Why is there such a big gap between dialects in Jiangsu province with a small land area?

I answer the question from two aspects. First of all, what dialects mainly exist in Jiangsu? Second, why are there so many dialects?

First, there are four major dialects in Jiangsu Province.

First, the Jianghuai dialect in Hong Chao, represented by Nanjing and Yangzhou;

Second, Tongtai Jianghuai dialect, represented by Nantong and Taizhou;

Third, Wu dialect represented by Su Xichang;

The fourth is the northern dialect represented by Xuzhou and Ganyu.

Second, why are there so many dialects?

First of all, although Jiangsu has a small geographical area, it has a great span from north to south.

Fengxian, the northernmost county in Jiangsu, is even more northerly in latitude than Taierzhuang in Shandong and many cities in Henan, and the linear distance from the Yellow River is only 100 km, which can be said to be a very northern city. Wujiang District, the southernmost part of Suzhou, has been adjacent to Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, and is a very typical city in the south of the Yangtze River. It is normal that one side of the soil and water supports the other side, and the soil and water are different and the language is different. This is analyzed from the geographical gap.

Secondly, the accumulation of history and multiple population movements have caused a huge gap between languages in various places.

Although Chinese civilization originated in the Yellow River valley, there have been many large-scale population movements since the Han Dynasty. In the Han dynasty, it was mainly to escape the war in the north. In Jin Dynasty, Yongjia Rebellion happened again. In the Southern Song Dynasty, in order to avoid the invasion of the northern state of Jin, northerners moved south again on a large scale. The continuous migration of the northern population to the south has rapidly improved the degree of civilization in the south and injected northern cultural factors into many cities in the south. For example, Hangzhou steamed dumplings are particularly famous now. In fact, it originated from the fact that the small court moved from Kaifeng to Lin 'an in the Southern Song Dynasty, which brought the practice of covering jiaozi in the north. Take Jiangsu as an example. After Yongjia crossed the south, Qian Jia, Sima of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, moved to Nanjing today, and the northern family became rich and powerful. With the northern dialect, I came to Nanjing, which used to be dominated by Wu dialect and Jianghuai dialect. Naturally, there will be integration and change. Until today, Nanjing dialect has the characteristics of both Wu dialect and northern dialect. Nanjing dialect, located at the bridgehead of the north-south border, has become an important sample for studying the cultural language of the north and south.

Wu dialect, represented by Suzhou Wuxi, can remain intact, which is also related to history. Wuyu District has a long history, and there are few foreign cultural invasions. Yongjia crossed south, and northerners came to Nanjing to be in power. The local giants in Wu-speaking areas are powerful and do not give these foreigners a chance to stand on their feet. Therefore, some northern nobles went to Zhejiang Huiji for development, some stayed in Nanjing, and a considerable number of northerners settled in Zhenjiang. Therefore, in Zhenjiang today, there are still many villages that speak northern dialects. This phenomenon is not uncommon in Jiangsu, and scholars have named them "Dialect Island".

In short, the diversity of dialects in Jiangsu Province is due to the long-term evolution of a region and the migration and integration of immigrants.

Jiangsu is a small province, why are there such great differences in dialects?

In fact, Jiangsu dialects are not so complicated, and they are mainly divided into three categories. Wuyu District, Jianghuai Mandarin District and Zhongyuan Mandarin District.

Among them, the Central Plains Mandarin and Wu dialect are essentially different (both sound and feel like two languages to outsiders). Jianghuai Mandarin, as the most popular and widely distributed dialect in Jiangsu Province, plays a connecting role and can even be used as a representative dialect in Jiangsu Province at present.

Jianghuai Mandarin, also known as Xiajiang Mandarin and Huai Mandarin, belongs to southern Mandarin, and Nanjing dialect and Yangzhou dialect are usually used as the representative sounds of Jianghuai Mandarin.

Jianghuai Mandarin can be divided into Hong Chao dialect, Tongtai dialect and Huangxiao dialect, among which Hong Chao dialect is the most widely distributed, covering most areas of Jiangsu and Anhui provinces. Jiangsu Province is dominated by Hong Chao films and Tongtai films.

So ... a little Jiangsu. Why are there many differences between dialects and cultures?

I think it is caused by the underdeveloped transportation and commuting in ancient times!

Friends who have a little knowledge of Jiangsu geography must know that Jiangsu Province has formed a pattern of two rivers and three points. These two rivers are the Huaihe River and the Yangtze River. Among them, the Huaihe River has been brought into the sea by the Yellow River many times. As we all know, crossing the river is a very simple matter, just pay the bridge fee by car. But hundreds or even thousands of years ago, the Yangtze River and Huaihe River were two insurmountable gaps!

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(Yangtze River in Jiangsu Province)

The Yangtze River and the Yellow River. Wide water surface, large water volume and fast water flow. In ancient times, there was no advanced bridge-building technology, advanced crossing tools and powerful artillery fire. For both sides of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, if they want to conquer each other's cities, they are bound to ascend to heaven. Therefore, the north and south of the Yangtze River have formed two opposing regimes for many times.

Classic Battle: Battle of Red Cliffs

When the Huaihe River was captured, the widest parts of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River were all in Jiangsu Province, so it was difficult to fight, not to mention that ordinary people wanted to cross the river.

Voice of the people:

Therefore, these two natural barriers divide Jiangsu into three cultural areas, which are now the three major dialect areas.

North of Huaihe River, that is, most of northern Jiangsu now, is mainly the Central Plains Mandarin area dominated by Xuzhou, northwest Suqian and north Lianyungang. South of Huaihe River, north of Yangtze River, south and west of Yangtze River, namely Huai 'an, Yancheng, Yangzhou and Taizhou, northwest of Nantong, Nanjing and Zhenjiang, and west of Changzhou. The eastern part of Jiangnan, namely the eastern part of Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou, and the southern part is dominated by Wu dialect.

So it is not difficult to understand the complicated language situation in Jiangsu Province!

I have lived in Jiangsu for almost 20 years, and the dialects in Jiangsu are really different. How big is it? Take Nanjing as an example. The dialect in Laoxiaguan area in the north of the city is different from that in the south of the city. In the dialect of Gaochun District, the southernmost part of China, most Nanjing people sound as if they are listening to gobbledygook.

Distribution of Jiangsu dialects

Jiangsu is usually divided into northern Jiangsu, central Jiangsu and southern Jiangsu, and dialects are basically divided into Zhongyuan Mandarin Area, Jianghuai Mandarin Area and Wu Dialect Area. In addition, there is a small part of Jiaoliao Mandarin area near Shandong.

The Central Plains Mandarin Area is mainly Xuzhou, Suqian and Lianyungang, three prefecture-level cities near Shandong, which are greatly influenced by Shandong in terms of customs and habits such as diet and language. Among them, some areas of Lianyungang are greatly influenced by Jiaodong Peninsula, and Jiaoliao dialect in Shandong dialect is spoken.

Jianghuai Mandarin area mainly includes parts of northern Jiangsu and central Jiangsu. Yangzhou, Taizhou, Huai 'an, Yancheng, Zhenjiang, Nantong and Nanjing all belong to the Jianghuai Mandarin area. Linguistically closer to Anhui.

Wuyu District, the seat of the ancient kingdom of Wu, is mainly Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou, as well as Gaochun Lishui in Nanjing, Qidong and Haimen in Nantong. Custom language is close to Zhejiang and Shanghai.

In addition to the three major districts, each district also has intricate dialects of small languages, just like the dialects in the north and south of Nanjing are different from the beginning. Nantong is different from Haimen and Rudong. There are also differences in Yangzhou dialect.

There is a reason for the great gap between dialects.

There are complex reasons for the formation of language differences, which are generally related to historical changes.

The Central Plains Mandarin Area in Jiangsu has a close relationship with the Central Plains in history, and it is the hub for the south to enter the Central Plains. The dispute over the Central Plains in history often involves this area. Several large-scale population migrations in ancient China, such as Guan Yi and Du Nan in Jin Dynasty, the great immigration policy in Ming Dynasty, Xuzhou, Suqian and Lianyungang, were buffer zones. It was originally the border area between the north and the south. With the northerners settling down in the south several times on a large scale, it is not surprising that this area speaks Central Plains Mandarin.

There was no Jianghuai Mandarin area before Sui and Tang Dynasties, and most of this area belonged to Wu dialect area at that time. Jianghuai Mandarin is a combination of Wu dialect and northern Mandarin. Nanjing dialect can be regarded as the representative of Jianghuai Mandarin, and parts of Yangzhou, Zhenjiang and Nantong with Nanjing as the center are regarded as Jianghuai Mandarin areas.

There have been several waves of immigrants in history, the most famous of which was Du Nan, Guan Yi in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. In order to escape the war, many northern nobles came here from Luoyang and the surrounding northern areas, bringing the northern mandarin at that time. Later, Zhu Yuanzhang made Nanjing his capital in the Ming Dynasty and published the official language standard "Wu Hong Zheng Yun", which was the national standard of Putonghua at that time. Wu Hong and Zheng Yun use Wu dialect around Nanjing, which refers to the northern mandarin, that is, Jianghuai mandarin.

Jianghuai Mandarin has a long history as a national mandarin. Until the Opium War in the late Qing Dynasty, some westerners thought that the Jianghuai Mandarin in Nanjing was the Mandarin of China.

Wu dialect, there is a saying called Wu Nong soft language. You can imagine the pronunciation of Wu dialect. Wu dialect is an ancient dialect with a history of more than 3,000 years since the Zhou Dynasty, and the most representative dialect is Shanghai dialect. The development of Wu dialect is relatively simple and clear. It has been used in wuyue since the Xia Dynasty, and it is still used by more than 90 million people. Parts of Suzhou, Wuxi and Nantong in southern Jiangsu belong to ancient wuyue, so their use of Wu dialect has been passed down from generation to generation.

The dialect system in Jiangsu Province is basically divided into three parts. Under the three plates, according to the different regions, it is divided into many small areas of dialects. The formation of these three dialects mainly stems from the historical position and form of Jiangsu Province.

First of all, the shape of Jiangsu Province, as we all know, was not established for a long time. For a long time in history, it was the same administrative region as Anhui next door, and this area was just above the north-south dividing line of China. After Jiangsu became an independent province, the shape of the province is more like a strip, with short east-west and long north-south, so the dialect system is also distributed north-south, namely Zhongyuan dialect, Jianghuai dialect and Wu dialect.

Another reason is historical reasons. China's regional sphere of influence and human culture are often bounded by rivers, such as the Yangtze River and the Yellow River. In ancient times, the estuaries of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River were all in Jiangsu Province, so the three major dialect systems in Jiangsu Province were basically divided along these two rivers. In ancient times, the dialect system north of the Yellow River estuary was Zhongyuan dialect, the area between the Yellow River and the Yangtze River was Jianghuai dialect, and the area south of the Yangtze River was Wu dialect. Of course, there are some deviations. For example, Nantong is north of the Yangtze River, but most parts of Nantong speak Wu dialect.

Among the three major dialect systems in Jiangsu, Jianghuai dialect is the most widely used, which is mainly due to the origin and formation of the other two dialects. Zhongyuan dialect is widely used in Henan and southwest Shandong, while Wu dialect is used in most parts of Zhejiang. From the use areas of these dialects, we can also roughly see the sphere of influence of ancient vassal States. Of course, the Jiangsu dialect we speak must include these three dialect systems, and we cannot simply use Jianghuai dialect to represent Jiangsu dialect.

Welcome to pay attention to the "geographically interesting" message and discuss it together.

There are indeed many dialects in Jiangsu: Gaochun dialect (limited to Gaochun Lishui), Xuzhou dialect, yancheng dialect dialect, Yang Tai dialect, Suzhou dialect and Changzhou dialect.

From a historical point of view, it is said that the Mongols in the Yuan Dynasty dispersed people all over the country in order to facilitate their rule, so they could not be unified because of the language barrier, and it was difficult to rebel. After a long period of integration, local dialects have been formed.

The dialect differences in Jiangsu are indeed the strangest in China. Every county and even every town has different dialects, which are mainly composed of Huaiyang Mandarin, Wu dialect, Xuzhou dialect, yancheng dialect dialect, Nantong dialect and Anhui dialect. They are very interesting and distinctive.

Related to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Long hair killed too many people. Many people died in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in Jintan, and Su Beiren came to make up for it during the Tongzhi period. Changzhou is the same. So most people in Jintan speak Subei dialect. In some places, the village speaks the local dialect, and there is a village next to it. This is Subei dialect.

Nantong dialect is the most special. People in Nantong may not speak Nantong dialect, but there are really few people who can speak standard Nantong dialect. As far as Tongzhou District is concerned, there are many dialects, some separated by a road, some separated by a river, and the dialects are different, and some even don't understand.

As a native of Jiangsu, I feel that compared with other provinces, it is a province that has been abruptly pieced together. After all, it doesn't have the same customs, folk customs and common language.

Although there are many dialects in Jiangsu, there are actually two kinds, one is Wu dialect and the other is Jianghuai Mandarin. Suzhou and Wuxi in Wu dialect area can understand and communicate with each other, while Jianghuai dialect area is only slightly different, only with slightly different accents, so they can communicate with each other in their own dialects.