The Matsu dialect (Eastern Min: Mā-cū-uâ / 馬祖話) is the local dialect of Matsu Islands, Taiwan. Native speakers also call it Bàng-huâ (平話), meaning the language spoken in everyday life. It is recognised as one of the statutory languages for public transport announcements in Lienchiang County, Taiwan.[6]
Previously, the Eastern Min varieties in the Matsu Islands were seen as a part of a general Fuzhounese group.[7] It is under the name 'Northern Fujian (Fuzhou) Dialect' (Chinese: 閩北（福州）語) that the 2000 Act of Broadcasting Language Equality Protection in Public Transport mandated the use of the Matsu dialect on public transportation in the Matsu Islands.[8][9]
The establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 severed the Matsu Islands from the rest of Fujian province, and as during the Cold War communications and transit were cut off between the Republic of China (now including the island of Taiwan and without mainland China) and the PRC, the identity of the Matsu Islands became established as separate to that of Fuzhou. The varieties of Eastern Min on the Matsu Islands have subsequently come to be seen as the Matsu dialect, which the ROC recognized as a 'native language' in 2017.[7][10]
Phonology
The Matsu dialect has 17 initials, 46 rimes and 7 tones, as reported by Tu (2006) based on elderly informants from Beigan:[11]
Many rimes come in pairs: in the table above, the one to the left represents a close rime (緊韻), while the second represents an open rime (鬆韻). The close/open rimes are closely related with the tones (see below).
Tone
These tones in isolation are as reported by Tu (2006),[11] and use the historic names from Middle Chinese:
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Tone name
dark level 陰平
light level 陽平
rising 上聲
dark departing 陰去
light departing 陽去
dark entering 陰入
light entering 陽入
rime type
close rime
close rime
close rime
open rime
open rime
open rime
close rime
Tone contour
55 ˥
51 ˥˩
33 ˧
312 ˧˩˨
131 ˩˧˩
13˩˧
5 ˥
Example Hanzi
君 /kuŋ˥/
臺 /tai˥˩/
祖 /tsu˧/
去 /kʰɔ˧˩˨/
話 /uɑ˩˧˩/
福 /houk̚˩˧/
掘 /kuk̚˥/
The relationship between tone and rime
In the Matsu dialect, both the level tones (平聲), rising tone (上聲) and the light entering tone (陽入) should be read using 'close rimes' (緊韻); both departing tones (去聲) and the dark entering tone (陰入) should be read with 'open rimes' (鬆韻). The closeness or openness of the rime refers to the height of the vowel.
For example, the vowel phoneme transcribed in Bàng-uâ-cê as "a̤" has two pronunciations, /ɛ/ as a close rime and /a/ as an open rime; the entering tone equivalent "a̤h" has two pronunciations, close rime /eʔ/ and open rime /ɛʔ/. This is summarized in the following table:
Thus, in a close rime tone such as dark level "ă̤" should be pronounced as /ɛ˥/ instead of /a˥/; and in the open rime tone of light departing "â̤" should be pronounced as /a˩˧˩/ instead of /ɛ˩˧˩/.
Sandhi and assimilation
Tone sandhi
The Matsu dialect has extremely extensive tone sandhi rules: in an utterance, only the last syllable pronounced is not affected by the rules. The two-syllable tonal sandhi rules are shown in the table below (the rows give the first syllable's original citation tone, while the columns give the citation tone of the second syllable):
dark level 55
light level 51
light entering 5
rising 33
dark departing 312
light departing 131
dark entering 13
dark level 55
rising (33)
light level (51)
dark departing 312
rising (33)
light level (51)
light departing 131
rising (33)
light level (51)
dark entering B 13
rising (33)
light level (51)
rising 33
half dark departing (31)
modified dark entering (13) (with the tone value but not the entering coda /-ʔ/)
dark level (55)
dark entering A 13
half dark departing (31) + /-ʔ/ (the first syllable retains its entering coda /-ʔ/)
dark entering (13)
light entering (5)
light level 51
rising (33)
half dark departing (31)
rising (33)
half dark departing (31)
light entering 5
rising (33) or rising + /-ʔ/
light level (51), or light entering (5)
In the table above, "dark entering A" means a dark entering coda that ends with /-k̚/, "dark entering B" refers to ending with /-ʔ/. In the modern spoken language, the final plosive is difficult to distinguish in isolation, having merged into /-ʔ/, but the two categories exhibit different behaviors from each other in tone sandhi environments. This feature is shared with many modern Eastern Min varieties, such as in Fuzhou.
Like the Fuzhou dialect, the tonal sandhi rules of more than two syllables display further complexities.
Initial assimilation
The two-syllable initial assimilation rules are shown in the table below:
Coda of the Former Syllable
Initial Assimilation of the Latter Syllable
Null coda
/p/ and /pʰ/ change to /β/;
/t/, /tʰ/ and /s/, /l/ and /n/ change to /l/;
/ts/ and /tsʰ/ change to /ʒ/;
/k/, /kʰ/ and /h/ change to null initial;
/m/ and /ŋ/ remain unchanged.
Nasal coda /-ŋ/
/p/ and /pʰ/ change to /m/;
/t/, /tʰ/, /s/, /l/ and /n/ change to /n/;
/ts/ and /tsʰ/ change to /ʒ/;
/k/, /kʰ/, /h/ and null initial change to /ŋ/;
/m/ and /ŋ/ remain unchanged.
entering coda (/-ʔ/, /-k̚/)
remain unchanged.
Rime tensing
In the Matsu dialect, if the rime type of the former syllable is changed while tone sandhi occurred, the rime of the former syllable should be changed to adapt the rule of close/open rimes.
For example, "技" /kɛi˧˩˨/ is a syllable which has dark departing tone, it's an open rime; "師" /sy˥/ has a dark level tone. When combined as the phrase "技師" (technician), "技" changes its tonal value to rising tone. Rising tone is a close rime tone, therefore the pronunciation as a whole is /ki˧ly˥/.
Notes
^Min is believed to have split from Old Chinese, rather than Middle Chinese like other varieties of Chinese.[1][2][3]
References
^Mei, Tsu-lin (1970), "Tones and prosody in Middle Chinese and the origin of the rising tone", Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 30: 86–110, doi:10.2307/2718766, JSTOR2718766
^"大眾運輸工具播音語言平等保障法-全國法規資料庫". law.moj.gov.tw (in Chinese). Retrieved 11 May 2025. 大眾運輸工具除國語外，另應以閩南語、客家語播音。其他原住民語言之播音，由主管機關視當地原住民族族群背景及地方特性酌予增加。但馬祖地區應加播閩北（福州）語。
^"國家語言發展法". 中華民國文化部 (in Chinese). 11 January 2019. Retrieved 11 May 2025. 指臺灣各固有族群使用之自然語言及臺灣手語。
^ ab杜 (Tu), 佳倫 (Chia-lun) (2006). 馬祖北竿方言音韻研究 (Master's Dissertation) (in Chinese). Taipei: National Taiwan University Theses and Dissertations Repository. Retrieved 11 May 2025.
