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The Qiyang dialect (Chinese: 祁陽話; pinyin: Qíyánghuà) is a dialect of Xiang Chinese spoken in Qiyang County, Hunan province.

Qiyang dialect
祁陽話
Native to	China
Region	Qiyang, Hunan province
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Xiang Yong-Quan Qiyang dialect
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None
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Tones

The Qiyang dialect is quite unusual in that it is reported to have two "double contour" tones, high and low fall–rise–fall, or perhaps high fall – low fall and low fall – high fall: the entering tones yin qu (陰去) ˦˨˧˨ (4232) and yang qu (陽去) ˨˩˦˨ (2142). However, phonetically the pitch of a syllable depends on the voicing of the initial consonant, so these are phonemically a single tone. Moreover, the final fall of the yin qu tone is "not perceptually relevant", so it may be that 'dipping' (for yin qu) and 'peaking' (for yang qu) are a sufficient categorization.

References

• Wei Hu, 2011. "Production and Perception of Double Contour Tones in Qiyang Chinese". Presented at the 17th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences.

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