Wu is a subdivision of Chinese, spoken by about 80 million people. It is spoken to southern Jiangsu and most of Zhejiang, an area sometimes referred to as Jiangnan. The historically wealthy Lower Yangtze Delta is home to the largest branch, Northern Wu, and is also the lect area that is represented on Wiktionary. Suzhounese (zh) was the cultural capital of the area, though due to Shanghai's relative economic status, Shanghainese (zh) has, to some extent, eclipsed Suzhounese's prestige status. Characteristically Wu varieties have voiced (濁／浊 (8zoq, “muddy”)) obstruents, and all except Oujiang varieties such as Wenzhounese have final glottal stops derived from the final stops of Middle Chinese. Together, these features reduce the number of tones that are actually distinctive or phonemic.
Phonology and notation
Although no official romanization system is endorsed by any government, on Wiktionary, both of these lects are notated in Wugniu, which is the most common standardised system used in online circles nowadays. Wugniu is also available in a wide variety of localities, and correspondences between different lects tend to have the same glyph (eg. Shanghainese /ɔ/ and Suzhounese /æ/ both being "au"). Slight modifications and extensions have been made regarding features not included in Wugniu officially, such as tone sandhi and erhua. The legacy Wiktionary romanization for Shanghainese and MiniDict romanizations are accessible in the expanded pronunciation infobox.
Tone notation
Left-prominent sandhi is notated with a dash in code (-) and a space in display, whereas right-prominent sandhi is a plus (+) in code but also a space in display. To separate two chains without RPS, an apersand (&) is used.
The inputted tone left of the syllable is always the realized sandhi tone. This may not always correspond with the underlying tone, and one should consult Module:wuu-pron/data (for now) before adding entries. If the sandhi tone and underlying tone are the same, then the module would automatically put the first syllable's number in front of the syllable and all subsequent syllables' numbers behind their respective syllables. For instance:
- Shanghainese:
1lau6 sy1→ 1lau6-sy1
Please also note that certain lects may have multiple types of directional sandhi or tone splits not accomodated for in the eight-numberal system. In those cases, a capital Latin letter is to be attatched behind the number to indicate the part of speech or tone category, eg. 3Atha or 4Rbau.
Orthography
There is no unified orthography for Wu varieties that is widely adopted. On Wiktionary, in general, all terms are listed in both their etymological spelling and their phonetic spelling. There may be more than one phonetic page, but there is typically only one etymological page. The following is a reference list of common terms and Wiktionary-specific spellings.
| Wugniu | Etymological | Phonetic |
|---|---|---|
| laq | 在 | 垃 |
| la | 拉 | |
| leq | 勒 | |
| le | 來 | |
| liq | 立 | |
| li | 裡 | |
| ke | 居 | 該 (蓋) |
| ho | 許 / 化? | 化 |
| he | 海 | |
| hoq | 霍 | |
| han | 夯 | |
| hen | 亨 | |
| laon | 丄 | 浪 |
| gnian | 娘 | |
| lau | 咾? | |
| lu | 路 | |
| taq | 𡍲 | 搭 |
| teq | 得? | |
| toq | 篤 | |
| ta | 帶 | |
| da | 埭 | |
| taon | 當 | |
| ton | 東 | |
| don | 同 | |
| tiq | 的 | |
| te | 𡍲? | 對/堆 |
| teq | 得 | |
| ti | 底 | |
| khaq | 許／居? | 客 |
| kheq | 克 | |
| (d)ze | 在 | 在 |
| (d)zeq/tseq | 則 | |
| Wugniu | Etymological | Phonetic |
|---|---|---|
| ngu/vu/(w)u | 我 | 我 (-ou: 奴?) |
| ngoq | 我? | |
| ng | 吾／唔? | |
| nge | ? | |
| a(q) | 阿 | |
| nga(q) | 𠊎? | |
| ghaq | 狹? | |
| an | 俺 | |
| n(g) | 爾 | 爾 |
| gni | 你 | |
| ne | 倷 | |
| yi(q) | 佢 | 夷† |
| i(q) | 伊 | |
| ji | 其? | |
| g(e)i | 渠 | |
| tha/tho | 他? | 他 |
| da/do | 佗 | |
| zeq- | 是 / 實? | |
| ze- | ||
| zian-/yan- | 像 | |
| don- | ? | 動 |
| weq- | ? | 活 |
| li | 佢? | 俚 |
| -la | ? | 拉 |
| -le | 倈 | |
| non | 儂 | 儂 |
| -noq | 諾 | |
| nou | 奴 | |
| na | 爾拉 | 㑚 |
| -da | 搭? | ? |
| -daq | 達 | |
| -taq | 搭 | |
| -teq | 得 | |
| -toq | 篤 | |
| -men | 們 | |
| -ten | 等 | |
| -pae | 班 | |
| -ko | 個? | |
| -s(i)e(q) | 些 | |
| Definition | Wugniu | Etymological | Phonetic |
|---|---|---|---|
| ～人 | ku | 個 | |
| possessive | keq | 个/個 | 格/個? |
| geq | 個? | ||
| gheq | |||
| deixis | keq | 箇 | 格 |
| geq | 搿 | ||
Examples
zh-pron|w=sh:1thi ze;sz:1thie ze2zh-pron|w=sh:5hu tsaon zan;sz:3hou tsaon5 zan2zh-pron|w=sh:6di zy;sz:6die zyu6zh-pron|w=sh:6ghoe koq;sz:2ghoe koq7zh-pron|w=sh:7faq liq;sz:7faq liq8zh-pron|w=sh:8zeq pen;sz:8zeq pen3Resources
- For checking the pronunciation of words, use The Comprehensive Dictionary of Shanghainese (《上海话大词典》), which uses IPA notations throughout the book. Wugniu also has a Shanghainese dictionary listed under 松江 Songjiang. However, note that Wugniu's dictionary spills into lect areas outside of Puxi
- For checking the pronunciation of characters, use Wugniu or Wu Chinese MiniDict
- Note that MiniDict uses a different romanisation system than the one implemented here. Their romanisation scheme is as listed on their website
See also
- Category:Wu language
- Category:Northern Wu
- Category:Shanghainese Wu
- Category:Suzhounese Wu
- Wiktionary:About Chinese/Wenzhounese, Wiktionary:About Wu/Northern Wu
If unsure, hassle User:ND381 or User:Musetta6729.