| Weitou dialect | |
|---|---|
| 圍頭話 | |
| Native to | Guangdong |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | None |
| Weitou dialect | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 圍頭話 | ||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 围头话 | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
The Weitou dialect (simplified Chinese: 围头话; traditional Chinese: 圍頭話; lit. 'walled (village) language'; Jyutping: wai4 tau4 waa6-2) is a dialect of Yue Chinese. It forms part of the Guan–Bao (莞寶片; 莞宝片, Dongguan–Bao'an) branch of Yuehai. It is spoken by older generations in Luohu and Futian districts in Shenzhen, and by those in the New Territories, Hong Kong.
The Weitou dialect can be heard in Hong Kong TV dramas and movies, and is usually used to depict characters who come from walled villages. For example, in the 1992 movie Now You See Love, Now You Don't, the chief character, played by Chow Yun-fat who himself grew up in Lamma Island, consistently speaks the Weitou dialect.
In a more general sense, Weitouhua can refer to any variety of Chinese spoken in the villages of Hong Kong, including Hakka and rural Yue dialects. In contrast, most Hong Kong residents speak standard Cantonese, while most Shenzhen residents speak Mandarin.