The Jian'ou dialect (Northern Min: / 建甌事; Chinese: ), also known as Kienow dialect, is a local dialect of Northern Min Chinese spoken in Jian'ou in northern Fujian province. It is regarded as the standard common language in Jian'ou.

Phonetics and phonology

According to The Eight Tones of Kien-chou (建州八音), a rime dictionary published in 1795, the Jian'ou dialect had 15 initials, 34 rimes and 7 tones in the 18th century, however there are only 6 tones in the modern dialect as the "light level" (陽平) tone has disappeared.

Initials

Rimes

Tones

Jian'ou has four tones, which are reduced to two in checked syllables. The entering tones in the Jian'ou dialect do not have any entering tone coda (入聲韻尾) such as, , and which makes it distinct from many other Chinese varieties.

Sources