of , there is large amount of dispute as to whether Gan is a language or a dialect. It could be generally divided into three viewpoints:
*The first viewpoint considers Gan to be a dialect of Chinese, which is supported by the scholars in mainland China. Actually Gan, with , were carved out of the region of the language until 1937, and there are some Gan speakers that think Gan to be a dialect, mostly owing to the political factors or national emotion, also because Gan has more similarities with , than compared with Cantonese or Min.
*The second viewpoint considers Gan to be the same language with , called “Gan-Hakka”, or to be a group of languages with Hakka and Cantonese, because there are quite many similarities among the three.
*The third viewpoint considers Gan to be an independent language. Because Gan is not intelligible with other Chinese languages, and linguistically, it should be divided into different languages in case of intelligibility.
Please see Identification of the varieties of Chinese for the issues surrounding this dispute.
Name
* Gan: the formal name.
* Jiangxinese: the most common name. But there are several languages in Jiangxi, and there also many Gan speakers out of Jiangxi, so this name is not very exact.
* Xi: ancient name. Now it is seldom used.
* Gan dialect: the name used by the scholars in mainland China. And “Gan” is also used.
* Right-river language: because most of Gan speakers live in the south of Yangtze River, so this name was used in ancient China.
Relation with other Chinese languages
In ancient times, Jiangxi was divided into the same politic division with its neighboring provinces. Large numbers of people immigrated into Jiangxi naturally resulted in some similarities with the surrounding languages, Gan and Hakka are the most similar.
Geographical distribution
Region
Gan speakers almost live in the middle and lower reaches of Gan River, the drainage area of Fu River and the region of Poyang Lake, there are also many Gan speakers living in eastern Hunan, eastern Hubei, southern Anhui and northwest Fujian, etc.
According to the《Diagram of Divisions in the People’s Republic of China》, Gan is spoken by approximately 48,000,000 people, while 29,000,000 in Jiangxi ,4,500,000 in Anhui 、5,300,000 in Hubei 、9,000,000 in Hunan 、270,000 in Fujian .
History
Ancient Ages
During the Qin Dynasty , a large number of troops were sent to southern China in order to conquer the Baiyue territories in Fujian and Guangdong, as a result, numerous Han Chinese immigrated to Jiangxi in the years following.
In the early years of the Han Dynasty , Nanchang was established as the capital of the Yuzhang Commandery , along with the 18 counties of . The population of the Yuzhang Commandery increased to 1,670,000 from 350,000 , with a net growth of 1,320,000. The Yuzhang Commandery ranked forth in population among the more than 100 contemporary commanderies of China. As the largest commandery of YangZhou , Yuzhang accounted for two fifths of the population and Gan gradually took shape during this period.
Middle Ages
As a result of continuous warfare in the region of central China, the first large-scale immigration in the history of China took place. Large numbers of people in central China relocated to southern China in order to escape the bloodshed and at this time, Jiangxi played a role as a transfer station. Also, during this period, ancient Gan began to be exposed to the northern Mandarin dialects. After centuries of rule by the Southern Dynasties, Gan still retained many original characteristics despite having absorbed some elements of Guan-Hua.
Up until the Tang Dynasty, there was little difference between old Gan and the contemporary Gan of that era. Beginning in the Five Dynasties period, however, inhabitants in the central and northern parts of began to migrate to eastern Hunan, eastern Hubei, southern Anhui and northwest Fujian. During this period, following hundreds of years of migration, Gan spread to its current areas of distribution.
Recent History
evolved into a language based on , owing largely to political factors. At the same time, the differences between Gan and Guan-hua continued to become more pronounced. However, because Jiangxi borders on Jianghuai, a Guan-hua, Xiang, and Hakka speaking region, Gan proper has also been influenced by these surrounding languages, especially in its border regions.
Modern Times
After 1949, as a “dialect” in Mainland China, Gan faced a critical period. The impact of is quite evident today as a result of official governmental linguistic campaigns. Currently, many youths are unable to master Gan expressions, and some are no longer able speak Gan at all.
Recently, however, as a result of increased interest in protecting the local language, Gan now has begun to appear in various regional media, and there are also newscasts and television programs broadcast in the Gan language.
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Dialects
According to 《Atlas of Chinese languages》, there are 9 dialects in Gan.
Ps: name with * means Gan is partly spoken in this city.
Phonetics
Like other Chinese tonal language, the function of tones in Gan is to distinguish the words’ meaning, and the tones may change in some cases.
The eight tone of ancient Chinese has been preserved in Gan: level, rising, departing, entering. Some dialects of Gan has reserved all of them.
Tone
Gan has 19 syllable onset, 65 syllable rimes and 5 tones .
The 6th and 7th tones are the same as the 4th and 5th tones, except that the syllable ends in a stop consonant, or .
vowels
Gan has 6 vowels:i, y, e, a, o, u.
Initials
In each cell below, the first line indicates IPA, the second indicates pinyin.
Ps: ? is an initial without sound.
Finals
opening finals:
nasal finals:
entering finals:
independent finals:
consonantal finals
Example
Grammar
In Gan, there are 9 principal grammatical tenses – initial （起始）, progressive （進行）, experimental （嘗試）, durative （持續）, processive （經歷）, continuative （繼續）, repeating （重行）, perfect （已然）, complete （完成）.
The grammar of Gan is similar to southern Chinese languages. The sequence 'subject verb object’ is most typical, but ' subject object verb ' or the passive voice is possible with particles. Take a simple sentence for example: "I hold you." The words involved are: ngo , tsot dok , ň .
* Subject verb object : The sentence in the typical sequence would be: ngo tsot dok ň.
* Subject lat object verb: Another sentence of roughly equivalent meaning is ngo lat ň tsot dok, with the slight connotation of "I take you and hold" or "I get to you and hold."
* Object den subject verb : Then, ň den ngo tsot dok means the same thing but in the passive voice, with the connotation of "You allow yourself to be held by me" or "You make yourself available for my holding."
Vocabulary
In Gan, there are a number of archaic words and expressions originally found in ancient Chinese, and which are now seldom or no longer used in Mandarin. For example, the noun ‘clothes’ in Gan is ‘衣裳’ while ‘衣服’ in Mandarin, the verb ‘sleep’ in Gan is ‘睏覺’ while ‘睡覺’ in Mandarin. Also, to describe something dirty, Gan speakers use ‘下里巴人’, which is a reference to a song from the Chu （楚國） region dating to China's Spring and Autumn Period.
Additionally, there are numerous interjections in Gan （e.g. 哈、噻、啵）, which can largely strengthen sentences, and better express different feelings.
Writing system
Gan is written with Chinese characters, though it does not have a strong written tradition. There are also some romanization schemes, but none is widely used. Gan speakers usually use Vernacular Chinese as the written form, which is used by all Chinese speakers.
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