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Suzhou dialect

 

Suzhou dialect

Suzhou dialect (蘇州話 / 苏州话; pinyin: su zhou hua) is a dialect of Wu, one of the subdivisions of Chinese spoken language. It is spoken in the city of Suzhou, in Jiangsu province of China.

It is typical of the Wu dialects, being rich in vowels and conservative in having many initials, and has many similarities with the Shanghai dialect.

Phonology

Initials

 
Labials
Dentals
Silibants
Palatals
Velars
Laryngeals
Unvoiced Unaspirated Stops
()
Unvoiced Aspirated Stops
 
Voiced Stops
b
d
 
 
Nasals
 
 
Unvoiced Fricatives
 
 
Voiced Fricatives
 
 
 
Liquids
 
 
 
 
 

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

 
Vowels
Diphthongs
Tripthongs
Nasals
Glottals
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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

Tones

Yin Ping
Yang Ping
Yin Shang
Yin Qu
Yang Qu
Yin Ru
Yang Ru
陰平
陽平
陰上
陰去
陽去
陰入
陽入
44
24
52
412
31
4
23

In Suzhou, part of the Middle Chinese Shang tone characters has merged with the modern yin qu tone.

Romanization

See also


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