Waxiang Chinese


Waxiang is a divergent variety of Chinese, spoken by the Waxiang people, an unrecognized ethnic minority group in the northwestern part of Hunan province, China. Waxiang is a distinct language, very different from its surrounding Southwestern Mandarin, Xiang and Qo Xiong languages.

Classification

As noted by Laurent Sagart and others, Waxiang appears to share some words with the Caijia language of western Guizhou. Sagart considers Caijia to be a sister of Waxiang. Currently, Waxiang is classified as a divergent Chinese variety rather than a non-Sinitic language. Similarities among Old Chinese, Waxiang, Caijia, and Bai have also been pointed out by Wu & Shen.
Qu & Tang show that Waxiang and Miao have had little mutual influence on each other.

Distribution

Waxianghua is found in Luxi, Guzhang and Yongshun counties in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Zhangjiajie prefecture-level city, and Chenxi, Xupu and Yuanling counties in Huaihua prefecture-level city. Neighboring languages include Southwestern Mandarin, Xiang Chinese, Tujia, Qo Xiong, and Hm Nai.
The word Wa 瓦 is only a phonetic transcription.
Wu & Shen report Waxianghua to be spoken in the following villages.
Liubaohua 六保话, a dialect closely related to Waxianghua, is spoken in several villages in southeastern Guazhang County and parts of Luxi County. Liubaohua is spoken in the following locations.
Waxiang preserves a number of features of Old Chinese not found in most modern varieties of Chinese, such as the initial *l- :
Waxiang also has some cases of for Old Chinese *r- :
In a number of words, Waxiang and Proto-Min have affricate initials where Middle Chinese has sy-:
In some words, Waxiang and Proto-Min have voiced affricates where Middle Chinese has y-:
Sagart argues that Waxiang and Caijia together constitute the earliest branching of Chinese.
Like Waxiang, Caijia preserves Old Chinese *l-, has a voiced fricative reflex of *r-, and retains the Old Chinese word 'love', which has been replaced by in all other Chinese varieties.
Waxiang and Caijia also share two words not found in other Chinese varieties: