A Brief Introduction to Wu Dialect in Hangzhou Dialect

Taihu Lake, the Wu dialect in the north, is a narrow sense of "Wu dialect". It belongs to Sino-Tibetan language family.

It is the largest dialect piece in Wu dialect, with Taihu Lake as the central area, distributed in the vast areas of southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang, with a geographical area and population reaching 65% of the total usage of Wu dialect. It is the most influential Wu dialect, and many people mistakenly regard Taihu Lake in Wu dialect as the whole of Wu dialect. Taihu Lake in Wu dialect can be further divided into six small pieces: Piling, Su Hu's home, Tiaoxi, Hangzhou, Shaolin and Yongjiang. Although it is distributed in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai provinces, it has a large degree of internal communication, so it is an organic whole.

Hangzhou dialect belongs to Taihu dialect. It has the general characteristics of Wu dialect, but it is greatly influenced by Putonghua. Hangzhou dialect was most influenced by foreign countries when it moved its capital to Lin 'an in Song Dynasty.

According to Li Xin's Biography of the Years of Jianyan, from the first year of Jianyan (1 127) to the twenty-sixth year of Shaoxing (1 156), the number of northern residents who entered Hangzhou has exceeded the local population. At that time, the northern "Mandarin" in the Song Dynasty, which was mainly brought by Du Nan scholars, had an influence on the southern local dialects. Finally, Hangzhou dialect has undergone great changes in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar, and it has a strong northern dialect color in the Song Dynasty. In Qing Dynasty, Hangzhou, as the administrative capital of Zhejiang and the seat of Fujian and Zhejiang Governor's Office, was more influenced by Beijing Mandarin than other places.

In addition, Shaolin dialect, represented by Shaoxing dialect (including Xiaoshan dialect), has a great influence on Hangzhou dialect. The dependence of Hangzhou and Shaoxing is similar to that of Shanghai and Suzhou. No wonder there is a saying in Hangzhou: "Hangzhou radish is planted in Shaoxing", which means that many Hangzhou people have their ancestral homes in Shaoxing. In fact, it is not surprising that Hangzhou dialect has been influenced by the surrounding Wu dialect area for a long time due to population mobility and economic exchanges. There is also a saying in Shaoxing: "Economic man must never take the road to Hangzhou", which means that in the new urbanization stage after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Shaoxing people came to Hangzhou to sell goods or settle down for business, occupying the main upper class in Hangzhou at that time. According to Fudan University's History of Chinese Immigrants, there were only 70,000 people left in Hangzhou after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Since then, most urban residents have come from other places, among which Shaoxing has the largest number and Ningbo has the largest number.

Compared with other dialects in Wu dialect area, Hangzhou dialect is different. It has obvious literary reading characteristics and "er affix" (syllable-independent er suffix), which is rare in other Wu dialect areas. At the same time, Hangzhou dialect is different from Wunong soft language area, which is both rigid and elastic. Boys speak powerfully, girls speak powerfully.