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Gan
Gann
贛語/赣语 Gon ua
Gan ua (Gan) written in Chinese characters
Native to	China
Region	central and northern Jiangxi, eastern Hunan, eastern Hubei, southern Anhui, northwest Fujian
Ethnicity	Gan people
Native speakers	23 million (2021)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Hakka–Gan? Gan
Early forms	Old Chinese Eastern Han Chinese Middle Chinese
Varieties	Nanchangese Yichun Yingtan Daye
Writing system	Chinese character Pha̍k-oa-chhi
Language codes
ISO 639-3	gan
Glottolog	ganc1239
Linguasphere	79-AAA-f
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	贛語
Simplified Chinese	赣语
Gan	Gon ua
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Gànyǔ Gan Romanization Gon ua Hakka Romanization Kàm-ngî Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization gam yúh Jyutping gam3 jyu5
Jiangxi dialect
Traditional Chinese	江西話
Simplified Chinese	江西话
Gan	Kongsi ua
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Jiāngxīhuà Gan Romanization Kongsi ua Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization gōng sāi wá Jyutping gong1 sai1 waa2
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Gan, Gann or Kan is a group of Sinitic languages spoken natively by many people in the Jiangxi province of China, as well as significant populations in surrounding regions such as Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, and Fujian. Gan is a member of the Sinitic languages of the Sino-Tibetan language family, and Hakka is the closest Chinese variety to Gan in terms of phonetics.

There are different dialects of Gan; the Nanchang dialect is the prestige dialect.

Classification

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Like all other varieties of Chinese, there is a large amount of mutual unintelligibility between Gan Chinese and other varieties. Within the variation of Chinese dialects, Gan has more similarities with Mandarin than with Yue or Min. However, Gan clusters more with Xiang than Mandarin.

Gan and other Southern Chinese languages can be distinguished from Northern Chinese by their placement of direct objects before indirect objects. Gan's ditransitive verbs introduce the theme right after the verb, while Mandarin's introduce the recipient. So the difference in tritransitive verbs may occur because they evolved from different types of ditransitive verbs.

Name

• Gan: the most common name. Also spelled Gann to reflect the falling tone of the name in Mandarin. Scholars in mainland China use Gan or Gan dialect.
• Jiāngxīhuà ("Jiangxi language") is commonly used in Chinese, but since the borders of the language do not follow the borders of the province, this name is not geographically exact.
• Xi ("right-river language"): an ancient name, now seldom used, arising from the fact that most Gan speakers live south of the Yangtze River, beyond the right-hand bank when traveling downstream.

Region

Most Gan speakers live in the middle and lower reaches of the Gan River, the drainage area of the Fu River, and the region of Poyang Lake. There are also many Gan speakers living in eastern Hunan, eastern Hubei, southern Anhui, northwest Fujian, etc.

According to the Diagram of Divisions in the People's Republic of China, Gan is spoken by approximately 48,000,000 people: 29,000,000 in Jiangxi, 4,500,000 in Anhui, 5,300,000 in Hubei, 9,000,000 in Hunan, and 270,000 in Fujian.

History

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Antiquity

During the Qin dynasty (221 BC), a large number of troops were sent to southern China in order to conquer the Baiyue territories in Fujian and Guangdong, as a result, numerous Han Chinese emigrated to Jiangxi in the years following. In the early years of the Han dynasty (202 BC), Nanchang was established as the capital of the Yuzhang Commandery (豫章郡) (this name stems from the original name of Gan River), along with the 18 counties (縣) of Jiangxi Province. The population of the Yuzhang Commandery increased from 350,000 (in AD 2) to 1,670,000 (by AD 140); it ranked fourth in population among the more than 100 contemporary commanderies of China. As the largest commandery of Yangzhou, Yuzhang accounted for two fifths of the population and Gan gradually took shape during this period.

Middle Ages

As a result of continuous warfare in the region of central and Northern China, the first large-scale emigration in the history of China took place. Large numbers of people in central China relocated to southern China in order to escape the bloodshed caused by the upheaval of the Five Barbarians and at this time, Jiangxi played a role as a transfer station. Also, during this period, ancient Gan began to be exposed to the northern dialects. After centuries of rule by the Southern Dynasties, Gan still retained many original characteristics despite having absorbed some elements of northern speech. Up until the Tang dynasty, there was little difference between old Gan and the contemporary Gan of that era. Beginning in the Five Dynasties period, however, inhabitants in the central and northern parts of Jiangxi Province began to migrate to eastern Hunan, eastern Hubei, southern Anhui and northwest Fujian. During this period, following hundreds of years of migration, Gan spread to its current areas of distribution.

Late traditional period

Mandarin Chinese evolved into a standard language based on Beijing Mandarin, owing largely to political factors. At the same time, the differences between Gan and Mandarin continued to become more pronounced. However, because Jiangxi borders on Jianghuai, a Mandarin, Xiang, and Hakka speaking region, Gan proper has also been influenced by these surrounding varieties, especially in its border regions.

Modern times

After 1949, as a "dialect" in Mainland China, Gan faced a critical period. The impact of Mandarin is quite evident today as a result of official governmental language campaigns. Currently, many youths are unable to master Gan expressions, and some are no longer able to speak Gan at all.

Recently, however, as a result of increased interest in protecting the local language, Gan now has begun to appear in various regional media, and there are also newscasts and television programs broadcast in Gan Chinese.

Languages and dialects

There are significant differences within the Gan-speaking region, and Gan constitutes more languages than listed here. For example, in Anfu county, which was categorized as Ji-Cha, there are two main varieties, called Nanxiang Hua (Southern region) and Beixiang Hua (Northern region). People from one region cannot even understand people from the other region if they were not well educated or exposed to the other.

The Language Atlas of China (1987) divides Gan into nine groups:

Cities marked with * are partly Gan-speaking.

Phonology

Grammar

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In Gan, there are nine principal grammatical aspects or "tenses" – initial (起始), progressive (進行), experimental (嘗試), durative (持續), processive (經歷), continuative (繼續), repeating (重行), perfect (已然), and complete (完成).

The grammar of Gan is similar to southern Chinese varieties. The sequence subject–verb–object is most typical, but subject–object–verb or the passive voice (with the sequence object–subject–verb) is possible with particles. Take a simple sentence for example: "I hold you". The words involved are: ngo ("I" or "me"), tsot dok ("to hold"), ň ("you").

• Subject–verb–object (typical sequence): The sentence in the typical sequence would be: ngo tsot dok ň. ("I hold you.")
• Subject–lat–object–verb: Another sentence of roughly equivalent meaning is ngo lat ň tsot dok, with the slight connotation of "I take you and hold" or "I get to you and hold."
• Object–den–subject–verb (the passive voice): Then, ň den ngo tsot dok means the same thing but in the passive voice, with the connotation of "You allow yourself to be held by me" or "You make yourself available for my holding."

Vocabulary

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In Gan, there are a number of archaic words and expressions originally found in ancient Chinese, and which are now seldom or no longer used in Mandarin. For example, the noun "clothes" in Gan is "衣裳" while "衣服" in Mandarin, the verb "sleep" in Gan is "睏覺" while "睡覺" in Mandarin. Also, to describe something dirty, Gan speakers use "下里巴人", which is a reference to a song from the Chu region dating to China's Spring and Autumn period.

Additionally, there are numerous interjections in Gan (e.g. 哈, 噻, and 啵), which can largely strengthen sentences, and better express different feelings.

Writing system

Gan is written with Chinese characters, though it does not have a strong written tradition. There are also some romanization schemes, but none are widely used. When writing, Gan speakers usually use written vernacular Chinese, which is used by all Chinese speakers.

See also

• Protection of the Varieties of Chinese

• Language
• China

References

1. Gan Chinese at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
2. The double nn represents the falling tone in Mandarin
3. Xuping Li; Yicheng Wu. "Ditransitives in three Gan dialects: valence-increasing and preposition incorporation". Language Sciences. doi:10.1016/j.langsci.2015.03.006.
4. Zhōnghuá rénmín gònghéguó xíngzhèng qūhuà jiǎncè 中華人民共和國行政區劃簡冊 (in Chinese). 2004.
5. "Jiāngxī rénkǒu zhuàngkuàng" 江西人口状况. Fàn Zhū sānjiǎo hézuò xìnxī wǎng 泛珠三角合作信息网 (in Chinese). 9 September 2005. Archived from the original on 2006-01-13.
6. "Ānhuī rénkǒu kòngzhì: 14 niánshào shēng 800 wàn rén" 安徽人口控制：14年少生800万人. Xinhua (in Chinese). 7 January 2005. Archived from the original on 19 September 2007. Retrieved 25 June 2007.
7. "Húběi: Rénkǒu zǒngliàng chíxù dīsù zēngzhǎng qù niándǐ zǒng rénkǒu 6001.7 wàn" 湖北：人口总量持续低速增长 去年底总人口6001.7万. Zhōngguó rénkǒu 中国人口 (in Chinese). 2004-12-29. Archived from the original on May 5, 2006.
8. Tan, Keyang 谭克扬; Xu, Shangfeng 许尚锋; Shen, Nianzi 沈念梓; Li, Shuunguo 李顺国 (2005-01-06). Ah, Shui 阿水 (ed.). "Húnán rénkǒu dádào 6697 wàn 30 niánshào shēng "yīgè zhōngděng guójiā"" 湖南人口达到6697万 30年少生"一个中等国家". Xīnwén zhōngxīn 新闻中心 (in Chinese). Archived from the original on August 29, 2005.
9. Cheng, Xin 程歆; Liu, Changfeng 刘昌丰 (2005-01-13). "Fújiàn: Rénkǒu qùnián túpò 3500 wàn" 福建：人口去年突破3500万. Zhōngguó rénkǒu 中国人口 (in Chinese). Archived from the original on April 21, 2006.
10. Yan, Margaret Mian (2006). Introduction to Chinese Dialectology. München: LINCOM Europa. p. 148. ISBN 3-89586-629-6.
11. Kurpaska, Maria (2010). Chinese Language(s): A Look Through the Prism of the Great Dictionary of Modern Chinese Dialects. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. p. 70. ISBN 978-3-11-021915-9.
12. "Chinese, Gan". Ethnologue. Retrieved 23 March 2018.

• Chen, Changyi 陈昌仪 (1991). Gàn fāngyán gàiyào 贛方言概要 [Outline of Gan Dialects] (in Chinese). Nanchang Shi: Jiangxi jiaoyu chubanshe.
• Chen, Changyi 陈昌仪; et al. (2005). Jiāngxī Shěng fāngyánzhì 江西省方言志 (in Chinese). Beijing: Fangzhi chubanshe.
• Li, Rulong 李如龙; Chang, Song-hing 张双庆 (1992). Kè-Gàn fāngyán diàochá bàogào 客赣方言调查报告 [A Report on a Survey of the Kejia and Gan Dialects] (in Chinese). Xiamen: Xiamen daxue chubanshe.
• Xiong, Zhenghui 熊正辉 (1995). Nánchāng fāngyán cídiǎn 南昌方言词典 [Nanchang Dialect Dictionary] (in Chinese). Nanjing: Jiangsu jiaoyu.
• Yan, Sen 颜森 (1986). "Jiāngxī fāngyán de fēnqū (gǎo)" 江西方言的分区(稿) [Grouping of Jiangxi Dialects (Draft)]. Fāngyán 方言 (in Chinese). 1986 (1): 19–38.
• Yan Sen. Summary of modern Chinese·Gan.

Further reading

• Coblin, W. South (2015). A Study of Comparative Gàn (PDF). Taiwan: Academia Sinica Institute of Linguistics. ISBN 978-986-04-5926-5. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-05-25. Retrieved 2019-02-01.
• Li, Xuping (2018). A Grammar of Gan Chinese: The Yichun Language. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 978-1501515798.
• "Departing the Departing Tone: More Tones in Gan Dialects". amritas.com.
• "Voiced-High Gan Dialects?". amritas.com.

External links

• Classification of Gan Dialects
• Jiangxi Provincial Gazetteer: dialects 江西省志: 方言志 Archived 2018-12-29 at the Wayback Machine

v t e Sino-Tibetan branches
Western Himalayas (Himachal, Uttarakhand, Nepal, Sikkim)	West Himalayish Tamangic Newaric Newar Baram–Thangmi Kiranti Dhimalish Dhimal Toto Lhokpu Lepcha Greater Magaric Magaric Magar Kham Chepangic Chepang Bhujel Raji–Raute Dura–Tandrange
Eastern Himalayas (Tibet, Bhutan, Arunachal)	Bodish Tibetic East Bodish Tshangla Basum Nam? Gongduk ʼOle Tani Chamdo
Myanmar and Indo- Burmese border	Karbi Kuki-Chin Mruic Mru Hkongso Pyu Taman "Naga" Ao Angami–Pochuri Meitei Tangkhulic Zeme Sal Boro–Garo Konyak Jingpho–Luish
East and Southeast Asia	Sinitic Bai Tujia Nungish Karenic Gong Kathu Cai–Long Caijia Longjia Luren Burmo-Qiangic Qiangic Gyalrongic Ersuic Naic Lolo-Burmese Mondzish Burmish Loloish
Dubious (possible isolates) (Arunachal)	Hrusish Hruso Mijiic Kho-Bwa Puroik Miju–Meyor Songlin Greater Siangic Siangic Koro Milang Idu–Taraon
Proposed groupings	Central Tibeto-Burman Kuki-Chin–Naga Macro-Bai Mahakiranti Rung Tibeto-Burman Tibeto-Kanauri
Proto-languages	Proto-Sino-Tibetan Proto-Tibeto-Burman Proto-Loloish Proto-Karenic Proto-Min Proto-Hakka
Italics indicates single languages that are also considered to be separate branches.

v t e Chinese language
Sinitic languages
Major groups	Mandarin Northeastern Changchun Harbin Shenyang Taz Beijing Beijing Taiwan Jilu Tianjin Jinan Jiaoliao Dalian Qingdao Weihai Central Plains Dongping Gangou Guanzhong Xi'an Luoyang Xuzhou Dungan Xinjiang Southwestern Sichuanese Chengdu–Chongqing Minjiang Leshan Renshou–Fushun Zigong Kunming Nanping Wuhan Gui–Liu Wuming Jianghuai Nanjing Nantong Nanping Lanyin Lanzhou dialect [zh] Urumqi dialect [zh] Xinjiang Other Junjiahua Qinjiang Gyami Jin Zhangjiakou–Hohhot Zhi–Yan Wu Taihu Shanghai Suzhou Wuxi Changzhou Hangzhou (?) Shaoxing Ningbo Jinxiang Jiangyin Shadi Taizhou Wu Taizhou Tiantai Oujiang Wenzhou Rui'an Wencheng Wuzhou Jinhua Chu–Qu Quzhou Jiangshan Qingtian Xuanzhou Xuancheng Huizhou Ji-She [zh] Xiu-Yi [zh] Qi-De [zh] Yanzhou [zh] Jing-Zhan [zh] Gan Chang–Du Nanchang Yi–Liu Ying–Yi Da–Tong Xiang Changyi Changsha Loushao Shuangfeng Xiangxiang Wugang Ji–Xu Yong–Quan Qiyang Min Eastern Houguan Fuzhou Fuqing Changle Gutian Matsu Fu–Ning Ningde Fu'an Other Manjiang Zhongshan Longdu Nanlang Southern Hokkien Quanzhou Zhangzhou Amoy Chawan Taiwan Philippine Pedan Penang Singapore Malaysian Teochew Swatow Haklau Zhongshan Sanxiang Other Zhenan Longyan Other Northern Jian'ou Jianyang Central Pu–Xian Shao–Jiang Leizhou Zhanjiang Hainan Wenchang Haikou Banqiao Hakka Meixian Wuhua Huizhou Tingzhou Changting Taiwanese Sixian Hailu Raoping Yue Yuehai Guangzhou Hong Kong Malaysia Xiguan Jiujiang Shiqi Weitou Dapeng Siyi Taishan Xinhui Other Gao–Yang Goulou Wu–Hua Yong–Xun Luo–Guang Qin–Lian Pinghua Northern Tongdao Younian Southern Yongjiang Guandao Rongjiang Unclassified Shaozhou Tuhua Xiangnan Tuhua Badong Yao Danzhou Mai Shehua Waxiang Yeheni Huizhou Bai Cai-Long Caijia Longjia Luren Laobeizi
Standard forms	Standard Chinese Sichuanese Taiwanese Philippine Malaysian Singaporean Standard Singdarin Cantonese Hokkien Hakka
Phonology	Historical Old Old National Cantonese Hokkien Northern Wu Mandarin Literary and colloquial readings
Grammar	Numerals Classifiers Honorifics Cantonese grammar Classical grammar
Idioms	Chengyu Xiehouyu
Input	Biaoxingma Boshiamy Cangjie Simplified CKC Dayi Pinyin Google Microsoft Sogou Stroke count Wubi (Wang Ma) ZhengMa
History	Old Chinese Eastern Han Middle Chinese Old Mandarin Middle Mandarin Proto-Min Proto-Hakka Ba–Shu Gan
Literary forms	Official Classical Adoption in Japan in Vietnam Vernacular Written Cantonese Written Dungan Written Hokkien Written Sichuanese
Scripts	Logographic Script styles Oracle bone Bronze Seal Clerical Semi-cursive Cursive Chinese characters Simplified Traditional Punctuation Braille Cantonese Mainland Chinese Taiwanese Two-cell Phonetic Cyrillization Dungan Cyrillic Romanization Gwoyeu Romatzyh Hanyu Pinyin MPS II Postal Tongyong Pinyin Wade–Giles EFEO Lessing-Othmer Yale Bopomofo Cantonese Bopomofo Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols Taiwanese kana Taiwanese Hangul Xiao'erjing Nüshu
List of varieties of Chinese

• Gan Chinese
• Culture in Jiangxi
• Varieties of Chinese