The Hangzhou dialect (traditional Chinese: ???; simplified Chinese: ???; pinyin: hángzh?uhuà) is spoken in the city of Hangzhou and its immediate suburbs, but excluding areas further away from Hangzhou such as Xi?osh?n (??) and Yúháng (??) (both originally county-level cities and now the districts within Hangzhou City). The number of speakers of the Hangzhou dialect has been estimated to be about 1.2 to 1.5 million. It belongs to the Wu language family, which in turn constitutes one of the Sinitic language families. The Hangzhou dialect is of immense interest to Chinese historical phonologists and dialectologists because phonologically, it exhibits extensive similarities with the other Wu languages; however, grammatically and lexically, it shows many Mandarin tendencies. (Simmons 1995)
Contents
- 1 Classification
- 2 Geographic distribution
- 3 Phonetics and phonology
- 3.1 Consonants
- 3.2 Vowels
- 3.2.1 Monophthongs
- 3.2.2 Diphthongs
- 3.2.3 Triphthongs
- 3.3 Syllable structure
- 3.4 Tones
- 3.4.1 Citation tones
- 3.4.2 Tone sandhi
- 4 Grammar
- 4.1 Morphology
- 4.2 Syntax
- 5 Vocabulary
- 6 History
- 7 Examples
- 8 See also
- 9 References
- 10 External links
|
Classification
Geographic distribution
Dialects
Phonetics and phonology
Consonants
Consonants of Hangzhou dialect
| |
bilabial |
labio-dental |
alveolar |
alveolo-palatal |
velar |
glottal |
| nasal |
m |
|
the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)” class=”IPA”>n |
? |
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)” class=”IPA”>? |
|
| plosives |
voiced |
b |
|
d |
|
g |
|
| voiceless unaspirated |
p |
|
t |
|
k |
? |
| voiceless aspirated |
p? |
|
t? |
|
k? |
|
| fricatives |
voiced |
|
v |
z |
|
|
? |
| voiceless |
|
f |
s |
Alphabet (IPA)” class=”IPA”>? |
|
h |
| affricates |
voiced |
|
|
Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)” class=”IPA”>dz |
d? |
|
|
| voiceless unaspirated |
|
|
ts |
Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)” class=”IPA”>t? |
|
|
| voiceless aspirated |
|
|
ts? |
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)” class=”IPA”>t?? |
|
| approximants |
|
? |
? |
|
|
|
| lateral approximants |
|
|
l |
|
|
Vowels
Monophthongs
Diphthongs
Triphthongs
Syllable structure
Onsets
Rimes
Tones
Citation tones
The Hangzhou tonal system is similar to that of the Suzhou dialect, in that some words with shàng tone in Middle Chinese have merged with the y?n qù tone.
Tone chart of Hangzhou dialect
| Tone number |
Tone name |
Tone letters |
Description |
| 1 |
yin ping (??) |
??? (323) |
mid dipping |
| 2 |
yang ping (??) |
??? (212) |
low dipping |
| 3 |
shang (?) |
?? (51) |
falling |
| 4 |
yin qu (??) |
?? (334) |
mid rising |
| 5 |
yang qu (??) |
?? (113) |
low rising |
| 6 |
yin ru (??) |
?? (55) |
high checked |
| 7 |
yang ru (??) |
??? (12) |
low checked |
Tone sandhi
Grammar
Morphology
Syntax
Vocabulary
History
The most important event to impact on Hangzhou’s dialect was its establishment as Ling’an, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty. When the Northern Song Dynasty was conquered by the Jin Dynasty in 1127, large numbers of northern refugees fled to what is now Hangzhou, speaking predominently Mandarin of the Henan variety. Within 30 years, contemporary accounts record that immigrants outnumbered natives in Hangzhou. This resulted in Mandarin influences in the pronunciation, lexicon and grammar of the Hangzhou dialect.
Further influence by Mandarin occurred after the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty in 1912. The local Manchu garrisons were dissolved, adding significant numbers of Beijing dialect Mandarin speakers to the population.
Because of the frequent commerce and intercourse between Hangzhou and Shaoxing, the Hangzhou dialect is also influenced by the Shaoxing dialect.
Examples
See also
- List of Chinese dialects
- Suzhou dialect
- Shanghainese
- Wu dialects
References
- Qián,n?iróng (1992). D?ngdài Wúy? yánji?. (Contemporary Wu linguistics studies). Shàngh?i: shàngh?i ji?oyù ch?b?nshè. (???. 1992. ??????. ???????) ISBN 7-5320-2355-9
- Simmons, Richard VanNess (1995). “Distinguishing characteristics of the Hangzhou dialect”. New Asia Academic Bulletin 11: 383–398.
burton est binding
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