112-648: Southern Wu may refer to Southern branch of Wu Chinese languages Yang Wu , a state in China Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Southern Wu . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Southern_Wu&oldid=1037682755 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
224-493: A glottal stop . Wu varieties also have noticably unique morphological and syntactic innovations, as well as lexicon exclusively found in the Wu grouping. It is also of note that the influential linguist Chao Yuen Ren was a native speaker of Changzhounese , a variety of Northern Wu. The Wu varieties, especially that of Suzhou, are traditionally perceived as soft in the ears of speakers of both Wu and non-Wu languages, leading to
336-432: A lingua franca to facilitate communication between speakers of mutually unintelligible varieties of Chinese and non-Sinitic languages . The name Putonghua , or 'common speech', reinforces this idea. However, due to Standard Chinese being a "public" lingua franca, other Chinese varieties and even non-Sinitic languages have shown signs of losing ground to the standard dialect. In many areas, especially in southern China, it
448-564: A collection of folk songs gathered during the Ming dynasty by Feng Menglong in southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang, where Northern Wu is today spoken, shows clear signs of modern Wu Chinese in its lexicon. Other Ming documents that are either written in Wu or contain parts where Wu is used include: These works contain a small handful of unique grammatical features, some of which are not found in contemporary Mandarin, Classical Chinese , or in contemporary Wu varieties. They do contain many of
560-624: A depressor that lowers the pitch of the entire syllable's realization. Creaky voice, on the other hand, is found in Taizhounese , and is associated with the rising tone category ( 上聲 ). Xuanzhou Wu is phonologically very unique and has a host of complex syllables, such as: Standard Mandarin Standard Chinese ( simplified Chinese : 现代标准汉语 ; traditional Chinese : 現代標準漢語 ; pinyin : Xiàndài biāozhǔn hànyǔ ; lit. 'modern standard Han speech')
672-776: A direct result of the geography. Coastal varieties also share more featural affinities, likely because the East China Sea provides a means of transportation. The same phenomenon can be seen with Min varieties . It has also been noted that Huizhou Chinese and the Tongtai branch of Huai Chinese share significant similarities with Wu Chinese. Wu is divided into two major groups: Northern Wu ( Chinese : 北部吳語 ; pinyin : Běibù Wúyǔ ) and Southern Wu ( Chinese : 南部吳語 ; pinyin : Nánbù Wúyǔ ), which are not mutually intelligible. Individual words spoken in isolation may be comprehensible among these speakers, but
784-565: A few hours each week in Taiwan starting in the mid-1990s. With an increase in internal migration in China , the official Putonghua Proficiency Test (PSC) has become popular. Employers often require a level of Standard Chinese proficiency from applicants depending on the position, and many university graduates on the mainland take the PSC before looking for a job. The pronunciation of Standard Chinese
896-579: A form of the Japanese language dubbed kokugo ( 国語 ). Reformers in the Qing bureaucracy took inspiration and borrowed the term into Chinese, and in 1909 the Qing education ministry officially proclaimed imperial Mandarin as Guoyu ( 国语 ; 國語 ), the 'national language'. After the Republic of China was established in 1912, there was more success in promoting a common national language. A Commission on
1008-564: A greater vocabulary scheme and a more archaic and "proper-sounding" pronunciation and vocabulary. Distinctive features of the Beijing dialect are more extensive use of erhua in vocabulary items that are left unadorned in descriptions of the standard such as the Xiandai Hanyu Cidian , as well as more neutral tones. An example of standard versus Beijing dialect would be the standard mén (door) and Beijing ménr . While
1120-408: A language family and are mutually intelligible with each other, while those of Southern Wu neither form a phylogenetic language family, nor are mutually intelligible with each other. Historical linguists view Wu of great significance due to its obviously distinct nature. The Wu languages typically preserve all voiced initials of medieval Chinese , as well as the checked tone in the form of
1232-473: A language that was not only phonologically and lexically different to the Wu Chinese of the time, but was syntactically and morphologically distinct as well. This Old Mandarin influence manifested in the form of the modern literary layer , as it was also the court language of the time. Coblin believes that this literary layer is also the origin of Huai Chinese . Unlike the previous periods,
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#17327729882621344-697: A lesser extent. Much of the Taiwanese Aboriginal population spoke their native Formosan languages . During the period of martial law between 1949 and 1987, the Taiwanese government revived the Mandarin Promotion Council , discouraging or in some cases forbidding the use of Hokkien and other non-standard varieties. This resulted in Standard Chinese replacing Hokkien as the country's lingua franca, and ultimately,
1456-464: A political backlash in the 1990s. Starting in the 2000s during the administration of President Chen Shui-Bian , the Taiwanese government began making efforts to recognize the country's other languages. They began being taught in schools, and their use increased in media, though Standard Chinese remains the country's lingua franca. Chen often used Hokkien in his speeches; later Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui also openly spoke Hokkien. In an amendment to
1568-454: A potential proto-system for Wu using the several varieties included in these boundaries. A similar attempt was attempted by William L. Ballard, though with significantly fewer localities and a heavy skew towards the North . The sole basis of Li Rong 's classification was the evolution of Qieyun system voiced stops . This was also Chao's only "necessary and sufficient" requirement for
1680-665: A singular nasal and a glottal stop . Some varieties however, may deviate from this and have features such as the addition of -/k/ , or the omission of the glottal stop. Wu varieties typically preserve Qieyun system voiced initials ( /b/ , /d/ , /ɡ/ , /z/ , /v/ , etc.) though some varieties have lost this feature. Implosives are also occasionally found in Wu varieties, primarily in suburban Shanghainese varieties , as well as in Yongkangese [ zh ] . Wu languages have typologically high numbers of vowels and are on par with Germanic languages in having
1792-497: A variety to be Wu. This definition is problematic considering the devoicing process has occurred in many Southern Wu varieties and in Northern Wu varieties situated near Huai Chinese . It furthermore would place unrelated varieties such as Old Xiang in this category, and also includes Hangzhounese despite its linguistically complex situation. Therefore, more elaborate systems have developed, but they still mostly delineate
1904-534: A whole include: It is believed that Han Chinese peoples first arrived at the area during pre-dynastic history . After the migrations proceeding the Upheaval of the Five Barbarians , the vernacular that would later lead to modern Wu Chinese started taking shape, though the court language of Jiankang (today Nanjing ) was still noticably different to that of the commonfolk. A second migration wave during
2016-493: Is a form of Standard Chinese that is read aloud with the Cantonese reading of characters. Like other Sinitic languages , Standard Chinese is a tonal language with topic-prominent organization and subject–verb–object (SVO) word order. Compared with southern varieties, the language has fewer vowels, final consonants and tones, but more initial consonants. It is an analytic language , albeit with many compound words . In
2128-762: Is a modern standard form of Mandarin Chinese that was first codified during the republican era (1912–1949). It is designated as the official language of mainland China and a major language in the United Nations , Singapore , and Taiwan . It is largely based on the Beijing dialect . Standard Chinese is a pluricentric language with local standards in mainland China, Taiwan and Singapore that mainly differ in their lexicon . Hong Kong written Chinese , used for formal written communication in Hong Kong and Macau,
2240-454: Is accepted that these readings would have been loaned from the language variety of medieval Jiankang. One prominent historical speaker of the medieval Wu language was Emperor Yangdi of the Sui dynasty and his Empress Xiao . Emperor Xuan of Western Liang , a member of Emperor Wu of Liang 's court, was Empress Xiao's grandfather and he most likely learned Wu at Jiankang . It is also noted in
2352-518: Is colloquially referred to as simply Mandarin , though this term may also refer to the Mandarin dialect group as a whole, or the late imperial form used as a lingua franca . "Mandarin" is a translation of Guanhua ( 官話 ; 官话 ; 'bureaucrat speech'), which referred to the late imperial lingua franca. The term Modern Standard Mandarin is used to distinguish it from older forms. The word Guoyu ( 国语 ; 國語 ; 'national language')
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#17327729882622464-504: Is common, as the majority of the population continues to also speak the latter as a native language. The stereotypical "southern Chinese" accent does not distinguish between retroflex and alveolar consonants , pronouncing pinyin zh [tʂ], ch [tʂʰ], and sh [ʂ] in the same way as z [ts], c [tsʰ], and s [s] respectively. Southern-accented Standard Chinese may also interchange l and n , final n and ng , and vowels i and ü [y]. Attitudes towards southern accents, particularly
2576-468: Is commonly used for practical reasons, as linguistic diversity is so great that residents of neighboring cities may have difficulties communicating with each other without a lingua franca. The Chinese government's language policy been largely successful, with over 80% of the Chinese population able to speak Standard Chinese as of 2020. The Chinese government's current goal is to have 85% of the country's population speak Standard Chinese by 2025, and virtually
2688-449: Is defined as that of the Beijing dialect . The usual unit of analysis is the syllable, consisting of an optional initial consonant , an optional medial glide , a main vowel and an optional coda, and further distinguished by a tone . The palatal initials [tɕ] , [tɕʰ] and [ɕ] pose a classic problem of phonemic analysis. Since they occur only before high front vowels, they are in complementary distribution with three other series,
2800-539: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Wu Chinese Wu ( simplified Chinese : 吴语 ; traditional Chinese : 吳語 ; pinyin : Wúyǔ ; Wugniu and IPA : wu-gniu 6 [ɦu˩.nʲy˦] ( Shanghainese ), ghou-gniu 6 [ɦou˨.nʲy˧] ( Suzhounese )) is a major group of Sinitic languages spoken primarily in Shanghai , Zhejiang province , and parts of Jiangsu province , especially south of
2912-475: Is not uncommon to encounter children who grew up with a regional variant of Mandarin as their parent tongue with little or no fluency in a Wu variety at all. This led to a step up in the preservation and documentation of Wu Chinese, with the first major attempt being the Linguistic Atlas of Chinese Dialects , which surveyed 2,791 locations across the nation, including 121 Wu locations (an increase from
3024-452: Is seen in the Book of Wei , which unflatteringly compares the speech of Jiangdong to the calls of wild animals. The court language of Jiankang at this time would not have been the same as the civilian Wu language, though it would have been closely related. This would also mark the time where Japanese Go-on ( 呉音 ; Hepburn : go-on ; pinyin : Wúyīn ) readings were loaned, and it
3136-420: Is the official language of the mandarins and of the court; it is among them like Latin among ourselves.... Two of our fathers [Michele Ruggieri and Matteo Ricci] have been learning this mandarin language... During the 17th century, the state had set up orthoepy academies ( 正音書院 ; zhèngyīn shūyuàn ) in an attempt to conform the speech of bureaucrats to the standard. These attempts had little success: as late as
3248-500: Is the primary lingua franca of more recent Chinese immigrants , is rapidly increasing. While Standard Chinese was made China's official language in the early 20th century, local languages continue to be the main form of everyday communication in much of the country. The language policy adopted by the Chinese government promotes the use of Standard Chinese while also making allowances for the use and preservation of local varieties. From an official point of view, Standard Chinese serves as
3360-573: Is thought to have used a dialect known as yayan rather than regional dialects; during the Han dynasty , texts also referred to tōngyǔ ( 通語 ; 'common language'). The rime books that were written starting in the Northern and Southern period may have reflected standard systems of pronunciation. However, these standard dialects were mostly used by the educated elite, whose pronunciation may still have possessed great variation. For these elites,
3472-421: Is today, and its southern limits may have reached as far as Fujian , as Proto-Min may have been a daughter language to Ancient Wu, though this is not fully accepted. As early as the time of Guo Pu (275–324), speakers easily perceived differences between dialects in different parts of China, including the area where Ancient Wu was spoken. The language slowly receded from the north due to growing pressure from
Southern Wu - Misplaced Pages Continue
3584-610: Is used in informal daily life and is heavily influenced in terms of both grammar and vocabulary by local languages such as Cantonese, Hokkien, and Malay. Instances of code-switching with English, Hokkien, Cantonese, Malay, or a combination thereof are also common. In Singapore, the government has heavily promoted a " Speak Mandarin Campaign " since the late 1970s, with the use of other Chinese varieties in broadcast media being prohibited and their use in any context officially discouraged until recently. This has led to some resentment amongst
3696-530: Is used in most official contexts, as well as the media and educational system, contributing to its proliferation. As a result, it is now spoken by most people in both countries, though often with some regional or personal variation in vocabulary and pronunciation. In overseas Chinese communities outside Asia where Cantonese once dominated, such as the Chinatown in Manhattan , the use of Standard Chinese, which
3808-646: The Central Plains , until its northern limit was set near the Yangtze River towards the end of the Western Jin dynasty . Note, however, that due to the fact that all modern Wu varieties work within the Qieyun system , this Old Chinese dialect cannot be the primary origin of Wu Chinese today. It is known that Wu languages inherited a significant number of loanwords of Kra-Dai origin. A study of
3920-594: The Eastern Wu dynasty , commentators criticized the speech of the Southern aristocracy (ie. that of the Wu-speaking areas), noting that it is neither Wu-sounding nor Northern. However, evidence suggests that the primary language among the populace was, in fact, Sinitic, although not one that was perceived as "civilized". This possible civilian language would be a common Jiangdong Sinitic language ( 古江東方言 ), as
4032-603: The Jianghuai area due to events such as the Red Turban Rebellions . The Hongwu Emperor ordered for people from Jiangnan , primarily in Suzhou , Songjiang , Jiaxing , Hangzhou , and other Northern Wu -speaking areas, to resettle the now depopulated areas in modern central Jiangsu . More migration happened several decades later to avoid wokou pirates. These migrations are believed to have contributed to
4144-462: The Sanskrit word mantrin ('minister')—and was initially used to refer to Chinese scholar-officials . The Portuguese then began referring to Guanhua as "the language of the mandarins". The Chinese have different languages in different provinces, to such an extent that they cannot understand each other.... [They] also have another language which is like a universal and common language; this
4256-627: The Southern Song dynasty , this time to Lin'an (Hangzhou), led to the formation of the modern literary layer , and during the Yuan and Ming dynasties , many operatic traditions and vernacular texts began to appear. Later, during the Qing dynasty , missionaries began translating the Bible into various local varieties, recording the exact pronunciations of many varieties for the first time. This
4368-505: The Wenqiji ( 问奇集 ; 問奇集 ; Wènqíjí ) includes a chapter called Gedi Xiangyin ( 各地鄉音 ) that records the local pronunciations of terms in various areas. Unlike the Qieyun preface, it separates the early Southwestern Mandarin of Huguang , ie. that of Chu, from Wu Chinese. The chapter records typical features of modern Wu, such as: Texts in the early Qing dynasty remained much
4480-751: The Wu Hu uprising and the Disaster of Yongjia during the Western Jin dynasty , collectively known as the Upheaval of the Five Barbarians , the imperial court from the Heluo region , along with a large migration wave from the North that lasted 150 years, primarily northern Jiangsu and much of Shandong , entered the Jiangnan region , establishing a new capital at Jiankang , modern-day Nanjing . Migrants went as far south as central Zhejiang , though many settled in
4592-502: The Yangtze River , which makes up the cultural region of Wu . The Wu languages are at times simply called Shanghainese , especially when introduced to foreigners. The Suzhounese variety was the prestige dialect of Wu as of the 19th century, but had been replaced in status by Shanghainese by the turn of the 20th century , coinciding with a period of rapid language change in the city. The languages of Northern Wu constitute
Southern Wu - Misplaced Pages Continue
4704-513: The northern Wu-speaking areas occurred, which some believe created the north-south geographical divide we see today. Yongjianese [ zh ] , a variety of Oujiang Wu , was first recorded during the Song dynasty . Yongjianese is the variety in which the Liushugu [ zh ] ( 六書故 ) by Dai Tong [ zh ] ( 戴侗 , 1200-1285) is written. This treaty of calligraphy
4816-473: The 19th century, the emperor had difficulty understanding some of his ministers in court, who did not always follow a standard pronunciation. Before the 19th century, the lingua franca was based on the Nanjing dialect , but later the Beijing dialect became increasingly influential, despite the mix of officials and commoners speaking various dialects in the capital, Beijing . By some accounts, as late as 1900
4928-956: The Chinese government has not stated its intent to replace regional varieties with Standard Chinese. However, regulations enacted by local governments to implement the national law−such as the Guangdong National Language Regulations —have included coercive measures to control the public's use of both spoken dialects and traditional characters in writing. Some Chinese speakers who are older or from rural areas cannot speak Standard Chinese fluently or at all—though most are able to understand it. Meanwhile, those from urban areas—as well as younger speakers, who have received their education primarily in Standard Chinese—are almost all fluent in it, with some being unable to speak their local dialect. The Chinese government has disseminated public service announcements promoting
5040-587: The Chinese language was unified in Literary Chinese , a form that was primarily written, as opposed to spoken. The term Guanhua ( 官話 ; 官话 ; 'official speech') was used during the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1912) dynasties to refer to the lingua franca spoken within the imperial courts. The term "Mandarin" is borrowed directly from the Portuguese word mandarim , in turn derived from
5152-619: The Chinese. It is said in Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals that the customs and languages of the states of Wu and Yue were the same. This refers not just to the Baiyue language of the area, but also of that of "Ancient Wu", a Sinitic language likely only used by the nobility. The northern border of this Ancient Wu language is at the Huai River rather than the Yangtze like it
5264-597: The Enforcement Rules of the Passport Act ( 護照條例施行細則 ) passed on 9 August 2019, Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that romanized spellings of names in Hoklo , Hakka and Aboriginal languages may be used in Taiwanese passports. Previously, only Mandarin names could be romanized. Mandarin is one of the four official languages of Singapore, along with English, Malay , and Tamil . Historically, it
5376-561: The Huai variety was confined inside the town itself until the 1960s; at present, it is overtaking the Wu variety even in rural areas. Several important proponents of vernacular Chinese in official use, such as Lu Xun and Chao Yuen Ren , were speakers of Northern Wu varieties, in this case Shaoxingese and Changzhounese respectively. Wenzhounese was used during the Second World War to avoid Japanese interception. After
5488-791: The Sino-Austronesian language family (not to be confused with Austroasiatic) due to a scattering of cognates between their ancestral forms, and there is also some, albeit much more tenuous, evidence to suggest that Austroasiatic should also be included. However, his views are but one among competing hypotheses about the phylogeny of these languages, and is not widely accepted. See the Sino-Austronesian languages article for some further detail. It does appear that Wu varieties have had non-Sinitic influences, and many contain words cognate with those of other languages in various strata. These words however are few and far between, and Wu on
5600-455: The Standard Chinese spoken in Taiwan is nearly identical to that of mainland China, the colloquial form has been heavily influenced by other local languages, especially Taiwanese Hokkien. Notable differences include: the merger of retroflex sounds (zh, ch, sh, r) with the alveolar series (z, c, s), frequent mergers of the "neutral tone" with a word's original tone, and absence of erhua . Code-switching between Mandarin and Taiwanese Hokkien
5712-545: The Taiwanese government introduced two laws explicitly recognizing the indigenous Formosan languages and Hakka as "Languages of the nation" ( 國家語言 ) alongside Standard Chinese. Since then, there have been efforts to redefine Guoyu as encompassing all "languages of the nation", rather than exclusively referring to Standard Chinese. Among Chinese people, Hanyu ( 汉语 ; 漢語 ; 'Han language') refers to spoken varieties of Chinese . Zhongwen ( 中文 ; 'written Chinese') refers to written Chinese. Among foreigners,
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#17327729882625824-464: The Unification of Pronunciation was convened with delegates from the entire country. A Dictionary of National Pronunciation ( 國音字典 ; 国音字典 ) was published in 1919, defining a hybrid pronunciation that did not match any existing speech. Meanwhile, despite the lack of a workable standardized pronunciation, colloquial literature in written vernacular Chinese continued to develop. Gradually,
5936-533: The United Kingdom and Macau's handover from Portugal, their governments use Putonghua to communicate with the PRC's Central People's Government . There has been significant effort to promote use of Putonghua in Hong Kong since the handover, including the training of police and teachers. Standard Chinese is the official language of Taiwan . Standard Chinese started being widely spoken in Taiwan following
6048-412: The Wu of today and that of the 13th century . The Ming dynasty saw continued development of local operas, such as Suzhou pingtan , and more vernacular texts being written. In particular, the contemporary Classic Chinese Novels , such as Water Margin , are believed to have significant lexical and syntactic influence from Hangzhounese . The Yuan-Ming transition saw a tremendous loss of life in
6160-616: The Wu-like features in western Huai Chinese groups, such as Tongtai . Dialectal differences were not as obvious in textual sources until Ming times, and thus regional linguistic distinctions were only seen in media after the fall of the Yuan. These differences are largely found in musical sources such as historical folk songs and tanci (a kind of ballad or lyric poem). For instance, the Shange ( 山歌 ; Shāngē ; 'Mountain songs'),
6272-486: The Wu-speaking area. Xuanzhou Wu therefore significantly receded, which is reflected in the fact that it is now only spoken in the mountainous highlands of southern Anhui . Some territorial changes and stratification occurred, primarily near the Yangtze River . The newly-arrived Huai Chinese varieties have been slowly overtaking the suburban and rural Wu varieties. For instance, in Lishui county, Nanjing prefecture,
6384-558: The citizenry was originally borrowed from Japan in the early 20th century. In 1902, the Japanese Diet had formed the National Language Research Council to standardize a form of the Japanese language dubbed kokugo ( 国語 ). Reformers in the Qing bureaucracy took inspiration and borrowed the term into Chinese, and in 1909 the Qing education ministry officially proclaimed imperial Mandarin to be
6496-425: The coda of the base syllable in a rhotacizing process called erhua . Each full syllable is pronounced with a phonemically distinctive pitch contour. There are four tonal categories, marked in pinyin with diacritics, as in the words mā ( 媽 ; 妈 ; 'mother'), má ( 麻 ; 'hemp'), mǎ ( 馬 ; 马 ; 'horse') and mà ( 罵 ; 骂 ; 'curse'). The tonal categories also have secondary characteristics. For example,
6608-928: The collection Zhuibaiqiu ( 綴白裘 ), and the legends written by Shen Qifeng [ zh ] or what are known as Shenshi Sizhong ( 沈氏四種 ), as well as huge numbers of tanci ( 彈詞 ) ballads. From the late Qing period to Republican China (the 19th and early 20th centuries), long-form vernacular novels ( 蘇白小說 or 吳語小說 ) such as The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai ( 海上花列傳 ) and The Nine-tailed Turtle ( 九尾龜 ) started appearing. Both above examples are pornographic in nature. Other works include: Wu-speaking writers who wrote in vernacular Mandarin often left traces of their native varieties in their works, as can be found in Guanchang Xianxing Ji and Fubao Xiantan ( 負曝閒談 ). Works in this period also saw an explosion of new vocabulary in Wu varieties to describe their changing world. This clearly reflects
6720-406: The context of linguistics , the dialect has been labeled Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin , and in common speech simply Mandarin , more specifically qualified as Standard Mandarin , Modern Standard Mandarin , or Standard Mandarin Chinese . Among linguists, Standard Chinese has been referred to as Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin . It
6832-564: The critical historical factors for these boundaries lies in the movement of the population of speakers. This is often determined by the administrative boundaries established during imperial times . As such, imperial boundaries are essential for delineating one variety from another, and many varieties' isogloss clusters line up perfectly with the county boundaries established in imperial times, although some counties contain more than one variety and others may span several counties . Another factor that influences movement and transportation, as well as
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#17327729882626944-431: The dental sibilants, retroflexes and velars, which never occur in this position. The [ɹ̩] final, which occurs only after dental sibilant and retroflex initials, is a syllabic approximant , prolonging the initial. The rhotacized vowel [ɚ] forms a complete syllable. A reduced form of this syllable occurs as a sub-syllabic suffix, spelled -r in pinyin and often with a diminutive connotation. The suffix modifies
7056-457: The dialect family as a whole. This is typically done by affixing 話 ('speech') to a location's endonym. For example, 溫州話 ( Wu Chinese pronunciation: [ʔy˧꜖ tɕiɤu˧꜖ ɦo˩꜒꜔] ) is used for Wenzhounese . Affixing 閒話 is also common, and more typical of Northern Wu, as in 嘉興閒話 ( Wugniu : ka-shin ghae-o ) for the Jiaxing variety [ zh ] . Names for the group as
7168-506: The early Communist leader Qu Qiubai in 1931. His concern echoed within the Communist Party, which adopted the term Putonghua in 1955. Since 1949, usage of the word Guoyu was phased out in the PRC, only surviving in established compound nouns, e.g. ' Mandopop ' ( 国语流行音乐 ; Guóyǔ liúxíng yīnyuè ), or 'Chinese cinema' ( 国语电影 ; Guóyǔ diànyǐng ). In Taiwan, Guoyu is the colloquial term for Standard Chinese. In 2017 and 2018,
7280-573: The end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, with the relocation of the Kuomintang (KMT) to the island along with an influx of refugees from the mainland. The Standard Chinese used in Taiwan differs very little from that of mainland China, with differences largely being in technical vocabulary introduced after 1949. Prior to 1949, the varieties most commonly spoken by Taiwan's Han population were Taiwanese Hokkien , as well as Hakka to
7392-494: The entire country by 2035. Throughout the country, Standard Chinese has heavily influenced local languages through diglossia , replacing them entirely in some cases, especially among younger people in urban areas. The Chinese government is keen to promote Putonghua as the national lingua franca: under the National Common Language and Writing Law , the government is required to promoted its use. Officially,
7504-428: The establishment of administrative boundaries, is geography. Northernmost Zhejiang and Jiangsu are very flat—being in the middle of a river delta , and as such are more uniform than the more mountainous regions farther south towards Fujian . The Taihu varieties, like Mandarin in the flat northern plains , are more homogeneous than Southern Wu, which has a significantly greater diversity of linguistic forms, likely
7616-458: The exclusive use of Mandarin as well as certain Mandarin promotion measures, promotion and regularization of Wu languages became improbable and left them more prone to Mandarinization. In 1992, students in Shanghai were banned from speaking Shanghainese at all times on campuses. As of now, Wu has no official status, no legal protection and there is no officially sanctioned romanization . It
7728-479: The flowing discourse of everyday life mostly is not. Another lesser group, Western Wu , is synonymous with the Xuanzhou division, which not only has a larger influence from the surrounding Mandarin varieties than much of Northern Wu, but also has very unique phonetic innovations, making it typologically quite different to the rest of Wu. Southern Wu is well known among linguists and sinologists as being one of
7840-547: The formation of modern Wu, with many early coincidental strata that are hard to differentiate today. It is unclear as to when exactly the language of the Baiyue became extinct, though during the Eastern Han dynasty , Kra-Dai words were recorded in the everyday vernacular of people in the region, and by the end of the Western Jin, the common language of the region was Sinitic, as will be explained below. As early as
7952-456: The founding of the People's Republic of China , the strong promotion of Mandarin in the Wu-speaking region yet again influenced the development of Wu Chinese. Curiously, Wenzhounese was used again during the Vietnam War to avoid enemy comprehensibility. Wu varieties were gradually excluded from most modern media and schools. With the influx of a migrant non-Wu-speaking population, the near total conversion of public media and organizations to
8064-603: The geographically less challenging areas in the north, that is to say, the Yangtze Delta and the Hangjiahu Plain . Early stages of this period of change was likely marked by diglossia , with the commonfolk typically speaking Ancient Wu or their native Shandong or northern Jiangsu Chinese, and the nobility, both new migrants and old aristocracy, typically speaking a varity not dissimilar to that of early medieval Luoyang . This linguistic situation eventually led to
8176-486: The great social changes which were occurring during the time. At the same time, missionary Joseph Edkins gathered large amounts of data and published several educational works on Shanghainese , as well as Bibles in a few major Wu varieties, including Southern Wu varieties such as Jinhuanese and Wenzhounese . Following the Taiping Rebellion , many migrants from Mandarin -speaking areas migrated into
8288-517: The greater scope of Sinitic languages is less easily typified than prototypically northern Chinese varieties such as Mandarin or prototypically southern Chinese varieties such as Cantonese . Its original classification, along with the other Sinitic varieties, was established in 1937 by Li Fang-Kuei , whose boundaries more or less have remained the same, and were adopted by Yuan Jiahua in his influential 1961 dialect primer. These limits were also adopted by Chao Yuen Ren , and he even further created
8400-575: The history of Wu Chinese after the Mongol conquest of China becomes a lot clearer, due to the emergence of vernacular texts. Following the Mongol conquest of China , a period of relative stability followed, and vernacularism started being further embraced. This is evident in the fact that Chinese opera productions, including those of both the Northern and Southern Wu-speaking regions, started using their local varieties rather than Classical Chinese , as
8512-592: The idiom "the tender speech of Wu" ( 吴侬软语 ; 吳儂軟語 ). Speakers of Wu varieties are mostly unaware of this term for their speech, since the classificatory imposition of "Wu" used in linguistics today is a relatively recent coinage. Saying someone "speaks Wu" is therefore akin to saying someone "speaks a Romance language"; it is not a particularly defined entity like Standard Mandarin or Hochdeutsch . Most speakers are only aware of their local variety's affinities with other similarly classified varieties, and will generally only refer to their local Wu variety rather than to
8624-418: The issue, although major international databases , such as Glottolog and Ethnologue , do not share similar sentiments. Although more TV programs are appearing in Wu varieties, they are no longer permitted to air during primetime. They are generally more playful than serious and many of these shows, such as Hangzhou 's " 阿六頭説新聞 " ("Old Liutou tells you the news"), provide local or regional news in
8736-615: The largest vowel quality inventories in the world. The Jinhui variety , spoken in Shanghai's Fengxian District , can be analyzed to have 20 vowel qualities. The abnormal number of vowels in Wu is due in part to rimes ending in glottal stops may be analysed as a short vowel in many varieties, as well as unique sound shifts, such as the tensing of Qieyun system shan ( 山 ) and xian ( 咸 ) rimes, among other factors. Both breathy and creaky voice are also found in Wu varieties. Breathy voice appears in Northern Wu and may act as
8848-497: The latter of which even having international titles. Today, popular support for the preservation of Wu languages is very strong, while feature-length movies such as B for Busy and highly successful TV shows such as Blossoms Shanghai have been filmed in Wu varieties (in both aforementioned cases, Shanghainese ). It is now not uncommon to see advertisements and billboards, as well as government media, using Wu Chinese written in non- ad hoc orthographies. Wu's place within
8960-581: The medium of instruction with the standard shared with Singaporean Chinese. Together influenced by the Singaporean Speak Mandarin Campaign and Chinese culture revival movement in the 1980s, Malaysian Chinese started their own promotion of Mandarin too, and similar to Singapore, but to a lesser extent, experienced language shift from other Chinese variants to Mandarin. Today, Mandarin functions as lingua franca among Malaysian Chinese, while Hokkien and Cantonese are still retained in
9072-571: The members of the National Language Commission came to settle upon the Beijing dialect, which became the major source of standard national pronunciation due to its prestigious status. In 1932, the commission published the Vocabulary of National Pronunciation for Everyday Use ( 國音常用字彙 ; 国音常用字汇 ), with little fanfare or official announcement. This dictionary was similar to the previous published one except that it normalized
9184-547: The mid-1960s. Gradually, the term has been re-appropriated to refer specifically to Standard Chinese. The term is mostly used in Singapore , Malaysia , Indonesia , and the Philippines . The Chinese language has had considerable dialectal variation throughout its history, including prestige dialects and linguae francae used throughout the territory controlled by the dynastic states of China. For example, Confucius
9296-549: The most internally diverse among the Sinitic groups , with very little mutual intelligibility between varieties across subgroups. In the first edition of Li 's Language Atlas of China , Wu was divided into six groups ( 片 ): Cao Zhiyun rearranged some of the Southern Wu divisions based on a larger corpus of data. According to Cao, it can be divided into three broad divisions: Taizhounese remained unchanged as it
9408-627: The name used in Taiwan . The forms of Standard Chinese used in China and Taiwan have diverged somewhat since the end of the Civil War, especially in newer vocabulary, and a little in pronunciation. In 1956, the PRC officially defined Standard Chinese as "the standard form of Modern Chinese with the Beijing phonological system as its norm of pronunciation, and Northern dialects as its base dialect, and looking to exemplary modern works in written vernacular Chinese for its grammatical norms." According to
9520-403: The neutral tone. It is common for Standard Chinese to be spoken with the speaker's regional accent, depending on factors such as age, level of education, and the need and frequency to speak in official or formal situations. Due to evolution and standardization, Mandarin, although based on the Beijing dialect, is no longer synonymous with it. Part of this was due to the standardization to reflect
9632-399: The new national language. The term Putonghua ( 普通话 ; 普通話 ; 'common tongue') dates back to 1906 in writings by Zhu Wenxiong to differentiate the standard vernacular Mandarin from Literary Chinese and other varieties of Chinese . Since 2000, the Chinese government has used the term "Countrywide common spoken and written language" ( 国家通用语言文字 ), while also making provisions for
9744-428: The northern part and central part of Peninsular Malaysia respectively. In some regions controlled by insurgent groups in northern Myanmar, Mandarin serves as the lingua franca. In both mainland China and Taiwan, Standard Chinese is taught by immersion starting in elementary school. After the second grade, the entire educational system is in Standard Chinese, except for local language classes that have been taught for
9856-508: The official definition, Standard Chinese uses: Proficiency in the new standard was initially limited, even among Mandarin speakers, but increased over the following decades. A 2007 survey conducted by the Chinese Ministry of Education indicated that 53.06% of the population were able to effectively communicate using Standard Chinese. By 2020, this figure had risen to over 80%. In both mainland China and Taiwan, Standard Chinese
9968-491: The older generations, as Singapore's migrant Chinese community is made up almost entirely of people of south Chinese descent. Lee Kuan Yew , the initiator of the campaign, admitted that to most Chinese Singaporeans, Mandarin was a "stepmother tongue" rather than a true mother language. Nevertheless, he saw the need for a unified language among the Chinese community not biased in favor of any existing group. In Malaysia, Mandarin has been adopted by local Chinese-language schools as
10080-491: The position of the Nanjing dialect was considered by some to be above that of Beijing; the postal romanization standards established in 1906 included spellings that reflected elements of Nanjing pronunciation. The sense of Guoyu as a specific language variety promoted for general use by the citizenry was originally borrowed from Japan; in 1902 the Japanese Diet had formed the National Language Research Council to standardize
10192-644: The preface of the Qieyun , a Sui dynasty rime dictionary , that the speech of Wu, as well as that of Chu , is "at times too soft and light". 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 have been written in the Suzhounese . After the An Lushan rebellion , significant migration into
10304-479: The primary spoken language, alongside a local form of Standard Chinese ( 書面語 ; syu1 min6 jyu5 ; 'written language') used in schools, local government, and formal writing. Written Cantonese may also be used in informal settings such as advertisements, magazines, popular literature, and comics. Mixture of formal and informal written Chinese occurs to various degrees. After the Hong Kong's handover from
10416-509: The pronunciations for all characters into the pronunciation of the Beijing dialect. Elements from other dialects continue to exist in the standard language, but as exceptions rather than the rule. Following the end of the Chinese Civil War , the People's Republic of China (PRC) continued standardisation efforts on the mainland, and in 1955 officially began using Putonghua ( 普通话 ; 普通話 ; 'common speech') instead of Guoyu , which remains
10528-488: The same as that of the Ming dynasty. Works of the time include the Qingzhongpu ( 清忠譜 ) and Doupeng xianhua ( 豆棚閒話 ), an early Qing baihua novel. During the 18th century , significant lexical shifts away from that seen in Shange took place; many sources we have of the period are operatic in nature. Representative works from this section include the operas (especially kunqu operas) by Qian Decang ( 錢德蒼 ) in
10640-502: The same regions. Regardless of the justification, the Wu region has been clearly outlined, and Li's boundary in some ways has remained the de facto standard. In Jerry Norman 's usage, Wu dialects can be considered "central dialects" or dialects that are clearly in a transition zone containing features that typify both northern and southern Chinese varieties. Dialectologists traditionally establish linguistic boundaries based on several overlapping isoglosses of linguistic features. One of
10752-534: The term Hanyu is most commonly used in textbooks and Standard Chinese education, such as in the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK) test. Until the mid-1960s, Huayu ( 华语 ; 華語 ) referred to all the language varieties used among the Chinese nation . For example, Cantonese , Mandarin , and Hokkien films produced in Hong Kong were imported into Malaysia and collectively known as " Huayu cinema" until
10864-447: The third tone is long and murmured , whereas the fourth tone is relatively short. Statistically, vowels and tones are of similar importance in the language. There are also weak syllables, including grammatical particles such as the interrogative ma ( 嗎 ; 吗 ) and certain syllables in polysyllabic words. These syllables are short, with their pitch determined by the preceding syllable. Such syllables are commonly described as being in
10976-462: The two locations in PKU's earlier surveys). This also led to the formation of an elaborate database including digital recordings of all locations, however, this database is not available to the general public. The atlas's editor, Cao Zhiyun, considers many of these languages "endangered" and has introduced the term 濒危方言 ('languages in danger' or 'endangered local languages') to raise people's attention to
11088-496: The unique features in its vocabulary present in contemporary Wu, such as pronouns , but clearly indicate that not all of the earlier unique features of these Wu varieties were carried into present varieties. These works also possess a number of characters uniquely formed to express features not found in the classical language and used some common characters as phonetic loans (see Chinese character classification ) to express other uniquely Wu vocabulary. A 16th century text called
11200-437: The use and protection of ethnic minority languages. The term is derived from the title of a 2000 law which defines Putonghua as the "Countrywide Common Spoken and Written Language". Use of the term Putonghua ('common tongue') deliberately avoids calling the dialect a 'national language', in order to mitigate the impression of coercing minority groups to adopt the language of the majority. Such concerns were first raised by
11312-559: The use of Putonghua on television and the radio, as well as on public buses. The standardization campaign has been challenged by local dialectical and ethnic populations, who fear the loss of their cultural identity and native dialect. In the summer of 2010, reports of a planned increase in the use of the Putonghua on local television in Guangdong led to demonstrations on the streets by thousands of Cantonese -speaking citizens. While
11424-450: The use of Standard Chinese is encouraged as the common working language in predominantly Han areas on the mainland, the PRC has been more sensitive to the status of non-Sinitic minority languages, and has generally not discouraged their social use outside of education. In Hong Kong and Macau , which are special administrative regions of the PRC, there is diglossia between Cantonese ( 口語 ; hau2 jyu5 ; 'spoken language') as
11536-906: The variety spoken in Maqiao , a suburb of Shanghai , found that 126 out of around a thousand lexical items surveyed were of Kra-Dai origin. Terms such as 落蘇 ( Wugniu : loq-su 1 " aubergine ") are also shared between other Sinitic languages (eg. Teochew , Peng'im : lag sou ) as well as Kra-Dai languages (cf. Standard Zhuang lwggwz ). Shared terms with Austroasiatic languages have also been suggested, though many of them, such as Vietnamese đầm , bèo , and kè , have also been argued to be areal features , Chinese words in disguise, or long shots. Though Sino-Tibetan , Kra-Dai, Austronesian and Austroasiatic are mostly considered to be unrelated to each other, Laurent Sagart has proposed some possible phylogenetic affinities. Specifically, Tai–Kadai and Sino-Tibetan could possibly both belong to
11648-402: The variety, but most are limited to fifteen minutes of airtime. Popular video sites such as Youku and Tudou also host a variety of user-uploaded audio and visual media in many Wu varieties, most of which are regional TV shows, although some are user-created songs and the like. A number of books are also appearing to teach people how to speak Wu varieties such as Suzhounese and Shanghainese ,
11760-403: The whole is most strongly influenced by other Chinese languages rather than any other linguistic influence. This period is bookended by two major migration waves into the Wu-speaking area. The first was in the 4th century CE from primarily the mountains of Shandong , whereas the second happened during the 12th century CE , and originated from the Heluo region. Due to events such as
11872-470: Was also when the economic boom of Shanghai happened, leading to its urban variety becoming the prestige variety over that of Suzhou . The 20th century marked a pivotal moment of Wu linguistic change, as Standard Mandarin was promoted nation-wide , though the 21st century is seeing revival efforts for many Wu Chinese varieties. Before the migration of the Han Chinese peoples, the Jiangnan region
11984-508: Was inhabited by Kra-Dai or Austroasiatic peoples, which were dubbed barbarians by the early Chinese. According to traditional history, Taibo of Wu settled in the area during the Shang dynasty , bringing along a large section of the population and Chinese administrative practices to form the state of Wu . The majority population of the state would have been the ancient Baiyue peoples, who had very different customs and practices compared to
12096-541: Was initially used during the late Qing dynasty to refer to the Manchu language . The 1655 Memoir of Qing Dynasty , Volume: Emperor Nurhaci ( 清太祖實錄 ) says: "(In 1631) as Manchu ministers do not comprehend the Han language, each ministry shall create a new position to be filled up by Han official who can comprehend the national language." However, the sense of Guoyu as a specific language variety promoted for general use by
12208-693: Was not included in the study. This was later adopted by the second edition of Li's Atlas . Minor adjustments were also made regarding Northern Wu subdivisions. Wu varieties typically possess a larger phonological inventory than many Sinitic languages . Many varieties also have tone systems known for highly complex tone sandhi . Phonologies of Wu varieties are diverse and hard to generalize. As such, only typologically significant features will be discussed here. For more information, refer to individual varieties' pages. In terms of consonants , those in initial positions are more plentiful than those in finals . Finals typically only permit two consonant phonemes ,
12320-598: Was published in 1320. After the Jingkang incident , the imperial capital of the Song dynasty was moved from Bianjing (modern-day Kaifeng) to Lin'an (Hangzhou), starting the Southern Song period. This also coincided with a large migration wave mostly from the Heluo region, a strip of the Central Plains south of the Yellow River that roughly stretches from Luoyang to Kaifeng , which also brought
12432-542: Was seldom used by the Chinese Singaporean community , which primarily spoke the Southern Chinese languages of Hokkien , Teochew , Cantonese, or Hakka . Standard Singaporean Mandarin is nearly identical to the standards of China and Taiwan, with minor vocabulary differences. It is the Mandarin variant used in education, media, and official settings. Meanwhile, a colloquial form called Singdarin
12544-545: Was the norm during and before the Song dynasty. The Tō-on ( 唐音 ; Hepburn : tō-on ; Pinyin : Tángyīn ) pronunciations introduced during the Japanese Kamakura period were largely rooted in the vernacular of northern Zhejiang at around the end of the Song dynasty or start of the Yuan dynasty , despite what its name may suggest. Analyses on texts of the time reveal stark phonetic differences between
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