View source for Taihu Wu

{{Short description|Wu Chinese language}}
{{Infobox language
|name=Taihu Wu
|nativename={{lang|wuu-Hant|吳語太湖片}}
|states=[[People's Republic of China]]
|region=South [[Jiangsu]] province, North [[Zhejiang]] province, southeastern [[Anhui]], and [[Shanghai]]. Linguistic exclave in [[Cangnan]] county in southern [[Zhejiang]] province.
|speakers={{sigfig|47.3|2}} million
|ref=<ref name="sinolect">{{Cite web |last=Sinolect.org |title=Untitled |url=http://sinolect.org/images/y-roundbig2-k400.gif |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130513120020/http://sinolect.org/images/y-roundbig2-k400.gif |archive-date=2013-05-13 |language=zh |type=Pie Chart |format=GIF}}</ref>
|date=1987
|familycolor=Sino-Tibetan
|fam2=[[Sinitic languages|Sinitic]]
|fam3=[[Chinese language|Chinese]]
|fam4=[[Wu Chinese|Wu]]
|iso3=none
|iso6=taiu<br/>tupn
|glotto=taih1244
|glottorefname=Taihu
|lingua=79-AAA-db
|script=[[Chinese characters]]
}}
'''Taihu Wu''' ({{lang|zh|吳語太湖片}}) or '''Northern Wu''' ({{lang|zh|北部吳語}}) is a [[Wu Chinese]] language spoken in much of the southern part of the province of [[Jiangsu]], including [[Suzhou]], [[Wuxi]], [[Changzhou]], the southern part of [[Nantong]], [[Jingjiang]] and [[Danyang, Jiangsu|Danyang]]; the municipality of [[Shanghai]]; and the northern part of [[Zhejiang]] province, including [[Hangzhou]], [[Shaoxing]], [[Ningbo]], [[Huzhou]], and [[Jiaxing]]. A notable exception is the dialect of the town of Jinxiang, which is a linguistic exclave of Taihu Wu in [[Zhenan Min]]-speaking [[Cangnan]] county of [[Wenzhou]] prefecture in Zhejiang province. Speakers in regions around [[Lake Tai|Taihu Lake]] and [[Hangzhou Bay]], are the largest population among all Wu speakers. Taihu Wu dialects such as Shanghainese, Shaoxing and Ningbo are [[mutually intelligible]] even for L2 Taihu speakers.
==History==
Linguistic affinity has also been used as a tool for regional identity and politics in the [[Jiangbei region|Jiangbei]] and [[Jiangnan]] regions. While the city of [[Yangzhou]] was 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 the [[Yangzi River]]. Once [[Yangzhou]]'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 from [[Jianghuai Mandarin]], the dialect of Yangzhou, to Taihu Wu dialects. In Jiangnan itself, multiple subdialects of Wu competed for the position of prestige dialect.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ko |first=Dorothy |url=https://archive.org/details/teachersofinnerc00kodo |title=Teachers of the Inner Chambers: Women and Culture in Seventeenth-Century China |date=1994 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=0-8047-2359-1 |edition=illustrated, annotated |location=Stanford |page=[https://archive.org/details/teachersofinnerc00kodo/page/21 21] |quote=jianghuai mandarin. <!-- |access-date=23 September 2011--> |url-access=registration}}</ref>
In 1984, around 85 million speakers are mutually intelligible with [[Shanghainese]].<ref name="defrancis">{{Cite book |last=DeFrancis |first=John |title=The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy |title-link=The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy |date=1984 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |location=Honolulu}}</ref>
==Phonology==
{{Main|Northern Wu phonology}}
Taihu Wu varieties tend to preserve historical voiced initials.<ref>{{citation|last=VanNess Simmons|first=Richard|title=Chinese Dialect Classification: A comparative approach to Harngjou, Old Jintarn and Common Northern Wu|year=1999|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Co.|isbn=90-272-3694-1|page=3-7
}}</ref> The number of phonemic vowels can reach numbers higher than that of some [[Germanic languages]].<ref>{{citation|last1=Li|first1=Hui|last2=Hong|first2=Yulong|year=2012|title={{lang|zh|偒傣話：世界上元音最多的語言}}|trans-title=Dondac: The language with the most vowels in the world|publisher=Fudan University Press|isbn=978-7-309-09153-3|page=12}}</ref> Taihu Wu varieties typically have phonemic 7-8 tones,<ref>{{citation|last1=Chappell|first1=Hilary|last2=Lan|first2=Li|encyclopedia=Routledge Encyclopedia of the Chinese language|location=Oxford|publisher=Taylor & Francis|title=Mandarin and other Sinitic languages|year=2017|page=605-628}}</ref> though some can go as high as 12 or as low as 5,<ref>{{citation|last=Xu|first=Zhen|title={{lang|zh|吴江方言声调研究}}|institution=Shanghai Normal University|year=2009|trans-title=A Study on the Tones of the lect of Wujiang|type=thesis|page=9}}</ref><ref>{{citation|last1=Qian|first1=Nairong|last2=Xu|first2=Baohua|last3=Tang|first3=Zhenzhu|title={{lang|zh|上海话大词典}}|trans-title=The Great Dictionary of Shanghainese|publisher=Shanghai Lexicographical Publishing House|year=2007|edition=1|isbn=978-7-5326-2248-1|page=386}}</ref> and they all have highly complex [[tone sandhi]].<ref>{{citation|last1=Rose|first1=Phil|first2=Takako|last2=Toda|title=A Typology of Tone Sandhi Rules in Northern Wu|journal=Current Issues in Sino-Tibetan Linguistics|year=1994|pages=267-273|location=Ōsaka}}</ref>
==List of Taihu Wu dialect subgroups==
*Su&ndash;Jia&ndash;Hu (Suzhou&ndash;Jiaxing&ndash;Huzhou, 蘇嘉湖小片), also known as Su&ndash;Hu&ndash;Jia (Suzhou&ndash;Shanghai&ndash;Jiaxing, 蘇滬嘉小片) – {{sigfig|23.3|2}} million speakers in 1987<ref name=sinolect/>
**[[Suzhou dialect]] (Jiangsu)
**[[Shanghainese]]
**[[Jiaxing dialect]] (Zhejiang)
**[[Wuxi dialect]] (Jiangsu)
*Tiaoxi (苕溪小片, now considered to be a subbranch or sister group to Suzhou&ndash;Shanghai&ndash;Jiaxing) – 3 million speakers in 1987<ref name=sinolect/>
**[[Huzhou dialect]] (Zhejiang)
**Southeast Guangde dialect (Anhui)
Northwestern Wu
*Piling (毗陵小片, spoken in Jiangsu and Anhui provinces) – 8 million speakers in 1987<ref name=sinolect/>
**[[Changzhou dialect]] (Jiangsu)
*Hangzhou (杭州小片) – 1.2 million speakers in 1987<ref name=sinolect/>
**[[Hangzhou dialect]] (Zhejiang)
Northern Zhejiang
*Lin&ndash;Shao (臨紹小片) – 7.8 million speakers in 1987<ref name=sinolect/>
**[[Shaoxing dialect]] (Zhejiang)
**Lin'an (Zhejiang)
*Yongjiang 甬江小片 or Mingzhou (明州小片) – 4 million speakers in 1987<ref name=sinolect/>
**[[Ningbo dialect]] (Zhejiang)
**Zhoushan (Zhejiang)
*[[Jinxiang dialect]] (金鄉話, appears to be an isolate, but closely related to the Taihu Wu varieties of Northern Zhejiang.)
==List of Taihu Wu dialects==
*[[Shanghainese|Shanghai dialect]]
*[[Ningbo dialect]]
*[[Hangzhou dialect]]
*[[Suzhou dialect]]
*[[Changzhou dialect]]
*[[Wuxi dialect]]
*[[Jiangyin dialect]]
*[[Qihai dialect|Qi&ndash;Hai dialect]]
*[[Jinxiang dialect]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
==Further reading==
* {{cite JIPA |author1=Shi, Menghui |author2=Chen, Yiya |title=Lili Wu Chinese |printdate=2022 April |pages=157-179 |doi=10.1017/S0025100320000092 |doi-access=free}}
::[Lili Wu is near the confluence of Suzhou, Jiaxing and Shanghai dialects]
* {{cite JIPA |author1= Chen, Yiya |author2=Gussenhoven, Carlos |printdate=2015 Dec |title=Shanghai Chinese |volume=45 |issue=3 |pages=321–327 |doi=10.1017/S0025100315000043 }}
{{Sino-Tibetan languages}}
{{Chinese language}}
[[Category:Wu Chinese]]
{{St-lang-stub}}