Suzhou dialect

Suzhou dialect
蘇州閒話
Native to	People's Republic of China
Region	Suzhou, Jiangsu province; also in Shanghai Overseas, in the United States (New York City)
Native speakers	approx. 5-7 million (date missing)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Chinese Wu Taihu Suzhou–Shanghai–Jiaxing (Su-Hu-Jia) Suzhou dialect
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
ISO 639-6	suji
Linguist list	wuu-suh
Glottolog	None

The Suzhou dialect (simplified Chinese: 苏州话; traditional Chinese: 蘇州話; pinyin: Sūzhōuhuà; Suzhounese: 蘇州閒話, IPA: [səu˥ʦøʏ˨˩ɦɛ˩˧ɦo˧]), formerly romanized as the Soochow dialect and now also known as Suzhounese, is a branch of Wu Chinese, one of group of Chinese linguistic varieties. Suzhounese is spoken in the city of Suzhou in China's Jiangsu Province and is the traditional prestige dialect of Wu. Considered one of the most flowing and elegant languages of China, even effeminate, it is rich in vowels and conservative in having many initials.

Distribution

The Suzhou dialect is spoken within the city itself and the surrounding area, including migrants living in nearby Shanghai. There is also an increasing number of Suzhounese speakers in New York City in the United States.

The Suzhou dialect is mutually intelligible with dialects spoken in its satellite cities such as Kunshan, Changshu, and Zhangjiagang, as well as those spoken in its former satellites Wuxi and Shanghai. It is also partially intelligible with dialects spoken in other areas of the Wu cultural sphere such as Hangzhou and Ningbo. However, it is not mutually intelligible with modern Mandarin or Cantonese; but, as all public schools and most broadcast communication in Suzhou use Mandarin exclusively, nearly all speakers of the dialect are at least bilingual. Owing to migration within China, many residents of the city cannot speak the local dialect but can usually understand it after a few months or years in the area.

History

A "ballad–narrative" (說晿詞話) known as "The story of Xue Rengui crossing the sea and Pacifying Liao" (薛仁貴跨海征遼故事), which is about the Tang dynasty hero Xue Rengui is believed to been written in the Suzhou dialect.

Plural pronouns

Second- and third-person pronouns are suffixed with [toʔ] for the plural. The first-person plural is a separate root, [ni].

Varieties

Some non native speakers of Suzhou dialect speak Suzhou dialect in a "stylized variety" to tell tales.

Phonology

Initials

Initials of Suzhou dialect

		Bilabial	Labio- dental	Dental	Alveolo- palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m		n	ɲ	ŋ
Plosive	aspirated	pʰ		tʰ		kʰ
	voiceless	p		t		k	ʔ
	voiced	b		d		ɡ
Affricate	aspirated			tsʰ	tɕʰ
	voiceless			ts	tɕ
	voiced				dʑ
Fricative	voiceless		f	s	ɕ		h
	voiced		v	z			ɦ
Lateral				l

Suzhou dialect has a set of voiced initials and exhibits unvoiced unaspirated and aspirated stops, there are unvoiced and voiced fricatives sets. Moreover, palatized initials also feature.

Rimes

		Open				Nasal coda				Glottal stop coda
Medials		Ø	j	w	ɥ	Ø	j	w	ɥ	Ø	j	w	ɥ
Diphthongs	øʏ	øʏ
	əu	əu
Monophthongs	ə		i	u	y	ən	in	wən	ɥən	əʔ	jɪʔ~jəʔ	wəʔ	ɥəʔ
	o	o	jo			oŋ	joŋ			oʔ	joʔ
	ɑ	ɑ	jɑ	wɑ		ɑ̃	jɑ̃	wɑ̃		ɑʔ	jɑʔ
	æ	æᵄ	jæᵄ			ã	jã	wã		aʔ	jaʔ	waʔ
	ɛ	ɛ		wɛ
	ɪ		ɪ		ʏ
	ø	ø	jø	wø
	z̩	z̩		z̩ʷ

Syllabic continuants: [m̩] [n̩] [ŋ̩] [l̩]

Unlike Shanghai, it has no nasalised rhymes, though it does have a set of rhymes that end in a nasal stop. Middle Chinese entering tone characters which end in [p t k] end as a glottal stop [ʔ] in Suzhou. Middle Chinese nasal endings [m] have merged with rhymes that end with [n] in Suzhou. Middle Chinese [ŋ] ending rhymes have split into two types in Suzhou. Those with a high-fronted main vowel merge with [n] ending rhymes. Those with a palatising medial [i] and back main vowel retain the [ŋ] ending.

Tones

Suzhou is considered to have seven tones. However, since the tone split dating from Middle Chinese still depends on the voicing of the initial consonant, these constitute just three phonemic tones: ping, shang, and qu. (Ru syllables are phonemically toneless.)

Tone chart of Suzhou dialect

Tone number	Tone name	Tone letters	Description
1	yin ping (陰平)	˦ (44)	high
2	yang ping (陽平)	˨˨˦ (224)	level-rising
3	shang (上)	˥˨ (52)	high falling
4	yin qu (陰去)	˦˩˨ (412)	dipping
5	yang qu (陽去)	˨˧˩ (231)	rising-falling
6	yin ru (陰入)	˦ʔ (4)	high checked
7	yang ru (陽入)	˨˧ʔ (23)	rising checked

In Suzhou, the Middle Chinese Shang tone has partially merged with the modern yin qu tone.

See also

• List of Chinese dialects
• Hangzhou dialect
• Changzhou dialect

External links

• Wu Association
• Soochow(Suzhou) Dialect