Quzhou Dialect is a dialect

Dialect

The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...

 of Wu Chinese spoken in Quzhou

Quzhou

Quzhou is a prefecture-level city in southwestern Zhejiang province, China. Sitting on the upper course of the Qiantang River, it borders Hangzhou to the north, Jinhua to the east, Lishui to the southeast, and the provinces of Fujian, Jiangxi and Anhui to the south the south, southwest and...

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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	Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate...	Postalveolar Postalveolar consonant Postalveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge, further back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard 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 :...		m 迷	n 拿	ɲ 寧		ŋ 咬
Plosive	voiceless	p 巴	t 丁			k 公	ʔ 愛
	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 怕	tʰ 聽			kʰ 空
	slack voice Slack voice The term slack voice describes the pronunciation of consonant or vowels with a glottal opening slightly wider than that occurring in modal voice. Such sounds are often referred to informally as lenis or half-voiced in the case of consonants...	b̥ 爬	d̥ 停			ɡ̊ 共
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 增	tɕ 九	tʃ 真
	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 寸	tɕʰ 秋	tʃʰ 春
	slack voice Slack voice The term slack voice describes the pronunciation of consonant or vowels with a glottal opening slightly wider than that occurring in modal voice. Such sounds are often referred to informally as lenis or half-voiced in the case of consonants...		d̥z̥ 存	d̥ʑ̊ 求	d̥ʒ̊ 陳
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 方	s 森	ɕ 心	ʃ 雙	x 好
	slack voice Slack voice The term slack voice describes the pronunciation of consonant or vowels with a glottal opening slightly wider than that occurring in modal voice. Such sounds are often referred to informally as lenis or half-voiced in the case of consonants...	v̥ 房	z̥ 時	ʑ̊ 尋	ʒ 床	ɣ 或
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...			l 來	(j) 移		(w) 吳	ɦ 或

Rimes

There are at least the following rimes:
姆 [m], 魚 [ŋ], 爾 [ɫ], 試 [ʐ]

水 [ɥ], 去 [i], 布 [u], 雨 [y]

家 [ɑ], 謝 [iɑ], 瓜 [uɑ]

菜 [e̞], 快 [ue̞]

走 [ɘɪ], 會 [uɘɪ]

包 [ɔ], 表 [iɔ]

勾 [ɤ], 九 [iɯ]

南 [ə], 官 [uə], 捐 [yə]

變 [ie]

三 [æ], 慣 [uæ]

本 [ən], 金 [iɲ], 昏 [uən], 運 [yɲ]

打 [ã], 兩 [iã], 昌 [uã]

方 [ɒ̃], 旺 [iɒ̃], 光 [uɒ̃]

公 [oŋ], 窘 [ioŋ]

六 [əʔ], 业 [iɘʔ], 國 [uəʔ], 肉 [yəʔ]

脱 [ənʔ], 衢 [ɥ]

白 [ɐ̞ʔ] -aq, 弱 [iɐ̞ʔ], 划 [uɐ̞ʔ]

Tones

Quzhou dialect is considered to have seven tones. However, since the tone split dating from Middle Chinese still depends on the voicing of the initial consonant, these constitute just three phonemic tones: pin, shang, and qu. (Ru syllables are phonemically toneless.)

Yin Pin 陰平 [˦] 江天飛空

Yang Pin 陽平 [˩˩˨] 來同魚頭

(Yin) Shang 陰上 [˧˦] 懂紙古口

Yang Qu 陽去 [˧˩] 外地路道

Yin Qu 陰去 [˥˨] 對去馬你

Yang Ru 陽入 [˩˨̚] 六肉白石

Yin Ru 陰入 [˥̚] 各黑出脫

Sentence Structure

Quzhou dialect

• 你 我 個 朋友 啘。

[ni ŋu kəʔ põjɤ ue]

Literal meaning:(2nd person singular) (1st person singular) (genitive) (friend) (particle)

Meaning: You are my friend. Compare with Japanese: "あなたは私の友達だよ.", or "anata wa watashi no tomodachi dayo"。In this case, "啘", resembles Japanese "だよ".

• 渠(其) 你 老師 啘，要 尊重 人家。

[ɡi ɳi lɔsʐ ue, iɔ tseɳd͡ʒõ ninkɒ

Literal meaning:(3rd person singular) (2nd person singular) (teacher) (particle), (have) (respect) (other)

Meaning: He is your teacher, and you have to respect him.

• 鉛筆 借 支 我 好伐?

[kæpiəʔ t͡ʃiɒ t͡sʐ ŋu xɔfɐ̞ʔ]

Literal meaning: (pencil) (borrow) (measure word for pencil) (1st person singular) (interrogative)

Meaning: Can I borrow a pencil?

• 飯 再 喫 碗 添，多 吃 些兒 啊。

[væ t͡se t͡ɕʰiəʔ uə tʰie, tu t͡ɕʰiəʔ ʃin o]

Literal meaning: (rice/meal) (again) (eat) (bowl) (particle?), (more) (eat) (more+) (particle)

Meaning: If you want to eat more, then eat more if you'd like.

• 感冒藥 喫嘞 朆 你，覅 記弗着 掉 唻!

[kəmɔjɐ̞ʔ t͡ɕʰiəʔləʔ vən ɳi, fiɔ t͡ɕʰifəʔt͡ʃɐ̞ʔ tɔ le]

Literal meaning: (cold medicine) (taking/eating) (interrogative) (2nd person singular), (negative) (verb-remember/negative) (particle) (imperative)

Meaning: Have you taken your cold medicine yet? Don't forget to take it!

Pronouns

• 你 [ɳi˥˨] 2nd person singular

• 我 [ŋu˥˨] 1st person singular

• 渠[ ɡi˩˩˨] 3rd person singular

• 你達 [ɳi˥˨.dɐ̞ʔ˩˨, 你拉 [ɳi˥˨.lɐ̞ʔ˩˨], 爾耷- [n][tAʔ]/[dAʔ], [lAʔ] 2nd person plural

• 我達 [ŋu˥˨.dɐ̞ʔ˩˨], 我拉 [ŋu˥˨.lɐ̞ʔ˩˨ (我耷) 1st person plural

• 渠達 [ɡi˩˩˨.dɐ̞ʔ˩˨], 渠拉 [ɡi˩˩˨lɐ̞ʔ˩˨] (渠耷) 3rd person plural