Hangzhou dialect

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The Hangzhou dialect (Traditional Chinese: 杭州話; Simplified Chinese: 杭州话; pinyin: hángzhōuhuà) is spoken in the city of Hangzhou and its immediate suburbs, but excluding areas further away from Hangzhou such as Xiāoshān (蕭山) and Yúháng (余杭) (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 2.1 Dialects 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 3.3.1 Onsets 3.3.2 Rimes 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

[edit] Classification

[edit] Geographic distribution

[edit] Dialects

[edit] Phonetics and phonology

[edit] Consonants

Consonants of Hangzhou dialect

		bilabial	labio-dental	alveolar	alveolo-palatal	velar	glottal
nasal		m		n	ɲ	ŋ
plosives	voiced	b		d		g
	voiceless unaspirated	p		t		k	ʔ
	voiceless aspirated	pʰ		tʰ		kʰ
fricatives	voiced		v	z			ɦ
	voiceless		f	s	ɕ		h
affricates	voiced			dz	dʑ
	voiceless unaspirated			ts	tɕ
	voiceless aspirated			tsʰ	tɕʰ
approximants			ʋ	ɹ
lateral approximants				l

[edit] Vowels

[edit] Monophthongs

[edit] Diphthongs

[edit] Triphthongs

[edit] Syllable structure

[edit] Onsets

[edit] Rimes

[edit] Tones

[edit] Citation tones

The Hangzhou tonal system is similar to that of the Suzhou dialect, in that some characters of the shàng tone in Middle Chinese have merged with the modern yīn qù tone.

Tone chart of Hangzhou dialect

Tone number	Tone name	Tone contour
1	yin ping (陰平)	323
2	yang ping (陽平)	212
3	yin shang (陰上)	51
4	yin qu (陰去)	334
5	yang qu (陽去)	113
6	yin ru (陰入)	55
7	yang ru (陽入)	12

[edit] Tone sandhi

[edit] Grammar

[edit] Morphology

[edit] Syntax

[edit] Vocabulary

[edit] History

[edit] Examples

[edit] See also

• List of Chinese dialects
• Suzhou dialect
• Shanghainese
• Wu dialects

[edit] References

• Qián,nǎiróng (1992). Dāngdài Wúyǔ yánjiū. (Contemporary Wu linguistics studies). Shànghǎi: shànghǎi jiāoyù chūbǎnshè. (錢乃榮. 1992. 當代吳語研究. 上海敎育出版社) ISBN 7-5320-2355-9

• Simmons, Richard VanNess (1995). "Distinguishing characteristics of the Hangzhou dialect". New Asia Academic Bulletin 11: 383–398. 

[edit] Chinese: spoken varieties
Traditional categories:	Mandarin | Wu | Cantonese | Min | Hakka | Xiang | Gan
Other:	Jin | Hui | Ping
Unclassified:	Danzhouhua | Shaozhou Tuhua
Note: The above is only one classification scheme among many. The categories in italics are not universally acknowledged to be independent categories.
Subcategories of Mandarin:	Northeastern | Beijing | Ji-Lu | Jiao-Liao | Zhongyuan | Lan-Yin | Southwestern | Jianghuai | Dungan
Subcategories of Min:	Min Bei | Min Nan
	Min Dong | Min Zhong | Hainanese | Puxian | | Shaojiang
Comprehensive list of Chinese dialects
Official spoken varieties:	Standard Mandarin | Standard Cantonese
Historical phonology:	Old Chinese | Middle Chinese | Proto-Min | Proto-Mandarin | Haner
Chinese: written varieties
Official written varieties:	Classical Chinese | Vernacular Chinese
Other varieties:	Written Vernacular Cantonese