Taihu Wu

Taihu Wu
Taihu Wu
Ngô ngữ Thái Hồ phiến
Native to	People's Republic of China
Region	SouthJiangsuprovince, NorthZhe gian gprovince, southeasternAnhui,andShanghai.Linguistic exclave inCangnancounty in southernZhe gian gprovince.
Native speakers	(47 million cited 1987)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Wu Taihu Wu; ; ; ;
Writing system	Chinese characters
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None(mis)
ISO 639-6	taiu; tupn
Glottolog	taih1244
Linguasphere	79-AAA-db

Taihu Wu(Ngô ngữ Thái Hồ phiến) orNorthern Wu(Bắc bộ Ngô ngữ) is aWu Chineselanguage spoken in much of the southern part of the province ofJiangsu,includingSuzhou,Wuxi,Changzhou,the southern part ofNantong,Jing gian gandDanyang;the municipality ofShanghai;and the northern part ofZhe gian gprovince, includingHangzhou,Shao xing,Ningbo,Huzhou,andJia xing.A notable exception is the dialect of the town of Jinxiang, which is a linguistic exclave of Taihu Wu inZhenan Min-speakingCangnancounty ofWenzhouprefecture in Zhe gian g province. Speakers in regions aroundTaihu LakeandHangzhou Bay,are the largest population among all Wu speakers. Taihu Wu dialects such as Shanghainese, Shao xing and Ningbo aremutually intelligibleeven for L2 Taihu speakers.

History

Linguistic affinity has also been used as a tool for regional identity and politics in theJiangbeiandJiangnanregions. While the city ofYangzhouwas the center of trade, flourishing and prosperous, it was considered part of Jiangnan, which was known to be wealthy, even though Yangzhou was north of theYangzi River.OnceYangzhou's wealth and prosperity were gone, it was then considered to be part of Jiangbei, the "backwater".

After Yangzhou was removed from Jiangnan, many of its residents switched fromJianghuai Mandarin,the dialect of Yangzhou, to Taihu Wu dialects. In Jiangnan itself, multiple subdialects of Wu competed for the position of prestige dialect.^[2]

In 1984, around 85 million speakers are mutually intelligible withShanghainese.^[3]

Phonology

Taihu Wu varieties tend to preserve historical voiced initials.^[4]The number of phonemic vowels can reach numbers higher than that of someGermanic languages.^[5]Taihu Wu varieties typically have phonemic 7-8 tones,^[6]though some can go as high as 12 or as low as 5,^[7]^[8]and they all have highly complextone sandhi.^[9]

List of Taihu Wu dialect subgroups

Su–Jia–Hu (Suzhou–Jia xing –Huzhou, tô gia hồ mảnh nhỏ ), also known as Su–Hu–Jia (Suzhou–Shanghai–Jia xing, tô hỗ gia mảnh nhỏ ) – 23 million speakers in 1987^[1]
- Suzhou dialect(Jiangsu)
- Shanghainese
- Jia xing dialect(Zhe gian g)
- Wuxi dialect(Jiangsu)
Tiaoxi ( điều khê mảnh nhỏ, now considered to be a subbranch or sister group to Suzhou–Shanghai–Jia xing ) – 3 million speakers in 1987^[1]
- Huzhou dialect(Zhe gian g)
- Southeast Guangde dialect (Anhui)

Northwestern Wu

Piling ( bì lăng mảnh nhỏ, spoken in Jiangsu and Anhui provinces) – 8 million speakers in 1987^[1]
- Changzhou dialect(Jiangsu)
Hangzhou ( Hàng Châu mảnh nhỏ ) – 1.2 million speakers in 1987^[1]
- Hangzhou dialect(Zhe gian g)

Northern Zhe gian g

Lin–Shao ( lâm Thiệu mảnh nhỏ ) – 7.8 million speakers in 1987^[1]
- Shao xing dialect(Zhe gian g)
- Lin'an (Zhe gian g)
Yong gian g dũng giang mảnh nhỏ or Mingzhou ( minh châu mảnh nhỏ ) – 4 million speakers in 1987^[1]
- Ningbo dialect(Zhe gian g)
- Zhoushan (Zhe gian g)
Jinxiang dialect( Kim Hương lời nói, appears to be an isolate, but closely related to the Taihu Wu varieties of Northern Zhe gian g.)

List of Taihu Wu dialects

References

^^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^gSinolect.org."Untitled"(Pie Chart) (in Chinese). Archived fromthe original(GIF)on 2013-05-13.
^Ko, Dorothy (1994).Teachers of the Inner Chambers: Women and Culture in Seventeenth-Century China(illustrated, annotated ed.). Stanford: Stanford University Press. p.21.ISBN 0-8047-2359-1.Gian ghuai mandarin.
^DeFrancis, John (1984).The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy.Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
^VanNess Simmons, Richard (1999),Chinese Dialect Classification: A comparative approach to Harngjou, Old Jintarn and Common Northern Wu,John Benjamins Publishing Co., p. 3-7,ISBN 90-272-3694-1
^Li, Hui; Hong, Yulong (2012),Dịch thái lời nói: Trên thế giới nguyên âm nhiều nhất ngôn ngữ[Dondac: The language with the most vowels in the world], Fudan University Press, p. 12,ISBN 978-7-309-09153-3
^Chappell, Hilary; Lan, Li (2017), "Mandarin and other Sinitic languages",Routledge Encyclopedia of the Chinese language,Oxford: Taylor & Francis, p. 605-628
^Xu, Zhen (2009),Ngô giang phương ngôn âm điệu nghiên cứu[A Study on the Tones of the lect of Wu gian g] (thesis), Shanghai Normal University, p. 9
^Qian, Nairong; Xu, Baohua; Tang, Zhenzhu (2007),Thượng Hải lời nói đại từ điển[The Great Dictionary of Shanghainese] (1 ed.), Shanghai Lexicographical Publishing House, p. 386,ISBN 978-7-5326-2248-1
^Rose, Phil; Toda, Takako (1994), "A Typology of Tone Sandhi Rules in Northern Wu",Current Issues in Sino-Tibetan Linguistics,Ōsaka: 267–273

History

Phonology

List of Taihu Wu dialect subgroups

List of Taihu Wu dialects

References

Further reading