Xiang (linguistics)

Xiang (湘語/湘语), also Hunan, Hunanese, or Hsiang, is a subdivision of spoken Chinese.

Xiang is spoken by over 36 million people in China, primarily in Hunan province, and also in over 20 counties in Sichuan, and parts of Guangxi and Guangdong provinces. Many scholars divide Xiang into two distinct varieties: Old Xiang, which is spoken in the southern parts of the Xiang-speaking area, and New Xiang, which can be heard in the northern Xiang-speaking area and is significantly closer to Mandarin due to the influence of Mandarin.

Linguistically, Xiang is between Mandarin and Wu Chinese and marginally intelligible with them. The written form is standard Chinese.

Like all other varieties of Chinese, there is plenty of dispute as to whether Xiang is a language or a dialect. See here for the issues surrounding this dispute.

Dialects

Xiang can be divided into three dialects:

• Changyi
• Luoshao
• Jishu

Features

to be completed