Longdu dialect
The Longdu dialect is the most widespread dialect of the Zhongshan Min language division within Southern Min Chinese. Native Speakers originated from towns of Dachong and Shaxi, Guangdong in Zhongshan in the Pearl River Delta of Guangdong. Despite its close proximity, Longdu is not very closely related to the surrounding dialects in the region, which belong to the Yue group. As such, Longdu forms a "dialect island" of Min speakers. Its native speakers generally understand Cantonese, but not vice versa.
According to Søren Egerod, who published an extensive study of the dialect based on fieldwork conducted in 1949, the vocabulary consists of three layers:
The Longdu dialect is a mother tongue of many Overseas Chinese and is slowly disappearing due to the emigration of people from the Longdu Area.
