Shanghainese
Encyclopedia
Shanghainese or the Shanghai language , is a dialect of Wu Chinese spoken in the city of Shanghai
and the surrounding region. It is classified as part of the Sino-Tibetan
family of languages. Shanghainese, like other Wu dialects, is largely not mutually intelligible with other Chinese varieties such as Mandarin. The term "Shanghainese" in English sometimes refers to all Wu Chinese dialects, though it is only partially intelligible with some other subbranches of the Wu language group.
Shanghainese is a representative dialect of Northern Wu; it contains vocabulary and expressions from the entire Northern Wu area (southern Jiangsu
, northern Zhejiang
). With nearly 14 million speakers, Shanghainese is also the largest single coherent form of Wu Chinese. It once served as the regional lingua franca
of the entire Yangtze River Delta
region.
Shanghainese is rich in consonants and pure vowels [i y ɪ e ø ɛ ə ɐ a ɑ ɔ ɤ o ʊ u] (of which 8 are phonemic). Like other northern Wu dialects, the Shanghai dialect has voiced
initials [b d g ɦ z v dʑ ʑ]. Neither Mandarin nor Cantonese has voiced stops
or affricates. The Shanghainese tonal system is significantly different from other Chinese languages. Shanghainese is a language with two live tonal contrasts (high and low), while Mandarin and Cantonese are contour tonal languages.
. Consequently, dialects spoken around Shanghai had long been subordinate to those spoken around Jiaxing
and later Suzhou
. In the late 19th century, most vocabulary of the Shanghai region had been a hybrid between Northern Jiangsu and Ningbo dialect
s. Since the 1850s, owing to the growth of Shanghai's economy, Shanghainese has become one of the fastest-developing dialects of Wu Chinese, undergoing rapid changes and quickly replacing Suzhou dialect
as the prestige dialect
of the region. It underwent sustained growth that reached a hiatus in the 1930s during the Republican era
, when migrants arrived in Shanghai and immersed themselves in the local tongue.
After 1949, the government introduced Mandarin
as the national language of all China. The influence of Shanghainese began to wane. Especially since Chinese economic reform
began in 1978, Shanghai became home to a great number of migrants from all over the country. Due to the national prominence of Mandarin, learning Shanghainese was no longer necessary for migrants, because those educated after the 1950s could generally communicate in Mandarin. However, Shanghainese remained a very important part of the city's culture, and retained its prestige status within the local population. In the 1990s, it was still common for local radio and television broadcasts to be in Shanghainese. In 1995, a TV series called "Nie Zhai" (the Evil Debt) was broadcast entirely in Shanghainese; when it was broadcast outside of Shanghai (mainly in adjacent Wu-speaking provinces) Mandarin subtitles were added. The Shanghainese TV show "Lao Niang Jiu" (Old Uncle) has been broadcast since 1999, and is still quite popular among Shanghainese residents. Shanghainese programming has since declined, over concerns of regionalism/localism accusations.
From 1992 Shanghainese use was discouraged in schools, and many children native to Shanghai can no longer speak Shanghainese. In addition, Shanghai's emergence as a cosmopolitan global city consolidated the status of Mandarin as the standard language of business and services.
Since 2005, new movements have emerged to protect Shanghainese. At municipal legislative discussions in 2005, former Huju
actress Ma Lili moved to "protect" the language, stating that she was one of the few remaining Huju actresses who still retained authentic classic Shanghainese pronunciation in their performances. Shanghai's former party boss Chen Liangyu
, a native Shanghainese himself, reportedly supported her proposal. There have been talks of re-integrating Shanghainese into pre-kindergarten education, because many children are unable to speak any Shanghainese. Now many Shanghai dialect programs are running; a citywide program was introduced by the city government's language committee in 2006 to record native speakers of different Shanghainese varieties for archival purposes.
The Shanghai government has begun to reverse its course and seek fluent speakers of "real" authentic Shanghainese, but to their horror, due to the national government's effort to wipe out dialects and locality-focused aspects of Chinese culture, only two out of thirteen recruitment stations have found Traditional Shanghainese speakers; the rest of the 14 million people of Shanghai speak Modern Shanghainese, and it has been predicted that local dialects will be wiped out. Professor Qian Nairong is working on efforts to save the dialect. Qian Nairong is promoting Shanghainese language and culture in the face of an onslaught of Mandarin by the national government which left schoolchildren speaking poor Shanghainese. In response to criticism, Qian reminds people that Shanghainese was once fashionable, saying, "the popularization of Mandarin doesn’t equal the ban of dialects. It doesn’t make Mandarin a more civilized language either. Promoting dialects is not a narrow-minded localism, as it has been labeled by some netizens.” The singer and composer Eheart Chen sings many of his songs in Shanghainese instead of Mandarin to preserve the language.
Since 2006 the Modern Baby Kindergarten in Shanghai has prohibited its students from speaking anything but Shanghainese on Fridays to preserve the dialect.
Professor Qian says that few Shanghainese people
over the age of sixty can speak real Shanghainese, and he urges that Shangahinese be taught in the regular school system from kindergarten, saying it is the only way to save Shanghainese, and that attempts to introduce it in university courses and operas are not enough.
Fourteen native Shanghainese speakers had audio recordings made of their Shanghainese on May 31 2011. They were selected based on accent purity and other factors.
and Standard Chinese
. Modern Shanghainese, however, has been heavily influenced by modern Mandarin. This makes the Shanghainese spoken by young people in the city different from that spoken by the older population, sometimes significantly. It also means that inserting Mandarin into Shanghainese sentences during everyday conversation is very common, at least amongst young people. Like most subdivisions of Chinese, it is easier for a local speaker to understand Mandarin than it is for a Mandarin speaker to understand the local speech.
Shanghainese is part of the larger Wu subgroup of Chinese. It is similar, to a certain degree, to the language heard in neighboring Kunshan
, Suzhou
, and Ningbo
. People mingling between these areas do not need to code-switch
to Mandarin when they speak to each other. However, there are noticeable tonal and phonological changes which do not impede intelligibility. As the dialect continuum of Wu continues to further distances, however, significant changes occur in phonology and lexicon to the point where it is no longer possible to converse intelligibly. The majority of Shanghainese speakers find that by Wuxi
, differences become significant and the Wuxi dialect
would take weeks to months for a Shanghainese speaker to fully "pick up". Similarly, Hangzhou dialect
is understood by most Shanghainese speakers, but it is considered "rougher" and does not have as much flow in comparison. The language evolved in and around Taizhou, Zhejiang
, by which point it becomes difficult for a Shanghainese speaker to comprehend. Wenzhou dialect
, spoken in southern Zhejiang
province, although considered part of the Wu subgroup of languages, is not at all intelligible with Shanghainese.
Shanghainese is not mutually intelligible with Wenzhou dialect
, Cantonese, Minnan, or any other dialect groups of Chinese.
(sometimes spelled rhyme). Tone is also a feature of the syllable in Shanghainese. Syllabic tone, which is typical to the other Sinitic languages, has largely become verbal tone in Shanghainese.
Shanghainese has a set of voiced
as well as voiceless
aspirated
and unaspirated stop
s. It also has fricatives, affricates Alveolo-palatal
initials.
Voiced stops are voiceless with slack voice phonation in stressed, word initial position. This phonation (often referred to as murmur) also occurs in zero onset syllables, syllables beginning with affricates and fricatives, and syllables beginning with sonorants. These consonants are true voiced in intervocalic position.
.
The Middle Chinese
[-ŋ̩] ending rime
s in Shanghainese is always retained as [-ŋ̩], while [-n] and [-m] have either become [-ŋ̩] or have disappeared in Shanghainese. Middle Chinese [-p -t -k] rimes have become glottal stops [-ʔ].
The conditioning factors which led to the yin-yang split still exist in Shanghainese, as they do in other Wu dialects: yang tones are only found with voiced initials [b d ɡ z v dʑ ʑ m n ɲ ŋ l j w ɦ], while the yin tones are only found with voiceless initials.
The ru tones are abrupt, and describe those rimes which end in a glottal stop /ʔ/. That is, both the yin-yang distinction and the ru tones are allophonic
(dependent on syllabic structure). Shanghainese has only a two-way phonemic tone contrast, falling vs rising, and then only in open syllables with voiceless initials.
is a process whereby adjacent tones undergo dramatic alteration in connected speech. Similar to other Northern Wu dialects, Shanghainese is characterized by two forms of tone sandhi: a word tone sandhi and a phrasal tone sandhi.
Word tone sandhi in Shanghainese can be described as left-prominent and is characterized by a dominance of the first syllable over the contour of the entire tone domain. As a result, the underlying tones of syllables other than the leftmost syllable, have no effect on the tone contour of the domain. The pattern is generally described as tone spreading (T1-4) or tone shifting (T5, except for 4- and 5-syllable compounds, which can undergo spreading or shifting). The table below illustrates possible tone combinations.
As an example, in isolation, the two syllables of the word for China are pronounced with T1 and T4: /tsʊ̆ŋ52/ and /kwə̆ʔ44/. However, when pronounced in combination, T1 from /tsʊ̆ŋ/ spreads over the compound resulting in the following pattern /tsʊ̆ŋ55kwə̆ʔ22/. Similarly, the syllables in a common expression for foolish have the following underlying phonemic and tonal representations: /zə̆ʔ24/ (T5), /sɛ̝52/ (T1), and /ti34/ (T2). However, the syllables in combination exhibit the T5 shifting pattern where the first-syllable T5 shifts to the last syllabe in the domain: /zə̆ʔ11sɛ̝11ti24/.
Phrasal tone sandhi in Shanghainese can be described as right-prominent and is characterized by a right syllable retaining its underlying tone and a left syllable receiving a mid-level tone based on the underlying tone's register. The table below indicates possible left syllable tones in right-prominent compounds.
For instance, when combined, /ma14/ and /tɕjɜ34/ become /ma33tɕjɜ34/ (buy wine).
Sometimes meaning can change based on whether left-prominent or right-prominent sandhi is used. For example, /tsʰɔ34/ and /mi14/ when pronounced /tsʰɔ33mi44/ (i.e., with left-prominent sandhi) means fried noodles. When pronounced /tsʰɔ44mi14/ (i.e., with right-prominent sandhi), it means to fry noodles.
Chinese character
s are used to write Shanghainese. Romanization
of Shanghainese was first developed by Protestant English and American Christian missionaries in the 19th century, such as Joseph Edkins
. Usage of this romanization system was mainly confined to translated bibles for use by native Shanghainese, or English-Shanghainese dictionaries, some of which also contained characters, for foreign missionaries to learn Shanghainese.
The "Shanghai Phonetic Symbols" were created and put into a chart.
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
and the surrounding region. It is classified as part of the Sino-Tibetan
Sino-Tibetan languages
The Sino-Tibetan languages are a language family comprising, at least, the Chinese and the Tibeto-Burman languages, including some 250 languages of East Asia, Southeast Asia and parts of South Asia. They are second only to the Indo-European languages in terms of the number of native speakers...
family of languages. Shanghainese, like other Wu dialects, is largely not mutually intelligible with other Chinese varieties such as Mandarin. The term "Shanghainese" in English sometimes refers to all Wu Chinese dialects, though it is only partially intelligible with some other subbranches of the Wu language group.
Shanghainese is a representative dialect of Northern Wu; it contains vocabulary and expressions from the entire Northern Wu area (southern Jiangsu
Jiangsu
' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. The name comes from jiang, short for the city of Jiangning , and su, for the city of Suzhou. The abbreviation for this province is "苏" , the second character of its name...
, northern Zhejiang
Zhejiang
Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...
). With nearly 14 million speakers, Shanghainese is also the largest single coherent form of Wu Chinese. It once served as the regional lingua franca
Lingua franca
A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
of the entire Yangtze River Delta
Yangtze River Delta
The Yangtze River Delta, Yangtze Delta or YRD, also called Yangzi, or Chang Jiang Delta, Rive Chang Delta Tai Lake Region or the Golden Triangle of the Yangtze, generally comprises the triangular-shaped territory of Wu-speaking Shanghai, southern Jiangsu province and northern Zhejiang province of...
region.
Shanghainese is rich in consonants and pure vowels [i y ɪ e ø ɛ ə ɐ a ɑ ɔ ɤ o ʊ u] (of which 8 are phonemic). Like other northern Wu dialects, the Shanghai dialect has voiced
VOICED
Virtual Organization for Innovative Conceptual Engineering Design is a virtual organization that promotes innovation in engineering design. This project is the collaborative work of researchers at five universities across the United States, and is funded by the National Science Foundation...
initials [b d g ɦ z v dʑ ʑ]. Neither Mandarin nor Cantonese has voiced stops
Stop consonant
In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &...
or affricates. The Shanghainese tonal system is significantly different from other Chinese languages. Shanghainese is a language with two live tonal contrasts (high and low), while Mandarin and Cantonese are contour tonal languages.
History and current status
Shanghai did not become a regional centre of commerce until it was opened to foreign investment during the late Qing DynastyQing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
. Consequently, dialects spoken around Shanghai had long been subordinate to those spoken around Jiaxing
Jiaxing
Jiaxing is a prefecture-level city in northern Zhejiang province of Eastern China. Lying on the Grand Canal of China, Jiaxing borders Hangzhou to the southwest, Huzhou to the west, Shanghai to the northeast, and the province of Jiangsu to the north....
and later Suzhou
Suzhou dialect
Suzhou dialect 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, and is the traditional prestige dialect of Wu....
. In the late 19th century, most vocabulary of the Shanghai region had been a hybrid between Northern Jiangsu and Ningbo dialect
Ningbo dialect
Ningbo dialect is a dialect of Wu, one of the subdivisions of Chinese spoken language. It is spoken in the city of Ningbo and Zhoushan and surrounding areas in Zhejiang province.-Area:...
s. Since the 1850s, owing to the growth of Shanghai's economy, Shanghainese has become one of the fastest-developing dialects of Wu Chinese, undergoing rapid changes and quickly replacing Suzhou dialect
Suzhou dialect
Suzhou dialect 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, and is the traditional prestige dialect of Wu....
as the prestige dialect
Prestige dialect
In sociolinguistics, prestige describes the level of respect accorded to a language or dialect as compared to that of other languages or dialects in a speech community. The concept of prestige in sociolinguistics is closely related to that of prestige or class within a society...
of the region. It underwent sustained growth that reached a hiatus in the 1930s during the Republican era
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
, when migrants arrived in Shanghai and immersed themselves in the local tongue.
After 1949, the government introduced Mandarin
Standard Chinese
Standard Chinese, or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....
as the national language of all China. The influence of Shanghainese began to wane. Especially since Chinese economic reform
Chinese economic reform
The Chinese economic reform refers to the program of economic reforms called "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" in the People's Republic of China that were started in December 1978 by reformists within the Communist Party of China led by Deng Xiaoping.China had one of the world's largest...
began in 1978, Shanghai became home to a great number of migrants from all over the country. Due to the national prominence of Mandarin, learning Shanghainese was no longer necessary for migrants, because those educated after the 1950s could generally communicate in Mandarin. However, Shanghainese remained a very important part of the city's culture, and retained its prestige status within the local population. In the 1990s, it was still common for local radio and television broadcasts to be in Shanghainese. In 1995, a TV series called "Nie Zhai" (the Evil Debt) was broadcast entirely in Shanghainese; when it was broadcast outside of Shanghai (mainly in adjacent Wu-speaking provinces) Mandarin subtitles were added. The Shanghainese TV show "Lao Niang Jiu" (Old Uncle) has been broadcast since 1999, and is still quite popular among Shanghainese residents. Shanghainese programming has since declined, over concerns of regionalism/localism accusations.
From 1992 Shanghainese use was discouraged in schools, and many children native to Shanghai can no longer speak Shanghainese. In addition, Shanghai's emergence as a cosmopolitan global city consolidated the status of Mandarin as the standard language of business and services.
Since 2005, new movements have emerged to protect Shanghainese. At municipal legislative discussions in 2005, former Huju
Huju
Huju , or "Shanghai opera" is a variety of Chinese opera from the area of Shanghai. It is typically sung in the Shanghainese dialect.It is particularly popular in Baihe, the oldest town in the Qingpu District of Shanghai...
actress Ma Lili moved to "protect" the language, stating that she was one of the few remaining Huju actresses who still retained authentic classic Shanghainese pronunciation in their performances. Shanghai's former party boss Chen Liangyu
Chen Liangyu
Chen Liangyu was a politician of the People's Republic of China from the ruling Communist Party, and the disgraced CPC Shanghai Committee Secretary, or the city's first-in-charge....
, a native Shanghainese himself, reportedly supported her proposal. There have been talks of re-integrating Shanghainese into pre-kindergarten education, because many children are unable to speak any Shanghainese. Now many Shanghai dialect programs are running; a citywide program was introduced by the city government's language committee in 2006 to record native speakers of different Shanghainese varieties for archival purposes.
The Shanghai government has begun to reverse its course and seek fluent speakers of "real" authentic Shanghainese, but to their horror, due to the national government's effort to wipe out dialects and locality-focused aspects of Chinese culture, only two out of thirteen recruitment stations have found Traditional Shanghainese speakers; the rest of the 14 million people of Shanghai speak Modern Shanghainese, and it has been predicted that local dialects will be wiped out. Professor Qian Nairong is working on efforts to save the dialect. Qian Nairong is promoting Shanghainese language and culture in the face of an onslaught of Mandarin by the national government which left schoolchildren speaking poor Shanghainese. In response to criticism, Qian reminds people that Shanghainese was once fashionable, saying, "the popularization of Mandarin doesn’t equal the ban of dialects. It doesn’t make Mandarin a more civilized language either. Promoting dialects is not a narrow-minded localism, as it has been labeled by some netizens.” The singer and composer Eheart Chen sings many of his songs in Shanghainese instead of Mandarin to preserve the language.
Since 2006 the Modern Baby Kindergarten in Shanghai has prohibited its students from speaking anything but Shanghainese on Fridays to preserve the dialect.
Professor Qian says that few Shanghainese people
Shanghainese people
The Shanghainese people also commonly referred to as Shanghaiers refers to the people whose families are from Shanghai, China, who can speak the Shanghainese dialect of the Wu language. With the prosperity of Shanghai, more and more migrants have been moving to Shanghai for school and work which...
over the age of sixty can speak real Shanghainese, and he urges that Shangahinese be taught in the regular school system from kindergarten, saying it is the only way to save Shanghainese, and that attempts to introduce it in university courses and operas are not enough.
Fourteen native Shanghainese speakers had audio recordings made of their Shanghainese on May 31 2011. They were selected based on accent purity and other factors.
Intelligibility and variations
Shanghainese is not mutually intelligible with any dialect of Mandarin. It is around 50% intelligible (with 28.9% lexical similarity) with the Mandarin heard in BeijingBeijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
and Standard Chinese
Standard Chinese
Standard Chinese, or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....
. Modern Shanghainese, however, has been heavily influenced by modern Mandarin. This makes the Shanghainese spoken by young people in the city different from that spoken by the older population, sometimes significantly. It also means that inserting Mandarin into Shanghainese sentences during everyday conversation is very common, at least amongst young people. Like most subdivisions of Chinese, it is easier for a local speaker to understand Mandarin than it is for a Mandarin speaker to understand the local speech.
Shanghainese is part of the larger Wu subgroup of Chinese. It is similar, to a certain degree, to the language heard in neighboring Kunshan
Kunshan
Kunshan is a satellite city in the greater Suzhou region. Administratively, it is a county-level city within the prefecture-level city of Suzhou. It is located in southeastearn part of Jiangsu Province, China, adjacent to Jiangsu's border with the Shanghai Municipality.The total area of Kunshan...
, Suzhou
Suzhou
Suzhou , previously transliterated as Su-chou, Suchow, and Soochow, is a major city located in the southeast of Jiangsu Province in Eastern China, located adjacent to Shanghai Municipality. The city is situated on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and on the shores of Taihu Lake and is a part...
, and Ningbo
Ningbo
Ningbo is a seaport city of northeastern Zhejiang province, Eastern China. Holding sub-provincial administrative status, the municipality has a population of 7,605,700 inhabitants at the 2010 census whom 3,089,180 in the built up area made of 6 urban districts. It lies south of the Hangzhou Bay,...
. People mingling between these areas do not need to code-switch
Code-switching
In linguistics, code-switching is the concurrent use of more than one language, or language variety, in conversation. Multilinguals—people who speak more than one language—sometimes use elements of multiple languages in conversing with each other...
to Mandarin when they speak to each other. However, there are noticeable tonal and phonological changes which do not impede intelligibility. As the dialect continuum of Wu continues to further distances, however, significant changes occur in phonology and lexicon to the point where it is no longer possible to converse intelligibly. The majority of Shanghainese speakers find that by Wuxi
Wuxi
Wuxi is an old city in Jiangsu province, People's Republic of China. Split in half by Lake Tai, Wuxi borders Changzhou to the west and Suzhou to the east. The northern half looks across to Taizhou across the Yangtze River, while the southern half also borders the province of Zhejiang to the south...
, differences become significant and the Wuxi dialect
Wuxi dialect
Wuxi dialect is a dialect of Wu. It is spoken in the city of Wuxi in Jiangsu province of China....
would take weeks to months for a Shanghainese speaker to fully "pick up". Similarly, Hangzhou dialect
Hangzhou dialect
The Hangzhou dialect, or Rhangzei Rhwa , is spoken in the city of Hangzhou and its immediate suburbs, but excluding areas further away from Hangzhou such as Xiāoshān and Yúháng . The number of speakers of the Hangzhou dialect has been estimated to be about 1.2 to 1.5 million...
is understood by most Shanghainese speakers, but it is considered "rougher" and does not have as much flow in comparison. The language evolved in and around Taizhou, Zhejiang
Taizhou, Zhejiang
Taizhou is a prefecture-level city in middle eastern Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China...
, by which point it becomes difficult for a Shanghainese speaker to comprehend. Wenzhou dialect
Wenzhou dialect
Wenzhounese or Oujiang is the speech of Wenzhou, the southern prefecture of Zhejiang Province, China. It is the most divergent division of Wu Chinese, and is sometimes considered a separate language. It features noticeable elements of Min, which borders it to the south...
, spoken in southern Zhejiang
Zhejiang
Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...
province, although considered part of the Wu subgroup of languages, is not at all intelligible with Shanghainese.
Shanghainese is not mutually intelligible with Wenzhou dialect
Wenzhou dialect
Wenzhounese or Oujiang is the speech of Wenzhou, the southern prefecture of Zhejiang Province, China. It is the most divergent division of Wu Chinese, and is sometimes considered a separate language. It features noticeable elements of Min, which borders it to the south...
, Cantonese, Minnan, or any other dialect groups of Chinese.
Sounds
Following conventions of Chinese syllable structure, Shanghainese syllables can be divided into initials and finals. The initial occupies the first part of the syllable and is optional. The final occupies the second part of the syllable and can be divided further into an optional medial and an obligatory rimesSyllable rime
In the study of phonology in linguistics, the rime or rhyme of a syllable consists of a nucleus and an optional coda. It is the part of the syllable used in poetic rhyme, and the part that is lengthened or stressed when a person elongates or stresses a word in speech.The rime is usually the...
(sometimes spelled rhyme). Tone is also a feature of the syllable in Shanghainese. Syllabic tone, which is typical to the other Sinitic languages, has largely become verbal tone in Shanghainese.
Initials
| Labial Labial consonant Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals... |
Dental | Alveolo-Palatal Alveolo-palatal consonant In phonetics, alveolo-palatal consonants are palatalized postalveolar sounds, usually fricatives and affricates, articulated with the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, and the body of the tongue raised toward the palate... |
Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
ʔm/m, m̥/m | ʔn/n, n̥/n | ʔȵ/ȵ, ȵ̥/ȵ | ʔŋ/ŋ, ŋ̥/ŋ | ||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | ʔ | |
| aspirated Aspiration (phonetics) In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ... |
pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | |||
| voiced VOICED Virtual Organization for Innovative Conceptual Engineering Design is a virtual organization that promotes innovation in engineering design. This project is the collaborative work of researchers at five universities across the United States, and is funded by the National Science Foundation... |
b̥/b | d̥/d | ɡ̊/g | |||
| Affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :... |
voiceless | ts | tɕ | |||
| aspirated Aspiration (phonetics) In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ... |
tsʰ | tɕʰ | ||||
| voiced VOICED Virtual Organization for Innovative Conceptual Engineering Design is a virtual organization that promotes innovation in engineering design. This project is the collaborative work of researchers at five universities across the United States, and is funded by the National Science Foundation... |
d̥ʑ̊/dʑ | |||||
| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
voiceless | f | s | ɕ | h | |
| voiced VOICED Virtual Organization for Innovative Conceptual Engineering Design is a virtual organization that promotes innovation in engineering design. This project is the collaborative work of researchers at five universities across the United States, and is funded by the National Science Foundation... |
v̥/v | z̥/z | ʑ̊/ʑ | ɦ | ||
| Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
l̥/ʔl | |||||
Shanghainese has a set of voiced
VOICED
Virtual Organization for Innovative Conceptual Engineering Design is a virtual organization that promotes innovation in engineering design. This project is the collaborative work of researchers at five universities across the United States, and is funded by the National Science Foundation...
as well as voiceless
Voiceless
In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, this is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word "phonation" implies voicing, and that voicelessness is the lack of...
aspirated
Aspiration (phonetics)
In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ...
and unaspirated stop
Stop consonant
In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &...
s. It also has fricatives, affricates Alveolo-palatal
Alveolo-palatal consonant
In phonetics, alveolo-palatal consonants are palatalized postalveolar sounds, usually fricatives and affricates, articulated with the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge, and the body of the tongue raised toward the palate...
initials.
Voiced stops are voiceless with slack voice phonation in stressed, word initial position. This phonation (often referred to as murmur) also occurs in zero onset syllables, syllables beginning with affricates and fricatives, and syllables beginning with sonorants. These consonants are true voiced in intervocalic position.
Finals
The following chart lists all possible finals (medials + rimes) in Shanghainese represented in IPAInternational Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
.
| Open Long Nucleus |
Nasal ending Short Nucleus + Nasal Ending |
Checked Short Nucleus checked by a glottal stop |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rimes | Medals + Rimes | Rimes | Medals + Rimes | Rimes | Medals + Rimes | |||
| i | ɪ̆ɲ | ɪ̆ʔ/iɪ̆ʔ | ||||||
| ɯ | ||||||||
| y | ʏ̆ɲ | ʏ̆ʔ | ɥɪ̆ʔ | |||||
| ɜ¹ | iɜ | ə̆ɲ | iə̆ɲ | ɯə̆ɲ | ə̆ʔ | iə̆ʔ | ɯə̆ʔ | |
| o | ʊ̆ŋ | iʊ̆ŋ | ʊ̆ʔ | iʊ̆ʔ | ||||
| ɔ | iɔ | ɑ̃/ɑ̆ŋ | iɑ̃ | ɯɑ̃ | ||||
| a | ia | ɯa | ã/a̯ŋ | iã | ɯã | ăʔ | iăʔ | ɯăʔ |
| ɛ̝ | iɛ̝ | ɯɛ̝ | ||||||
| e | ɯe | |||||||
| ø | iø | ɯø | ||||||
- Syllabic continuants: [z̩] [ʑ̩] [m̩] [ʔn̩] [ɲ̩/ŋ̩] [r̩]
- ¹The Shanghainese vowel transcribed here as [ɜ] is often broadly transcribed in other sources as [ɤ].
The Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese , also called Ancient Chinese by the linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese language spoken during Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties...
[-ŋ̩] ending rime
Syllable rime
In the study of phonology in linguistics, the rime or rhyme of a syllable consists of a nucleus and an optional coda. It is the part of the syllable used in poetic rhyme, and the part that is lengthened or stressed when a person elongates or stresses a word in speech.The rime is usually the...
s in Shanghainese is always retained as [-ŋ̩], while [-n] and [-m] have either become [-ŋ̩] or have disappeared in Shanghainese. Middle Chinese [-p -t -k] rimes have become glottal stops [-ʔ].
Tones
Shanghainese has five phonetically distinguishable tones for single syllables said in isolation. These tones are illustrated below in Chao tone names. In terms of Middle Chinese tone designations, the Yin tone category has three tones (yinshang and yinqu tones have merged into one tone), while the Yang category has two tones (the yangping, yangshang, and yangqu have merged into one tone).| 52 (T1) | 34 (T2) | 44ʔ (T4) | ||
| 14 (T3) | 24ʔ (T5) | |||
The conditioning factors which led to the yin-yang split still exist in Shanghainese, as they do in other Wu dialects: yang tones are only found with voiced initials [b d ɡ z v dʑ ʑ m n ɲ ŋ l j w ɦ], while the yin tones are only found with voiceless initials.
The ru tones are abrupt, and describe those rimes which end in a glottal stop /ʔ/. That is, both the yin-yang distinction and the ru tones are allophonic
Allophone
In phonology, an allophone is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds used to pronounce a single phoneme. For example, and are allophones for the phoneme in the English language...
(dependent on syllabic structure). Shanghainese has only a two-way phonemic tone contrast, falling vs rising, and then only in open syllables with voiceless initials.
Tone sandhi
Tone sandhiSandhi
Sandhi is a cover term for a wide variety of phonological processes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries . Examples include the fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of sounds due to neighboring sounds or due to the grammatical function of adjacent words...
is a process whereby adjacent tones undergo dramatic alteration in connected speech. Similar to other Northern Wu dialects, Shanghainese is characterized by two forms of tone sandhi: a word tone sandhi and a phrasal tone sandhi.
Word tone sandhi in Shanghainese can be described as left-prominent and is characterized by a dominance of the first syllable over the contour of the entire tone domain. As a result, the underlying tones of syllables other than the leftmost syllable, have no effect on the tone contour of the domain. The pattern is generally described as tone spreading (T1-4) or tone shifting (T5, except for 4- and 5-syllable compounds, which can undergo spreading or shifting). The table below illustrates possible tone combinations.
| Tone | One syllable | Two syllables | Three syllables | Four syllables | Five syllables |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T1 | 52 | 55 22 | 55 44 22 | 55 44 33 22 | 55 44 33 33 22 |
| T2 | 34 | 33 44 | 33 44 22 | 33 44 33 22 | 33 44 33 33 22 |
| T3 | 14 | 11 44 | 11 44 11 | 11 44 33 11 | 11 44 33 22 11 |
| T4 | 44 | 33 44 | 33 44 22 | 33 44 33 22 | 33 44 33 22 22 |
| T5 | 24 | 11 24 | 11 11 24 | 11 22 22 24 22 44 33 11 |
11 11 11 11 24 22 44 33 22 11 |
As an example, in isolation, the two syllables of the word for China are pronounced with T1 and T4: /tsʊ̆ŋ52/ and /kwə̆ʔ44/. However, when pronounced in combination, T1 from /tsʊ̆ŋ/ spreads over the compound resulting in the following pattern /tsʊ̆ŋ55kwə̆ʔ22/. Similarly, the syllables in a common expression for foolish have the following underlying phonemic and tonal representations: /zə̆ʔ24/ (T5), /sɛ̝52/ (T1), and /ti34/ (T2). However, the syllables in combination exhibit the T5 shifting pattern where the first-syllable T5 shifts to the last syllabe in the domain: /zə̆ʔ11sɛ̝11ti24/.
Phrasal tone sandhi in Shanghainese can be described as right-prominent and is characterized by a right syllable retaining its underlying tone and a left syllable receiving a mid-level tone based on the underlying tone's register. The table below indicates possible left syllable tones in right-prominent compounds.
| Tone | Underlying Tone | Neutralized Tone |
|---|---|---|
| T1 | 52 | 44 |
| T2 | 34 | 44 |
| T3 | 14 | 33 |
| T4 | 44 | 44 |
| T5 | 24 | 22 |
For instance, when combined, /ma14/ and /tɕjɜ34/ become /ma33tɕjɜ34/ (buy wine).
Sometimes meaning can change based on whether left-prominent or right-prominent sandhi is used. For example, /tsʰɔ34/ and /mi14/ when pronounced /tsʰɔ33mi44/ (i.e., with left-prominent sandhi) means fried noodles. When pronounced /tsʰɔ44mi14/ (i.e., with right-prominent sandhi), it means to fry noodles.
Common words and phrases in Shanghainese
Note: Chinese characters for Shanghainese are not standardized and are provided for reference only. IPA transcription is for the Middle period of modern Shanghainese , pronunciation of those between 20 and 60 years old.| Translation | IPA | Chinese character |
|---|---|---|
| Shanghainese (language) | [zɑ̃.ˈhe.ɦɛ.ɦʊ] | or |
| Shanghainese (people) | [zɑ̃.ˈhe.ɲɪɲ] | |
| I | [ŋu] | |
| we or I | [ŋu.ɲi] or [ɐˑ.lɐʔ] | |
| he/she | [ɦi] | |
| they | [ɦi.la] | |
| you (sing.) | [noŋ] | |
| you (plural) | [na] | |
| hello | [noŋ hɔ] | |
| good-bye | [ˈtse.ɦue] | |
| thank you | [ʑ̻iaja noŋ] or [ʑ̻iaʑ̻ia noŋ] | |
| sorry | [te.vəˑ.tɕʰi] | |
| but, however | [dɛ.zɨ], [dɛ.zɨ.ni] | |
| please | [tɕʰɪɲ] | |
| that one | [ˈe.tsɐʔ], [i.tsɐʔ] | |
| this one | [ɡəʔ.tsɐʔ] | |
| there | [ˈe.tɐʔ], [i.tɐʔ] | |
| over there | [ˈe.mi.tɐʔ], [i.mi.tɐʔ] | |
| here | [ɡəˑ.tɐʔ] | |
| to have | [ɦiɤɯ.təʔ] | |
| to exist, here, present | [lɐˑ.he] | |
| now, current | [ɦi.ze] | |
| what time is it? | [ɦi.ze tɕi.ti tsoŋ] | |
| where | [ɦa.ɺi.tɐʔ], [sa.di.fɑ̃] | |
| what | [sa ɦəʔ] | |
| who | [sa.ɲɪɲ] or [ɦa.ɺi.ɦue] | |
| why | [ɦue.sa] | |
| when | [sa.zəɲ.kuɑ̃] | |
| how | [na.nəɲ, na.nəɲ.ka] | |
| how much? | [tɕi.di] | |
| yes | [ˈe] | |
| no | [m̩], [vəˑ.zɨ], [m̩məʔ], [viɔ] | |
| telephone number | [di.ɦʊ ɦɔ.dɤɯ] | |
| home | [oˑ.ɺi.ɕiã] | |
| Come to our house and play. | [tɔ ɐˑ.lɐʔ oˑ.ɺi.ɕiɑ̃ le bəˑ.ɕiã] | |
| Where's the restroom? | [da.sɤɯ.kɛ ɺəˑ.ɺɐʔ ɦa.ɺi.tɐʔ] | |
| Have you eaten dinner? | [ɦia.vɛ tɕʰɪˑ.ku.ləʔ va] | |
| I don't know | [ŋɯ; vəˑ.ɕiɔ.təʔ] | |
| Do you speak English? | [noŋ ˈɪn.vəɲ kãtəʔle va] | |
| I love you | [ŋɯ; e noŋ] | |
| I adore you | [ŋɯ; e.mɯ noŋ] | |
| I like you a lot | [ŋɯ; ɺɔ ˈhuø.ɕi noŋ ɦəʔ] | |
| news | [ɕɪɲ.vəɲ] | |
| dead | [ɕi.tʰəˑ.ləʔ] | |
| alive | [ɦuəˑ.lɐˑ.he] | |
| a lot | [ˈtɕiɔ.kue] | |
| inside, within | [ɺi.ɕiã] | |
| outside | [ŋa.dɤɯ] | |
| How are you? | [noŋ hɔ va] |
Writing
Dr. T. P. Crawford invented a set of symbols which at one time seemed likely, in Shanghai, to supplant every other system of phonetic representation; but although books were printed in it, the system has gone completely out of use. The system of Mr. Murray, of Peking, said to be remarkably simple, and "likely to supplant all other systems," is yet in its infancy. At present, some system of Romanization seems to be the only thing that will satisfy the needs of most students of the languages of China.
While Romanization has proved very useful in educational work among the Chinese, there is need of a supplementary system similar to the short-hand systems of the West. The writer, impressed with the simplicity of the sounds in the Shanghai dialect, has given some of his odd moments to the formation of a system of phonography, which seems to him exceedingly simple, and much more easy to acquire than any system used by English stenographers. The absence of complicated consonantal endings in Chinese syllables, and the well known fact that each syllable can readily be divided into two parts—an iuitial and a final, makes the problem of stenographic writing comparatively simple. Although the system exhibited is prepared for use in Shanghai only, it will need little modification for other dialects
Chinese character
Chinese character
Chinese characters are logograms used in the writing of Chinese and Japanese , less frequently Korean , formerly Vietnamese , or other languages...
s are used to write Shanghainese. Romanization
Romanization
In linguistics, romanization or latinization is the representation of a written word or spoken speech with the Roman script, or a system for doing so, where the original word or language uses a different writing system . Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written...
of Shanghainese was first developed by Protestant English and American Christian missionaries in the 19th century, such as Joseph Edkins
Joseph Edkins
Joseph Edkins was a British Protestant missionary who spent 57 years in China, 30 of them in Beijing. As a Sinologue, he specialized in Chinese religions. He was also a linguist, a translator, and a philologist. Writing prolifically, he penned many books about the Chinese language and the Chinese...
. Usage of this romanization system was mainly confined to translated bibles for use by native Shanghainese, or English-Shanghainese dictionaries, some of which also contained characters, for foreign missionaries to learn Shanghainese.
The "Shanghai Phonetic Symbols" were created and put into a chart.
See also
- Shanghainese peopleShanghainese peopleThe Shanghainese people also commonly referred to as Shanghaiers refers to the people whose families are from Shanghai, China, who can speak the Shanghainese dialect of the Wu language. With the prosperity of Shanghai, more and more migrants have been moving to Shanghai for school and work which...
- Wu Chinese
- List of Chinese dialects
- Hangzhou dialectHangzhou dialectThe Hangzhou dialect, or Rhangzei Rhwa , is spoken in the city of Hangzhou and its immediate suburbs, but excluding areas further away from Hangzhou such as Xiāoshān and Yúháng . The number of speakers of the Hangzhou dialect has been estimated to be about 1.2 to 1.5 million...
- Suzhou dialectSuzhou dialectSuzhou dialect 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, and is the traditional prestige dialect of Wu....
- Chinatown, FlushingChinatown, FlushingChinatown, Flushing, or Flushing Chinatown , in the Flushing area of the borough of Queens in New York City, is one of the largest and fastest growing ethnic Chinese enclaves outside of Asia, as well as within New York City itself...
External links
- 100 Useful Shanghainese phrases
- Example sentences in Shanghainese with audio and translations in other languages.
- Shanghainese to IPA tool turn input text in Shanghainese into IPA, with tones
- Shanghainese Pronunciation Shanghainese Pronunciation
- Shanghainese Dictionary: Glossika's Searchable Shanghai Wu Dictionary
- Shanghainese audio lesson series: Audio lessons with accompanying dialogue and vocabulary study tools
- Shanghai Dialect: Resources on Shanghai dialect including a Web site (in Japanese) that gives common phrases with sound files
- Shanghainese-Mandarin Soundboard: A soundboard (requires Flash) of common Mandarin Chinese phrases with Shanghainese equivalents.
- Shanghai Dialect Words Learn and search Shanghai Dialect
- Wu Association
- Romanization of Shanghainese at Omniglot
