HSIANG LANGUAGE

type of Chinese that is spoken in Hunan province. There are two major varieties of Hsiang, New Hsiang and Old Hsiang. New Hsiang, which is spoken predominantly around Ch'ang-sha, the capital of Hunan, has been strongly influenced by Mandarin Chinese. Old Hsiang, which is spoken in other areas of the province, including Shuang-feng, is similar in numerous respects to the Wu language. Old Hsiang has a greater number of different initial consonants than does any other major Chinese language. Hsiang uses five tones to distinguish meaning between words or word elements that have the same series of consonants and vowels.