Sanming dialect explained

Sanming
Nativename:	三明事
Pronunciation:	pronounced as /[sɔ̃ ˥˥˧ mã˦˩ ʃia˧]/
States:	Southern China
Region:	Sanming, Fujian
Speakers:	?
Familycolor:	Sino-Tibetan
Fam2:	Sinitic
Fam3:	Chinese
Fam4:	Min
Fam5:	Inland Min
Fam6:	Central Min
Ancestor:	Proto-Sino-Tibetan
Ancestor2:	Old Chinese
Ancestor3:	Proto-Min
Isoexception:	dialect
Glotto:	none
Lingua:	79-AAA-hbb
Notice:	IPA

The Sanming dialect (Central Min: 三明事, Mandarin Chinese: 三明話) is a dialect of Central Min spoken in urban areas of Sanming, a prefecture-level city in Western Fujian Province, China.

Phonology

The Sanming dialect has 18 initials, 37 rimes and 6 tones.

Initials

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Velar
Nasal		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/
Stop	Tenuis	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/
Stop	Aspirated	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/
Affricate	Tenuis		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Affricate	Aspirated		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Fricative			pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Glide			pronounced as /link/

Initials pronounced as //m, ŋ// may also be heard as prenasal pronounced as /[mb, ŋɡ]/ in free variation. When the two initials are followed by non-nasalized rimes, they can be heard as voiced plosives pronounced as /[b, ɡ]/.
Palato-alveolar sounds pronounced as //tʃ, tʃʰ, ʃ// can also be heard as alveolo-palatal sounds pronounced as /[tɕ, tɕʰ, ɕ]/ in free variation among speakers.

Rimes


	Open syllable		Nasal coda	Nasal vowel coda
Open mouth	ɹ̩ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/	aɯ au	am aiŋ pronounced as /link/	ã ɔ̃
Even mouth	pronounced as /link/ iɛ iɒ ia iɯ	iau	iam iaiŋ	iã iɔ̃ ɛ̃
Closed mouth	pronounced as /link/ uɛ ui pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/	uã
Round mouth	pronounced as /link/ yi yɛ yo		yaiŋ	yã yɛ̃

Tones

No.	1	2	3	4	5	6
Tone name	dark level 陰平	light level 陽平	dark rising 陰上	light rising 陽上	departing 去聲	entering 入聲
Tone contour	pronounced as /˥˥˧/ 553	pronounced as /˦˩/ 41	pronounced as /˨˩/ 21	pronounced as /˨˩˧/ 213	pronounced as /˧/ 33	pronounced as /˩˨/ 12

The entering tones in the Sanming dialect do not have any entering tone coda (Chinese: 入聲韻尾) such as pronounced as //-ʔ//, pronounced as //-p̚//, pronounced as //-t̚// and pronounced as //-k̚//. This feature is quite different from many other Chinese dialects.

References

Book: Compilation Commission of Chorography of Sanming City 福建省三明市地方志编纂委员会. San ming shi zhi 三明市志 ["Chorography of Sanming City"]]. 53. Fangzhi chubanshe 方志出版社 ["Chorography Press"]. Beijing. 2002. 978-7-80122-619-8.
Book: 吳, 瑞文 (Rui-Wen Wu) . On the Grammatical Functions and Grammaticalization of tʰe5 in the Sanming Dialect [論三明方言tʰe5的語法功能及其語法化] . Language and Linguistics [語言暨語言學] . 2013.