Gàn

Gan is the language of the Jiangyou people of Jiangxi, centred on the Gan River and Poyang Lake with Nanchang as its prestige dialect, and spilling into neighbouring provinces. Once Baiyue country, the land was contested by Wu, Yue and Chu in the Spring and Autumn period; after Qin sent armies south against the Baiyue in 221 BCE, the Han founded Nanchang in 202 BCE as the seat of Yuzhang Commandery, and the settlers' speech took shape as Gan.

Waves of northern refugees during the fourth-century upheavals and the An Lushan rebellion of 755 to 763 layered Middle Chinese onto the old dialect. By the Five Dynasties period the speech was largely settled.

From the tenth century, people of Nanchang and Ji'an carried Gan into neighbouring provinces, and after 1368 the great Jiangxi migration into war-ravaged Hunan under the Ming spread it further. Of all Chinese varieties, Gan is closest to Hakka, though it lacks a strong written tradition.