Suzhou dialect

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Suzhou dialect (Template:Zh-stp) 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.

Contents 1 Phonology 1.1 Initials 1.2 Rimes 1.3 Tones 2 Romanization 3 See also

Phonology

Initials

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

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
			Template:IPA
Template:IPA
Template:IPA
Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	Template:IPA
Template:IPA			Template:IPA	Template:IPA
Template:IPA	Template:IPA		Template:IPA	Template:IPA
Template:IPA
Template:IPA	Template:IPA
Template:IPA			Template:IPA	Template:IPA
	Template:IPA		Template:IPA	Template:IPA
Template:IPA
Template:IPA
			Template:IPA	Template:IPA
Template:IPA
Template:IPA			Template:IPA	Template:IPA

Suzhou has one tripthong rime, [ Template:IPA ]. 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 [ -Template:IPA ] in Suzhou. Middle Chinese nasal endings [ -m ] have merged with rimes which end with [ -n ] in Suzhou. Middle Chinese [ -Template:IPA ] 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 [ -Template:IPA ] ending.

Tones

Yin Ping (陰平)	Yang Ping (陽平)	Yin Shang (陰上)	Yin Qu (陰去)	Yang Qu (陽去)	Yin Ru (陰入)	Yang Ru (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

• List of Chinese dialectszh:苏州话