History of the Gan language

History of the Gan language is mainly descended from Old Gan and Middle Gan.

Old Gan

Main article: Old Gan

Old Gan (上古贛語, Song-gu Gon-ngi) or Proto-Gan (原始贛語, Ngien-si Gon-ngi) corresponds to the Gan language from the beginning of Qin Dynasty to the latter part of the Han Dynasty. It is a typically creole language which was influenced by Chinese language (華夏語), Baiyue, Chu, and Wu languages.

Late Old Gan

Main article: Late Old Gan

Late Old Gan (中古贛語, Zung-gu Gon-ngi) corresponds to Gan spoken from 3rd to 6th century. It was largely sinicized by new settlers.

Middle Gan

Main article: Middle Gan

Middle Gan (中世贛語, Zung-si Gon-ngi) corresponds to Gan spoken from 6th to 13th century. It finally became stabilized after the last time of large-scale settlement in Jiangxi by people from Zhongyuan.

Late Middle Gan

Main article: Late Middle Gan

Late Middle Gan (近世贛語, Qin-si Gon-ngi) corresponds to Gan spoken from 13th to 17th century. Modern scholars try to reconstruct the language mainly from this historical layer.

Early Modern Gan

Main article: Early Modern Gan

Early Modern Gan (近代贛語, Qin-tai Gon-ngi) corresponds to Gan spoken from 17th to 20th century. Westerners began to study Gan language since this period and Bibles in some Gan dialects were published at this time.

Contemporary Gan

Main article: Gan language

References

• Shao Baiming (邵百鳴) and Ge Lili (葛力力), The formation of Gan's dialects (略論贛方言的形成)
• Chen Changyi (陳昌儀), Summanry of Gan's dialects (贛方言概要)
• Liu Lunxin (劉綸鑫), On the history of Gan-Hakka (客贛方言史簡論)