Origin of Gan language

Introduction

The historical development of the Gan 贛 language can be summarised in the chart below. This provides an overview but not comprehensive chart. Gan language speakers are mostly found in Jiangxi province.

Proto-Northern Gan

The earliest Han Chinese in Jiangxi province migrated from northern China during the long period from the start of Qin dynasty (221 BC) until the Jin dynasty in 304 AD.

The first massive Han Chinese migration to Jiangxi was during 304-316 AD (Jin dynasty) which was caused by the invasion of the 'Five Barbarians'.

Jiangxi province borders the Yangtze River to the north and is considered an important transit point for Han Chinese migration to southernmost China. The earliest settlers lived mostly around the Lake Poyang 鄱陽湖 plains and along the Gan River 贛江 basin in northern Jiangxi.

Northern Jiangxi

Nanchang was the most important city in northern Jiangxi in ancient times governing Yuzhang 豫章 commandery.

These migrants brought along the Old Chinese language spoken in northern China. The Chinese dialects around northern Jiangxi developed into the Northern Gan languages today.

Proto-Southern-Gan

From the late Tang dynasty (874-907 AD) until Chinese civil wars (907-960 AD), a second massive wave of Han Chinese migrated to Jiangxi from northern China .

Since the better lands in the Poyang plains in northern Jiangxi have already been taken by the first wave of Han Chinese settlers, these migrants decided to settle in central Jiangxi on both sides of the Gan river basin.

Gan speakers in Jiangxi

These migrants brought along the Middle Chinese dialect spoken during the late Tang dynasty. However, this dialect received some influence from the older proto-Northern Gan dialect spoken by a small percentage of Chinese from the first wave who were already living in central Jiangxi.

Central Jiangxi became the most densely populated area during the Northern Song dynasty due to this wave. Thus, Proto-Southern Gan dialect became the prestige dialect of Jiangxi during Song dynasty.

This dialect eventually developed into the Southern Gan languages in central Jiangxi province today.

Gan branches

There are two main branches i.e. Northern and Southern with many sub-branches.

Northern Gan representative language is Nanchang (南昌) spoken in northern Jiangxi.
Southern Gan representative language is Fuzhou (撫州) spoken in eastern part of central Jiangxi.

The sub-branches won't be listed in this article.

Gan-Hakka relationship

The ancestors of both southern Gan and Hakka came mostly during the second massive wave of Han Chinese into central Jiangxi but were separated due to different administrative borders and later migrations to southernmost Jiangxi.

Due to their common ancestral Chinese language, the southern Gan and Hakka languages share many similarities and are considered sister language subfamilies.

Gan and Hakka regions are adjacent to each other

Conclusion

This article is not meant to be a comprehensive history of Gan speakers but to explain the close connection with the Hakka speakers.

The ancestors of Gan-Hakka people who stayed in central Jiangxi became the Southern Gan speakers whereas the ancestors of Gan-Hakka people who moved to southern Jiangxi became the Hakka speakers.

Sources

On Gan-Hakka. Tsinghua University. Author: Laurent Sagart.
Gan, Hakka and the formation of Chinese dialects. Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. Author: Laurent Sagart
http://www.chinafacttours.com/jiangxi/
Gan representative languages. https://kknews.cc/culture/ox6z2qp.html

East Asian origin, history, language, culture

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