Shehua

Shehua (, "Shēhuà", meaning 'She speech') is an unclassified Sinitic language spoken by the She people of Southeastern China. It is also called Shanha, 山哈 (San-hak) or Shanhahua, 山哈话. Shehua speakers are located mainly in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces of Southeastern China, with smaller numbers of speakers in a few locations of Jiangxi (in Guixi and Yanshan County), Guangdong (in Chaozhou and Fengshun County) and Anhui (in Ningguo) provinces.
"Shēhuà" () is not to be confused with Shēyǔ (), also known as Ho Ne, which is a Hmong–Mien language spoken in East-Central Guangdong. Shehua and Sheyu speakers have separate histories and identities, although both are officially classified by the Chinese government as She people. The Dongjia of Majiang County, Guizhou are also officially classified as She people, but speak a Western Hmongic language closely related to Chong'anjiang Miao ().
History.
During the Tang Dynasty, Shehua speakers lived in the Jiangxi-Guangdong-Fujian border region. Afterwards, they moved to their present locations further to the northeast.
Classification.
Some linguists consider Shehua to be a variety of Hakka Chinese, while others consider it to be an unclassified variety of Chinese that has received some influence from Hakka and is not part of Hakka. Hiroki Nakanishi (2010) considers Shehua to be a Hakka dialect that may have a Sheyu (Hmongic) substratum. However, Zhao (2004) considers Shehua to be an independent branch of Chinese, and that it should not be classified within Hakka.
Depending on their locations, Shehua dialects have been variously influenced by Hakka, Gan, Wu, and Min.
Dialects.
You (2002:31-35) divides Shehua into 9 dialectal areas ("fangyan qu" 方言区), and with respective locations and speaker demographics from You (2002) listed as well. The Eastern Fujian and Southern Zhejiang dialectal areas each have over 100,000 speakers, while the smallest dialectal areas are in Guangdong and Jiangxi, with each having only a few thousand speakers. Altogether, there are more than 400,000 Shehua speakers in China.
In Anhui Province, there is also a Shehua dialect spoken by about 2,400 people in Yunti She Ethnic Township (), Ningguo City that has been influenced by Lower Yangtze Mandarin.
You (2002) provides a comparative vocabulary list for the following 13 datapoints. The Zhebei dialectal area 浙北方言区 has not been included by You (2002).
Distribution.
The following maps show ethnic She townships and other administrative divisions (highlighted in magenta) in Zhejiang, Fujian, and Jiangxi provinces. The She people of these three provinces speak Shehua, while the She of central Guangdong and Guizhou speak Hmongic languages.
The most Shehua speakers are located in Ningde Prefecture, Fujian, and Wenzhou and Lishui Prefectures, Zhejiang. Smaller communities of Shehua speakers are located in central Zhejiang, southern Fujian, the mountainous interior of western Fujian, and northeastern Jiangxi near its border with Fujian. It is not known whether Shehua is spoken by She people living in central and southern Jiangxi.
Phonology.
Like many Hakka dialects, most Shehua dialects have the final stop consonants -p, -t, and -k. Some varieties of the Mindong Shehua dialect (including the Fu'an and Fuding varieties) have the initial voiceless lateral fricative ɬ- where other Shehua dialects have an initial s-.
Shehua has 6 phonemic contour tones, which can be organized into the following 6 tone categories (You 2002:80-83).
Unique vocabulary.
You (2002:183-216) notes that Shehua has many unique vocabulary items that have no cognates in Hakka, Gan, Wu, or any other Chinese language. Instead, many words have parallels in Hmong-Mien languages (You 2002:490-504), and in Tai and Kam-Sui languages (You 2002:458-489). Other words appear to have no parallels in any other language family or branch (You 2002:505-518).