Hakka Dialect (Language)

by S. L. Lee

This section is a collection of notes of my own experience and thoughts about the Hakka dialect and other language/dialectss. Except where cited, many of my non-linguist viewpoints are unproven hypotheses. Discussions holding similar or contrary views, as well as supplementations are cordially welcome. Please write to S. L. Lee

Table of Content:

The Ethnolinguistic distribution in China

The Atlas of the People's Republic of China (by CIA. 1971) presents a map of the ethnolinguistic groups in China, dividing them into the following major groups:

Hakka, Mandarin, and other Han dialects are monosyllabic languages distinct from the Altaic languages are multisyllable (as exemplified by Japanese). Although Kanji(Chinese characters) are used in the Japanese language, most words have multisyllables.

Hakka spoken language is the 32nd widest spoken language in the world. Chinese language is one of the most spoken languages in the world (See World Language and Population) and Hakka is one of the five major spoken languages(dialects) in mainland China with the following breakdown: (Journal of Asia and African Studies, No. 24, 1982)

The Ethnologue data base has a description of the Hakka Dialect.

Hakka people have a strong preservation of the heritage, particularly in the dialect(language). Whether Hakka tongue should be called a dialect or language is still a question. It is believed to be the official tongue for the Middle Kingdom prior to the immigration of the northern tribes of Xiongnu, Turkistan, Liao2, Jin1, Yuan2, and Manchurian. After all these years of migrations, the pronunciation and expressions of Hakka have changed little. A strong supporting evidence is many poems from the Cunqiu/Warring States era ("Shi Jing", 770 B.C- 221 B.C.) to Tang dynasty (700 A.D.) only rhyme when recited in Hakka and not in Mandarin. While it is well-known that rhyming is a structural imperative in Chinese poems, it is highly likely that Hakka was the actual common language used during these 1400 years. Certain proverbs/idioms used in Ming dynasty (1368-1644 A.D.) still rhyme better with Hakka than other tongues.

Hakka, Cantonese, Mandarin and other dialects compared

The dominance of Mandarin as a northern dialect

Hakka and English - Coincidence?

[Aug 15, 1995]

Considering the categorization of people by their identity as a tribe, as people from a region, or as a professional is a very early part of human vocabulary, the following similarity between Hakka and English is intriguing:

Haagga Ngian (Hakka ngian), Europ-ean, As-ian, custod-ian

The same convention is used. Cantonese, as another old Chinese dialect, is quite similar (Haagga yen). Even though this cannot be extrapolated to other forms of English expressions for people, such as Canton-ese, Japan-ese, British, Greek, Roman...., it is still very striking that different language can have so similar ways of sound expression. 

We know that Roman Empire had encounters with China and there are relics about their settlement in Gansu. The Roman Empire, known as "Da Qin" in Tang dynasty, extended to England.   But the use of such sounds must be far earlier.

Until further evidence, this remains an interesting conjecture.

Hakka Words and Phrases

Posted December 2, 1995

From teoh@cs.utk.eduSat Dec 2 09:28:15 1995
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 1995 10:03:38 -0400
From: teoh@cs.utk.edu
To: sllee@infinet.com
Subject: Hakka Word List - 2nd edition

Subject: Hakka Word List
Compilers: F X Chen and Jonathan Teoh Eng Seng
CHIN@rulsfb.LeidenUniv.nl teoh@cs.utk.edu
Version: 2 Date: July 13th 1995

The following selected list is compiled from Hakka bible's today's taiwan hakka version by The Bible Society in the ROC and also Hakka Dictionary published by Cathay Hakka News. Both use different symbols, great majority listed here use today's taiwan Hakka version.

There are several versions, and these are two versions that I refer to. Some versions may be more accurate but they are using symbols that could not be reproduced by ordinary keyboard.

I wrote down the Hakka regionalect spoken in a DongGuan area for comparison. (Source: A TungKon vernacular, 1964). Logically, this regionalect is highly influenced by Cantonese. Unfortunately I don't know any Cantonese, so if anyone can point that out...
I included the tone marks (Chinese is a tonal language!, see remarks
on tones and pronunciation)

Notes:

The added transcriptions can be read according the international phonetic
alphabet (IPA). Aspirations are indicated by 'h'.
e.g. 

Tonal system is the same as used by Norman, J. in 'Chinese' (Cambridge University Press, 1988).

 
"In 1930 Y.R. Chao introduced a very convenient and accurate method of describing the pitch of tones in Chinese. In his system, pitch is plotted on a vertical scale which represents the normal voice range of a speaker;
the scale is divided into five points, on which 1 is the lowest point and 5 the hightest; 3 is mid pitch, 4 half-high, and 2 half-low. A tone can be described by indicating its beginning and ending point; in a few cases
where tones have concave (falling-rising) or convex (rising-falling) contour it is necessary to give on intermediate point as well. The following examples will illustrate how the system works.

[44]  a level tone beginning at the half high level and continuing at the same
      pitch throughout
[35]  a rising tone beginning at the mid point of person's normal speaking
      range and rising to its upper limit
[52]  a falling tone beginning at the upper limit of one's normal range and
      falling to a point just short of its lower limit
[242] a convex tone, first rising from the half-low point to the half-high
      point and then falling back to its original starting point
[313] a concave tone, falling first from mid to low pitch and then rising
      back to its original starting point"

"The phonetic make-up of the four tones of the standard language can be described as follows:

1. The first tone is hight level. It is relatively constant in its intensity (loudness) and somewhat longer than tones 2 and 4, but shorter than tone 3. In Chao's notation it is [55]."

"2. The second tone is high rising. It begins in about the middle of the speaker's normal speaking range and rises abruptly to the top of his range. It tends to rise in intensity toward the end and is short in duration. It can be represented as [35] on the tonal scale."

"3. The third tone has two basic variants. When it is pronounced in isolation, it begins low, falls to the very bottom limit of the voice and then rises to a half-high level. It loses intensity after its inception but shows a small
rise toward the very end: it is the longest of the tones in duration. It is generally described as [214] on the tonal scale."  "When the third tone occurs before any tone except another third tone, it becomes what is commonly known as a "half third"; that is, it loses its final rise and remains low throughout: [21].

"4. The fourth tone is high falling. It begins at the top of the speaker's   pitch range and falls abruptly to the bottom limit of his voice. The fourth tone diminishes in intensity toward the end, and is the shortest of the four
tones in duration. Its value on the tonal scale is [51]."

"Tonal values for several representative Ke4Jia1 dialects:

From: Chinese (1988), Norman, J. (ed.), Cambridge University Press,
pp. 146-147, 226



Ah ko kong: "ngai voi tung ah pa tsim tsa
(Brother say:" I will make tea for father")

Ah tci kong: " ngai voi tung ah mak so ti
(sister say:" I will help mother to sweep floor")

Lo moi kong: " ngai voi kong ku"
(younger sister say: " I know how to tell story)

Ah pa mun lo tai: " ngi voi tso mak ke ?
(Father ask younger brother: what can you do ?)

Lo tai seu seu e kong: " ten ngai tai e, mak ke ngai ya voi"
(younger brother smile and say: wait until I grow up, I can
do all things.) 

Hakka Pinyin system

Contributed by Liu2 Zin3fad5 at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. (Jan 28, 1997)
[Note: The original letter and instruction from Mr. Liu are included. This system has not been tested by me yet. If you have any question, please write to : Liu ZinFad, the author ]

You can download the following files :

1. hagfa.box - Pinyin-to-character Hakka dictionary
2. phrase.ime - Hakka phrases
3. pinfajsh.doc - a document written in Chinese.

The All-Hakka pinyin system (Qian2hag5ga1 pin1yim1 hi4tung3) is immediately usable for Chinese windows (3.1 or window 95, Big-5 characters).

It consists of:

1. The "phrase.ime", designed by my friend, Vincent Lau, who kindly g