Geographic Distribution and Dialects
Sichuanese is mainly spoken in and around the Sichuan Basin, covering almost all of Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality, except for some Tibetan and Yi inhabited areas. It is also spoken in border regions of Sichuan's neighboring provinces: northern Yunnan and Guizhou, southern Shaanxi and western Hubei.
Sichuanese has one of the most uniform dialects in all of Inner China. However, it is possible to divide Sichuanese into four dialects according to the preservation or distribution of the checked tone: the Minjiang dialect (岷江小片) where the checked tone is preserved, the Chengdu-Chongqing dialect (成渝片) where the checked tone is redistributed into the light level tone, the Renshou-Fushun dialect (仁富小片) where the checked tone is redistributed into the departing tone, and the Ya'an-Shimian dialect (雅棉小片) where the checked tone is redistributed into the dark level tone.
The Minjiang, Ya'an-Shimian and Renshou-Fushun dialects are spoken mainly in South Sichuan and West Sichuan where people have significantly more indigenous Sichuanese descent than North Sichuan and East Sichuan. Thus, these dialects preserve many characteristics of Bashu (the language of indigenous Sichuanese), and are often referred as Old Sichuanese. Meanwhile, the Chengdu-Chongqing dialect, named after the two largest cities in Sichuan: Chengdu and Chongqing, are spoken mainly in North and East Sichuan. It is often referred as New Sichuanese because it keeps fewer characteristics of the Bashu Language.
| Name | Characteristics | Spoken areas | Map |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chengdu–Chongqing dialect | entering tone distributed into light level tone | North and East Sichuan, the northeastern part of Chengdu Plain, several cities or counties in southwestern Sichuan (Panzhihua, Dechang, Yanyuan, Huili and Ningnan), Southern Shaanxi and Western Hubei | |
| Minjiang dialect | entering tone preserved | 44 cities or counties in Minjiang River valley or along the Yangtze River in South and West Sichuan, Xichang, Xichong, Yanting, Shehong, northern Yunnan and northern Guizhou | |
| Renshou–Fushun dialect | entering tone distributed into departing tone | 8 cities or counties in Tuo River valley (Renshou, Jingyan, Weiyuan, Zigong, Rongxian, Fushun, Neijiang and Longchang), Junlian and Mianning | |
| Ya'an–Shimian dialect | entering tone distributed into dark level tone | Ya'an (prefecture-level city) in West Sichuan |
Read more about this topic: Sichuanese Mandarin
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