Map of the spread of northern features in local Chinese dialects in the core Chinese-speaking area. The following 9 phonological and grammatical features were selected by Jerry Norman as characteristic of northern dialects. Relevant maps in the <i>Linguistic Atlas of Chinese Dialects</i>, reflecting fieldwork conducted between December 2002 and December 2006, are given in parentheses.
<ul><li>The departing tone lacks a register distinction. (1-004, cf <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_register_distinction_in_the_departing_tone_in_Chinese_dialects.svg" title="File:Map of register distinction in the departing tone in Chinese dialects.svg">File:Map of register distinction in the departing tone in Chinese dialects.svg</a>)</li>
<li>Words like <i>wèn</i> 问 'ask' have a non-nasal initial. (1-052, cf <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_distribution_of_nasal_initial_in_%E9%97%AE_in_Chinese_dialects.svg" title="File:Map of distribution of nasal initial in 问 in Chinese dialects.svg">File:Map of distribution of nasal initial in 问 in Chinese dialects.svg</a>)</li>
<li>Velars palatalize before high front vowels. (1-066, cf <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_the_degree_of_palatalization_in_Chinese_dialects.svg" title="File:Map of the degree of palatalization in Chinese dialects.svg">File:Map of the degree of palatalization in Chinese dialects.svg</a>)</li>
<li>Words like <i>rè</i> 熱 'hot' have a non-nasal initial. (1-073, cf <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_distribution_of_nasal_initial_in_%E7%86%B1_in_Chinese_dialects.svg" title="File:Map of distribution of nasal initial in 熱 in Chinese dialects.svg">File:Map of distribution of nasal initial in 熱 in Chinese dialects.svg</a>)</li>
<li>The third-person singular pronoun is <i>tā</i> 他 or cognate. (3-003, cf <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_distribution_of_third-person_pronouns_in_Chinese_dialects.svg" title="File:Map of distribution of third-person pronouns in Chinese dialects.svg">File:Map of distribution of third-person pronouns in Chinese dialects.svg</a>)</li>
<li>The ordinary negative is <i>bù</i> 不 or cognate (3-028, cf <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_distribution_of_negatives_in_Chinese_dialects.svg" title="File:Map of distribution of negatives in Chinese dialects.svg">File:Map of distribution of negatives in Chinese dialects.svg</a>)</li>
<li>The copula is <i>shì</i> 是, or cognate. (3-038, cf <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_distribution_of_copulas_in_Chinese_dialects.svg" title="File:Map of distribution of copulas in Chinese dialects.svg">File:Map of distribution of copulas in Chinese dialects.svg</a>)</li>
<li>The subordinative particle is <i>de</i> 的 or cognate. (3-041, cf <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_distribution_of_subordination_markers_in_Chinese_dialects.svg" title="File:Map of distribution of subordination markers in Chinese dialects.svg">File:Map of distribution of subordination markers in Chinese dialects.svg</a>)</li>
<li>The gender marker for animals is prefixed, as in <i>mǔjī</i> 母鸡 'hen'. (3-076, cf <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_animal_gender_markers_in_Chinese_dialects.svg" title="File:Map of animal gender markers in Chinese dialects.svg">File:Map of animal gender markers in Chinese dialects.svg</a>)</li></ul>
Areas with all these features are shown in darkest blue; those with none in darkest red.
<div class="fn value">
<a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Kanguole&amp;action=edit&amp;redlink=1" class="new" title="User:Kanguole (page does not exist)">Kanguole</a></div>
CC BY-SA 4.0
<p><span class="int-own-work" lang="en">Own work</span>
</p>
<ul><li>Diagnostic features from:
<ul><li>Norman, Jerry (1988), <i>Chinese</i>, Cambridge University Press, <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-521-29653-3" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-521-29653-3">ISBN 978-0-521-29653-3</a>, p. 182.</li>
<li>Norman, Jerry (2003), "The Chinese dialects: phonology", in Thurgood, Graham; LaPolla, Randy J. (eds.), <i>The Sino-Tibetan languages</i>, Routledge, pp. 72–83, <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-7007-1129-1" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-7007-1129-1">ISBN 978-0-7007-1129-1</a>, pp. 73, 76.</li></ul></li>
<li>Dialect data from Cao Zhiyun (ed.) (2008) <i>Linguistic Atlas of Chinese Dialects</i> (汉语方言地图集), vol. 1 <i>Phonetics</i> and vol. 3 <i>Grammar</i>.</li>
<li>Voronoi polygons generated using QGIS</li>
<li>Coastline and lakes from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/10m-physical-vectors/">Natural Earth 1:10m Physical Vectors</a></li>
<li>Boundaries from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/10m-cultural-vectors/">Natural Earth 1:10m Cultural Vectors</a></li>
<li>Conversion to SVG using <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://pypi.org/project/svgis/"><code>svgis</code></a></li></ul>