Map of the spread of northern features in local Chinese dialects in the core Chinese-speaking area. The following 9 phonological and grammatical features were selected by Jerry Norman as characteristic of northern dialects. Relevant maps in the Linguistic Atlas of Chinese Dialects, reflecting fieldwork conducted between December 2002 and December 2006, are given in parentheses.
The departing tone lacks a register distinction. (1-004, cf File:Map of register distinction in the departing tone in Chinese dialects.svg)
Words like wèn 问 'ask' have a non-nasal initial. (1-052, cf File:Map of distribution of nasal initial in 问 in Chinese dialects.svg)
Velars palatalize before high front vowels. (1-066, cf File:Map of the degree of palatalization in Chinese dialects.svg)
Words like rè 熱 'hot' have a non-nasal initial. (1-073, cf File:Map of distribution of nasal initial in 熱 in Chinese dialects.svg)
The third-person singular pronoun is tā 他 or cognate. (3-003, cf File:Map of distribution of third-person pronouns in Chinese dialects.svg)
The ordinary negative is bù 不 or cognate (3-028, cf File:Map of distribution of negatives in Chinese dialects.svg)
The copula is shì 是, or cognate. (3-038, cf File:Map of distribution of copulas in Chinese dialects.svg)
The subordinative particle is de 的 or cognate. (3-041, cf File:Map of distribution of subordination markers in Chinese dialects.svg)
The gender marker for animals is prefixed, as in mǔjī 母鸡 'hen'. (3-076, cf File:Map of animal gender markers in Chinese dialects.svg)
Areas with all these features are shown in darkest blue; those with none in darkest red.
Own work

Diagnostic features from:
Norman, Jerry (1988), Chinese, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-29653-3, p. 182.
Norman, Jerry (2003), "The Chinese dialects: phonology", in Thurgood, Graham; LaPolla, Randy J. (eds.), The Sino-Tibetan languages, Routledge, pp. 72–83, ISBN 978-0-7007-1129-1, pp. 73, 76.
Dialect data from Cao Zhiyun (ed.) (2008) Linguistic Atlas of Chinese Dialects (汉语方言地图集), vol. 1 Phonetics and vol. 3 Grammar.
Voronoi polygons generated using QGIS
Coastline and lakes from Natural Earth 1:10m Physical Vectors
Boundaries from Natural Earth 1:10m Cultural Vectors
Conversion to SVG using svgis
Kanguole