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Matsu dialect
Matsu dialect
馬祖話 / Mā-cū-huâ; 平話 / Bàng-huâ
Pronunciation	[mɑ˧˩ tsu˥ uɑ˩˧˩] / [paŋ˧˩ ŋuɑ˩˧˩]
Native to	Taiwan
Region	Matsu Islands
Ethnicity	Fuzhounese
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Min Coastal Min Eastern Min Houguan Fuzhou Matsu dialect; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Early forms	Proto-Sino-Tibetan Old Chinese Proto-Min ; ;
Writing system	Chinese characters, Foochow Romanized and Matsu Fuchounese Bopomofo [zh]
Official status
Official language in	Matsu Islands, Taiwan (as local language)
Recognised minority; language in	One of the statutory languages for public transport announcements in the Matsu Islands, Taiwan
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None
Linguasphere	79-AAA-ico
	Location of Matsu Islands
	This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

The Matsu dialect (Eastern Min: Mā-cū-uâ / 馬祖話) is the local dialect of Matsu Islands, Taiwan. Native speakers also call it Bàng-huâ (平話), meaning the language spoken in everyday life. It is recognised as one of the statutory languages for public transport announcements in Lienchiang County, Taiwan.^[6]

The dialect is a sub^[clarify]dialect of the Fuzhou dialect of Eastern Min. The Matsu dialect is quite similar to the Changle dialect, another subdialect of the Fuzhou dialect.

History

Previously the Eastern Min varieties in the Matsu Islands were seen as a part of general Fujian varieties. The establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 severed the Matsu Islands from the rest of Fujian province, and as communications were cut off between the Republic of China (now including Taiwan and without Mainland China) and the PRC, the identity of the Matsu Islands specifically became established. Additionally, the varieties of Eastern Min on the Matsu Islands became seen as a Matsu dialect.^[7]

Phonology

The Matsu dialect has 17 initials, 46 rimes and 7 tones.

Initials

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		/m/ (蒙)	/n/ (日)	/ŋ/ (語)
Plosive	aspiration	/pʰ/ (波)	/tʰ/ (他)	/kʰ/ (氣)
Plosive	plain	/p/ (邊)	/t/ (低)	/k/ (求)	/ʔ/ (鶯)
Fricative			/s/ (時)		/h/ (喜)
Affricate	aspiration		/tsʰ/ (出)
Affricate	plain		/ts/ (曾)
Lateral			/l/ (柳)

/β/ and /ʒ/ exist only in connected speech.

Rimes

There are 46 rimes in the Matsu dialect.

monophthong	compound vowel	nasal coda /-ŋ/	checked coda /-ʔ/
[a/ɑ] (蝦/罷)	[ia/iɑ](寫/夜)	[aŋ/ɑŋ](三/汗)	[aʔ/ɑʔ](盒/鴨)
[ɛ/a] (街/細)	[ie/iɛ](雞/毅)	[iŋ/ɛiŋ](人/任)	[øʔ/œʔ](扔/嗝)
[œ/ɔ] (驢/告)	[iu/ieu](秋/笑)	[uŋ/ouŋ](春/鳳)	[eʔ/ɛʔ](漬/咩)
[o/ɔ] (哥/抱)	[ua/uɑ](花/話)	[yŋ/øyŋ](銀/頌)	[oʔ/ɔʔ](樂/閣)
[i/ɛi] (喜/氣)	[uo/uɔ](科/課)	[iaŋ/iɑŋ](驚/命)	[iʔ/ɛiʔ](力/乙)
[u/ou] (苦/怒)	[yo/yɔ](橋/銳)	[ieŋ/iɛŋ](天/見)	[uʔ/ouʔ](勿/福)
[y/øy] (豬/箸)	[ai/ɑi](紙/再)	[uaŋ/uɑŋ](歡/換)	[yʔ/øyʔ](肉/竹)
	[au/ɑu](郊/校)	[uoŋ/uɔŋ](王/象)	[iaʔ/iɑʔ](擲/察)
	[ɛu/ɑu](溝/構)	[yoŋ/yɔŋ](鄉/樣)	[ieʔ/iɛʔ](熱/鐵)
	[øy/ɔy](催/罪)	[ɛiŋ/aiŋ](恒/硬)	[uaʔ/uɑʔ](活/法)
	[uai/uɑi](我/怪)	[ouŋ/ɔuŋ](湯/寸)	[uoʔ/uɔʔ](月/郭)
	[ui/uoi](杯/歲)	[øyŋ/ɔyŋ](桶/洞)	[yoʔ/yɔʔ](藥/弱)
			[ɛiʔ/aiʔ](賊/黑)
			[ouʔ/ɔuʔ](學/骨)
			[øyʔ/ɔyʔ](讀/角)

Many rimes come in pairs: in the table above, the one to the left represents a close rime (緊韻), while the second represents an open rime (鬆韻). The close/open rimes are closely related with the tones (see below).

Tone

No.	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Tone name	dark level 陰平	light level 陽平	rising 上聲	dark departing 陰去	light departing 陽去	dark entering 陰入	light entering 陽入
rime type	close rime	close rime	close rime	open rime	open rime	open rime	close rime
Tone contour	55 ˥	51 ˥˩	33 ˧	312 ˧˩˨	131 ˩˧˩	13 ˩˧	5 ˥
Example Hanzi	君 /kuŋ˥/	臺 /tai˥˩/	祖 /tsu˧/	去 /kʰɔ˧˩˨/	話 /uɑ˩˧˩/	福 /houk̚˩˧/	掘 /kuk̚˥/

The relationship between tone and rime

In the Matsu dialect, level tone (平聲), rising tone (上聲) and light entering (陽入) should be read in close rimes (緊韻); departing tone and dark entering should be read in open rimes (鬆韻).

For example, "a̤" have two pronunciations, /ɛ/ in close rime and /a/ in open rime; "a̤h" have two pronunciations, /eʔ/ in close rime and /ɛʔ/ in open rime. This is summarized in the table:

Tone name	dark level	light level	rising	dark departing	light departing	dark entering	light entering
Tone contour	55 ˥	51 ˥˩	33 ˧	312 ˧˩˨	131 ˩˧˩	13 ˩˧	5 ˥
Rime type	close rime	close rime	close rime	open rime	open rime	open rime	close rime
Foochow Romanized	ă̤	à̤	ā̤	á̤	â̤	á̤h	ă̤h
Pronunciation	ɛ˥	ɛ˥˩	ɛ˧	a˧˩˨	a˩˧˩	ɛʔ˩˧	eʔ˥

Close rime tone "ă̤" should be pronounced as /ɛ˥/ instead of /a˥/; and open rime tone "â̤" should be pronounced as /a˩˧˩/ instead of /ɛ˩˧˩/.

Sandhi and assimilation

Tone sandhi

The Matsu dialect has extremely extensive tone sandhi rules: in an utterance, only the last syllable pronounced is not affected by the rules. The two-syllable tonal sandhi rules are shown in the table below (the rows give the first syllable's original citation tone, while the columns give the citation tone of the second syllable):

	dark level 55	light level 51	light entering 5	rising 33	dark departing 312	light departing 131	dark entering 13
dark level 55	rising (33)			light level (51)
dark departing 312	rising (33)			light level (51)
light departing 131	rising (33)			light level (51)
dark entering B 13	rising (33)			light level (51)
rising 33	half dark departing (31)			13 (dark entering lost its entering coda)	dark level (55)
dark entering A 13	31 + /-ʔ/ (half dark departing added a entering coda "/-ʔ/")			dark entering (13)	light entering (5)
light level 51	rising (33)	half dark departing (31)		rising (33)	half dark departing (31)
light entering 5	rising (33) or rising + /-ʔ/			light level (51), or light entering (5)

In the table above, "dark entering A" means dark entering coda ended with /-k̚/, "dark entering B" means ended with /-ʔ/. In the modern spoken language, the final plosive is difficult to distinguish in isolation, having merged into /-ʔ/, but the two categories exhibit different behaviors from each other in tone sandhi environments. This feature is shared with most modern Eastern Min varieties.

Like the Fuzhou dialect, the tonal sandhi rules of more than two syllables display further complexities.

Initial assimilation

The two-syllable initial assimilation rules are shown in the table below:

Coda of the Former Syllable	Initial Assimilation of the Latter Syllable
Null coda	/p/ and /pʰ/ change to /β/; /t/, /tʰ/ and /s/, /l/ and /n/ change to /l/; /ts/ and /tsʰ/ change to /ʒ/; /k/, /kʰ/ and /h/ change to null initial; /m/ and /ŋ/ remain unchanged.
Nasal coda /-ŋ/	/p/ and /pʰ/ change to /m/; /t/, /tʰ/, /s/, /l/ and /n/ change to /n/; /ts/ and /tsʰ/ change to /ʒ/; /k/, /kʰ/, /h/ and null initial change to /ŋ/; /m/ and /ŋ/ remain unchanged.
entering coda (/-ʔ/, /-k̚/)	remain unchanged.

Rime tensing

In the Matsu dialect, if the rime type of the former syllable is changed while tone sandhi occurred, the rime of the former syllable should be changed to adapt the rule of close/open rimes.

For example, "技" /kɛi˧˩˨/ is a syllable which has dark departing tone, it's an open rime; "師" /sy˥/ has a dark level tone. When combined as the phrase "技師" (technician), "技" changes its tonal value to rising tone. Rising tone is a close rime tone, therefore the pronunciation as a whole is /ki˧ ly˥/.