Taizhou immigrants

Although the area of Jiangsu Province is small, there are natural geographical barriers such as the Yangtze River and Huaihe River. The main reason for the gap between Jiangsu dialects is the blocking effect of Jianghuai, which basically determines the dialect pattern in Jiangsu, followed by natural and man-made disasters, topographic changes, administrative divisions and other reasons.

Jiangsu Dialect

Jiangsu dialect is mainly divided into Jianghuai Mandarin, Zhongyuan Mandarin and Wu dialect. Among them, the whole city of Xuzhou, parts of Suqian and parts of Lianyungang are Central Plains Mandarin areas, and it is said that a small part of southern Jiangsu also has Central Plains Mandarin dialect islands. There are also Wuyu Island in Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Nanjing, Zhenjiang, Taizhou, Nantong and Yancheng. The dialects in other areas are Jianghuai Mandarin.

Natural geographical barriers lead to differences in dialects. As can be seen from the above description, all the Central Plains Mandarin in Jiangsu Province is distributed in the north of Huaihe River, while Wu dialect is basically distributed in the south of Yangtze River. Due to the barrier between the Yangtze River and Huaihe River, the construction and shipbuilding of ancient bridges are underdeveloped, and there is not sufficient communication and integration between the north and south of the Yangtze River and Huaihe River, so the north and south of the Yangtze River and Huaihe River develop in different directions while retaining their respective dialect characteristics.

The population migration caused by topographic changes, Qidong, Haimen and surrounding areas in the southeast of Nantong City are located in Jiangbei, but the dialect is Wu dialect. It turns out that it is just an island in the sea. Later, due to topographic changes, the sea water between the island and the mainland receded, forming today's land. When the land was just formed, it was naturally a no-man's land, so a large number of Jiangnan people moved here, and they brought the soft language of their hometown, which led to the dialect spoken in Jiangbei area being the same as that in Jiangnan.

Qihai dialect

Population migration caused by natural disasters and wars leads to differences in dialects. Most of Jianghuai Mandarin is distributed between Jianghuai, but Huai 'an and Yancheng counties and towns north of Huaihe River include parts of Lianyungang and Suqian, and parts of Zhenjiang and Nanjing south of Yangtze River are Jianghuai Mandarin.

Ningzhen and Zhenjiang used to belong to Su Xichang, and the dialect is also Wu dialect. However, during the Eastern Jin Dynasty, due to the political turmoil and war in the northern part of the Central Plains. Therefore, a large number of people in the Central Plains moved to Nanjing and Zhenjiang with the imperial court, and the northern dialect merged with Wu dialect, which led to changes in dialects in some areas of Zhenjiang and Nanjing. With the passage and evolution of time, coupled with some subsequent wars, such as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, immigration occurred. The Jianghuai dialect in some areas of Nanjing and Zhenjiang today was formed.

Jintan dialect map

Before the Ming Dynasty, due to the frequent alternation of state power, the Jiangbei area of Jiangsu Province experienced several wars and frequent floods in the Huaihe River, which led to the population withering here, while the Jiangnan area was very densely populated. In the early Ming Dynasty, the imperial court tried to balance the population and development of various regions. Some people in the south of the Yangtze River were ordered to move to the north of the Yangtze River, and the scope of these immigrants happened to cover all the Huai-speaking areas north of the Yangtze River except Nantong. Folk genealogy is recorded as "Hong Wu drives away" or "Red Fly drives away" and so on.

Schematic diagram of Hongwu dispersion

The reason for the administrative division is that some counties and townships in Yancheng and Huai 'an, which are located in the north of Huaihe River, and some areas in Lianyungang and Suqian all use Jianghuai Mandarin, and historically, like some areas in the south of Huaihe River, they are all under the jurisdiction of Huai 'an government. Jingjiang, a city under the jurisdiction of Taizhou in the north of the Yangtze River, once belonged to Changzhou Prefecture in the south of the Yangtze River, and its dialect is also close to Changzhou dialect.

Because they belong to the same administrative division, they are closely related to each other and have frequent personnel flow, so they can also influence each other in dialect culture. But it may also be that the dialects in these areas are similar, which leads them to be classified as the same administrative division. It is difficult to determine whether dialects belong to the same administrative division or are similar before.

As for Wuyu Island in Yancheng and Zhongyuan Mandarin Island in a few areas in the south of the Yangtze River, it was also caused by war and other reasons. It may be because the migration distance is not long now or because of the barrier of terrain, which leads to insufficient communication and integration with the surrounding areas, so that it has not been assimilated by the local mainstream dialect.