Teoyeo (潮阳县 / 潮陽縣, Mandarin Cháoyáng) was a historical county of the Teochew prefecture. The current administrative division introduced in 2003 has three units in place of this historical prefecture: Chaoyang (Teoyeo) District, Chaonan (Teonam) District, and Haojiang (Haukang) District. All of these divisions are now subordinate to the Shantou prefecture-level city.
The dialect spoken in the former Teoyeo county is very distinct from the urban Swatow and other Northern Teochew dialects, although they are still mutually intelligible to a large degree. Among the Northern Teochew dialects, Kekyeo dialect is relatively closer to Teoyeo. Teoyeo dialect is very similar to the dialects of Huilai and Puning, together classified as "Chaoyang-Puning branch" (潮普片) of the Teochew language.[2][3]
In the northernmost areas of Chaoyang District (the Guanbu 關埠 and Jinzao 金灶 towns), a dialect similar to Northern Teochew is spoken. In the south of Chaonan District (the Leiling 雷岭 town) there is an isolated island of Hakka language.[3]
Unlike northern dialects of Teochew, Teoyeo lacks the vowel /ɯ/ — it regularly merges with /u/ (e.g. Teoyeo 汝lú and 豬tu correspond to Northern Teochew 汝lṳ́ and 豬tṳ). The general Teochew rime /ɯŋ/ corresponds to Teoyeo rimes /iŋ/ (in literary readings, when derived from historical /ɯn/, e.g. 近kĭng, 銀ngîng) or /ŋ̩/ (in vernacular readings, e.g. 女nńg, 堂tn̂g, 村tshng). For some modern speakers, the rime /ɯ/ may be reintroduced under the urban Swatow dialect influence, at least in some words.[6][4]
The general Teochew rime /õũ/ is usually pronounced as /om/ in Teoyeo: 五ngŏm, 虎hóm. It is preserved only in a certain literary words, e.g. 奴nôu, 否hóuⁿ.
Teoyeo dialect has seven tones instead of general Teochew eight tones. Generally, the 'light rising' tone (陽上) is merged with the 'dark departing' tone (陰去). In the Haimen dialect, this tone is instead merged with the 'dark level' tone (陰平).
The conservative Teoyeo accent in notable for having four falling tone out of its five non-checked tones. There is an ongoing tone shift in the Teoyeo dialect. This shift is more advanced in urban dialects in Eastern Chaoyang (incl. Haojiang, especially the Dahao dialect), among female speakers, and in the younger generations (born after the 1980s). The principal features of this shift are as follows:[7]
Dark level tone (①) shifts from 21 ˨˩ to 31 ˧˩.
Light level tone (⑤) shifts from high level 44 ˦ to mid-level 33 ˧ or mid-rising 23 ˨˧.
Dark rising tone (②) shifts from high falling 551 ˥˥˩ to high level 55 ˥, and in urban Eastern Teoyeo dialects it can even become high rising 45 ˦˥ or 35 ˧˥.
Dark departing tone (③) and light departing tone (⑦) are falling in a "parallel" pattern (53 ˥˧ and 42 ˦˨ respectively) in the old accent, while in the new accent they are still falling, but the light departing tone (⑦) is more "flat" (52 ˥˨ and 43 ˦˧~44 ˦ respectively).
