Qinjiang Mandarin

Qinjiang Mandarin
琴江話, 長樂旗下話, 琴江官話
Native to	China
Region	Qinjiang, Changle, Fujian
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Mandarin Qinjiang Mandarin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

Qinjiang Mandarin, simplified Chinese: 琴江话; traditional Chinese: 琴江話; pinyin: Qínjiānghuà, also known as the Bannerman Language of Changle (长乐旗下话; 長樂旗下話; Chánglè qíxià huà), is a Mandarin "dialect island", spoken in the Manchu village of Qinjiang, located in Changle, Fujian. It is considered to be derived from the Beijing Mandarin spoken by Manchu bannermen, and thus contains some Manchu loanwords, as well as having some influence from the neighboring Eastern Min varieties of Changle.

History

In 1729, during the seventh year of the reign of Yongzheng, the Qing government built a castle in the Yangyu area of Changle County in response to frequent uprisings along the Fujian coast. This was situated at the confluence of three key tributaries of the Min River (闽江; 閩江; Mǐn Jiāng), namely the Wulong River, Majiang River and Qinjiang River. The Bannermen and their families that were stationed there came mostly from the area near Beijing and established the Qinjiang Manchu Village (commonly known as 旗下里; Qíxià Lǐ) there. Due to the unique status of these military families, as well as the ethnic and class tensions, they had limited interaction with the local population and did not intermarry, thus retaining the Mandarin dialect that they had spoken.