Kunshan dialect

This article is about the Wu Chinese variety of Kunshan. For related languages and dialects, see Wu Chinese.

Kunshanese
崑山閒話 / 昆山闲话 khuen-sae ghae-gho
Pronunciation	[kʰuən˥sɛ˥˨ɦɛ˩˧ɦo˨˩]
Native to	China
Region	Kunshan county
Ethnicity	Wu Chinese-speaking people
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Wu Taihu/Northern Su–Hu–Jia Kunshanese
Writing system	Chinese characters
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
ISO 639-6	suji
Linguasphere	> 79-AAA-dbb >
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The Kunshan dialect, or Kunshanese, is the Chinese variety traditionally spoken in the county of Kunshan, Suzhou prefecture. ^{[1] [2]} It is classified as a Northern Wu variety closely related to nearby Suzhounese and Shanghainese. ^{[1] [3]} Like other Northern Wu varieties, it has a large phonemic vowel inventory and voiced initials as described in the Qieyun System.

As a Northern Wu variety, Kunshanese is mutually intelligible with other Northern Wu varieties, as well as Taizhounese, ^[4] but not with more distantly related lects such as Cantonese, Standard Mandarin, or even Wenzhounese, another Wu Chinese variety. Note that Kunshan Opera is not performed in Kunshanese, unlike that of nearby Shaoxing; Zhongzhouyun, a Mandarinic rime system, is used instead.

Phonology

Initials

Initial consonants ^{[5] [6]}

		Labial	Dental/Alveolar	Alveolo-palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ȵ	ŋ
Plosive	tenuis	p	t		k	ʔ
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ		kʰ
	voiced	b	d		ɡ
Affricate	tenuis		ts	tɕ
	aspirated		tsʰ	tɕʰ
	voiced			dʑ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ɕ		h
	voiced	v	z			ɦ
Lateral			l

The /ɦ/ and null initials are often realised similarly, especially in flowing speech. ^[7] /h/ is at times written as /x/. ^[5]

Voiced initials only appear with light tone categories, whereas voiceless ones only appear with dark tones.

Finals

Finals ^{[6] [8]}

Medial	Nucleus
	∅	a	ɔ	o	ɛ	ei	ø	ã	ən	oŋ	aʔ	oʔ	əʔ	syllabic consonant
∅	ɿ, ʮ	a	ɔ	o	ɛ	ei	ø	ã	ən	oŋ	aʔ	oʔ	əʔ	əl
i	i	ia	iɔ		ɪ			iã	in	ioŋ	iaʔ		iɪʔ	m
u	u, əu	ua			uɛ	uei	uø	uã	uən		uaʔ		uoʔ	n
y	y						yø		yn			yoʔ	yəʔ

Narrower features are as follows: ^{[9] [10]}

• /i/ is often fricated, like in Suzhounese. In other words, there is a sibilance-like "hissing" quality when /i/ is pronounced.
• /u/ is slightly fronted and may also be labialised into [f̩] or [v̩] depending on the initial.
• /o/ is often very raised ([o̝]).
• /ɛ/ is often centralised to [e̞].
• /ø/ nuclei are at times slightly backed and approach [ɤ].
• A nasal coda may be heard after an /ã/ nucleus.
• /iɪʔ/ may be realised as [iəʔ] when following alveolo-palatal, velar, or glottal initials.

Tones

Kunshanese has seven citation tones and a complex tone sandhi system.

Tone chart

Tone number	Wugniu Tone	Tone name	Tone letters
1	1	yin ping (陰平)	˥ (55)
2	2	yang ping (陽平)	˩˧ (13)
3	3	shang (陰上)	˥˨ (52)
4	5	yin qu (陰去)	˦˩˨ (412)
5	6	yang qu (陽去)	˨˩˧ (213)
6	7	yin ru (陰入)	˥ʔ (5)
7	8	yang ru (陽入)	˨˧ʔ (23)

References

Citations

1. Che (2005), pp. 1.
2. Wu (2006), pp. 1.
3. Wang (2011), pp. 4.
4. Ruan (2010), pp. 17.
5. Che (2005), pp. 2.
6. Wu (2006), pp. 5.
7. Wang (2011), pp. 9.
8. Che (2005), pp. 2–3.
9. Che (2005), pp. 3.
10. Wu (2006), pp. 6.

Works cited

• Che, Yuqian (2005). 昆山方言研究[A Study on the Kunshan Dialect] (Thesis) (in Simplified Chinese). Soochow University.

• Wu, Linjuan (2006). 昆山方言研究[The Research about Kunshan Dialect] (Thesis) (in Simplified Chinese). Northwestern Normal University.

• Wang, Yingxin (2011). 昆山方言语音研究[A Study on the Kunshan Dialect] (Thesis) (in Simplified Chinese). Nanjing University.

• Ruan, Yongmei (2010). "台州方言在吴语中的内外关系". Journal of Ningbo University (Liberal Arts Edition) (in Simplified Chinese). 23 (1).