Xiang Chinese

Xiang Chinese

Xiāng (Hsiang, simplified Chinese: 湘语; traditional Chinese: 湘語), also known as Siang, or Hunanese(Chinese: 湖南话), is a Chinese language spoken mainly in Hunan province, but also in Sichuan and Guangxi provinces. Scholars divide it into Old Xiāng and New Xiāng. Old Xiāng dialects are of immense interest to Chinese dialectologists and historical phonologists because they, along with dialects of Wu Chinese, still exhibit the three-way distinction of Middle Chinese obstruents, preserving the voiced stops, fricatives and affricates. However, Xiāng has been heavily influenced by Mandarin, which adjoins three of the four sides of the Xiāng speaking territory. New Xiāng, which has lost the voiced obstruents and sort of influenced by Gan Chinese, hence, is to a certain extent intelligible to speakers of Gan Chinese.