Unique Nantong dialect culture

Every place has its own unique language. On the one hand, Nantong culture is bred by the Yangtze River and the Yellow Sea, on the other hand, it is bred by Jianghuai culture and Wuyue culture. Is Nantong dialect a kind of culture or a carrier of folk culture and folk art culture? Go and find out!

Nantong dialect is numerous and complicated in distribution. There are four categories: Shanghai dialect, Nantong dialect, Haiqi dialect and Tongdong dialect. The formation of this pattern is not only related to the natural geographical environment and administrative divisions of past dynasties, but also related to historical immigration activities.

Nantong dialect belongs to Jianghuai dialect in the northern dialect. Some scholars further divide Jianghuai dialect into "Hong Chao" and "Tongtai", so we naturally belong to Tongtai dialect. Although the internal consistency of northern dialects is very strong, our dialects are quite distinctive in northern dialects and even Jianghuai dialects. Geographically speaking, the Jianghuai dialect area is already at the southern edge of the northern dialect area, while Nantong is relatively remote and close to the Wu dialect area.

Historically, Nantong dialect was gradually developed on the basis of ancient Jiangnan Wu dialect, and gradually transformed into Jianghuai dialect under the influence of ancient Hailing dialect, so Nantong dialect not only contains the underlying components of Wu dialect, but also has the basic attributes of northern dialect! Qian Gu thinks that the initial consonant system of Nantong dialect is close to the north, and the vowel and tone system are close to the northern Wu dialect. Mr. Lu said in the Preface to Books that "Hakka, Jiangxi and Tongtai dialects all originated in the Southern Dynasties". Tongtai dialect is ancient in the east (Nantong) and new in the west (Taizhou), and Nantong dialect is regarded as "Hakka and Jiangxi dialects are of the same origin" regardless of its flat tones. Mr. Lu also believes that the Yongjia Rebellion and the northward migration in the 4th century changed the nature of Tongtai Wu dialect, and Tongtai dialect may be a descendant of northern Chinese in the 4th century.

The pronunciation of Nantong dialect is very distinctive. The ancient voiced initials in Nantong dialect are voiced, but different from the general northern dialect, the ancient voiced initials in Nantong dialect (Tongtai dialect) are aspirated regardless of flat tones, such as "P", "Pen", "Pai" and "Bai".

Unlike most Jianghuai dialects, where N and L are not divided, Nantong dialect is clearly divided. The initials of Nantong dialect are only flat-tongued, but some pronunciations still have the feeling of "tongue twister". Nantong dialect, as a Jianghuai dialect, also has the characteristics of novelty, prosperity and vividness, but Nantong dialect has more single vowels and nasal vowels, which is the basis of Wu dialect. Keep the tone, the tone is divided into yin and yang, and the glottis end. De-voiced sounds are also divided into yin and yang, with more than seven tones, which are also rare in northern dialects. Basically, the tone values of Yin and Yang in Mandarin are different, such as 55, 35, 2 14, 5 1! Nantong dialect has many ancient sounds and characters!

Nantong dialect is one of the most unique and complicated dialects in Jiangsu and even the whole country with its changeable phonology and rich vocabulary. At the beginning of the last century, Zhang Jian, a famous industrialist and educator in modern times, asked people to spend more than six years compiling an Introduction to Nantong Dialect, which opened a precedent for Nantong people to study dialects. However, the lack of international phonetic symbols and vocabulary has affected the in-depth study of Nantong dialect. However, not long ago, the Dictionary of Nantong Dialect, edited by Tao, former vice chairman of Tongzhou CPPCC, was first published on10.2, and the "living fossil" of Nantong people's language handed down from generation to generation was completely recorded for the first time. But I haven't read this book yet! Such a profound language needs to be analyzed and studied slowly in the future! While speaking Mandarin well, we should also speak our hometown dialect well. This is the real modern man!