Suzhou dialect

Grammar

Personal pronouns

Source:

Second and third-person pronouns are suffixed with 笃 for the plural. The first-person plural is a separate root, 伲 .

Demonstrative

In the Suzhou dialect, geq8 is a very special demonstrative that is used alongside a separate set of proximal and distal demonstratives. geq8 can indicate referents appearing in a speech situation, which may be close to or far away from the deictic center, and under these conditions, geq8 is always used in combination with gestures. Hence geq8 can serve both proximal and distal functions.

哀 with 该 and 弯 with 归 means exactly the same thing and only differ in pronunciation. The use of neutral demonstrative pronoun became clear once proximal and neutral demonstrative pronouns are used.

• 哀杯茶是吾葛，掰杯茶是僚葛，弯杯茶是俚葛。

When "搿" refers to time, there is no need to use the proximal and distal in opposition. The role of the neutral demonstrative is very obvious.

• 抗战是民国二十六年到民国三十四年，掰歇(弯歇)辰光日脚勿好过。

In this sentence, "掰歇(弯歇)" cannot be replaced by "哀歇" because the Anti-Japanese War happened more than fifty years ago, so only the neutral or distal demonstrative can be used, not proximal.

When not referring to time, the proximal "哀" and the neutral demonstrative "掰" can be interchanged. For example, the "掰" in "掰个人勿认得" can be replaced by "哀".

"哀", "该", "掰", "弯" and "归" cannot be used as subjects or objects alone, but must be combined with the following quantifiers, locative words, etc.

Example phrases:

• 哀歇啥辰光则？

现在什么时候了？ What time is it now?

• 哀呛倷身体好啘？

现阵子你身体好吗？ How are you now?

Varieties

Some non-native speakers of Suzhou speak the Suzhou dialect in a "stylized variety" to tell tales.

Phonology

Initials

The Suzhou dialect has series of voiced, voiceless, and aspirated stops, and voiceless and voiced fricatives. Moreover, palatalized initials also occur.

Voiced obstruents are typologically partially voiced instead of fully voiced. These consonants are devoiced word/phrase-initially, but are fully voiced within a phrase. This is most apparent for the fricatives becoming . Because of this devoicing, in single-syllable forms the distinction is actually the tone contour.

The glottal initials disappear if they are not at the beginning of a word/phrase, resulting in a smooth vocalic transition from the previous syllable. In this regard, it is possible to analyze both initials as a single phonological null onset when in this environment.

蛙 ≠ 华 , but 青蛙 = 清华

Finals

Notes:

• The Suzhou dialect has a rare contrast between "fricative vowels" and ordinary vowels .
  • Only the open-syllable occurrences of are fricated. When used as a glide or followed by a nasal they are plain vowels.
  • phonetically, are regular plain vowels [i y], while have further constriction
    • an acoustic study found to be phonetically syllabic voiced laminal post-alveolar fricatives , and to be a syllabic voiced bilabial or labiodental fricative depending on the preceding consonant
  • in open syllables, is articulated close to a position for a close back vowel
• is pronounced before rounded vowels.
• is a true mid vowel, . May also be transcribed with the Sinological symbol /ᴇ/.
• Depending on the source, transcriptions differ:
  • may also be transcribed as
  • may also be transcribed as ; also applies to on-glide final rhymes
  • may also be transcribed as
  • Close vowels may be analyzed as diphthongs and transcribed as

Historical finals

The Suzhou dialect allows a nasal coda but does not distinguish between them. As such, the Middle Chinese nasal codas have largely either merged or been lost depending on the vowel it follows. Historical rimes following certain vowels are distinguished as the nasalized vowels , but otherwise merge into modern . Historical and rimes are entirely merged and also result in modern , or are lost after certain vowels becoming modern . Monophthongization of the historical diphthong rime (as seen in Modern Standard Chinese: 海; pinyin: hǎi) resulted in a high-mid vowel /e/ distinct from the /ɛ/ that arose from the historical nasal rimes *-an/am (as seen in Modern Standard Chinese: 班; pinyin: bān). The distinction between /e ɛ/ is preserved within some Pingtan opera performers, but has merged together in general speech.

Middle Chinese rimes have become glottal stops, . Like other Northern Wu varieties, syllables with an underlying glottal stop coda usually manifest as a shortening of the vowel instead of an actual glottal stop , unless before a pause or at the end of an utterance.

Tones

Suzhou is considered to have seven tones. However, since the tone split dating from Middle Chinese still depends on the voicing of the initial consonant. Yang tones are only found with voiced initials, namely [b d ɡ z v dʑ ʑ m n nʲ ŋ l ɦ], while the yin tones are only found with voiceless initials. These constitute just three phonemic tones: ping, shang, and qu. (Ru syllables are phonemically toneless.)

In Suzhou, the Middle Chinese 阳上 tone and 阳去 tones have fully merged as (2)31. The original 阳去 313 tone possibly still occurs in tone sandhi patterns as the second element of a chain, following a 阴入 syllable (though it could be analyzed differently; see Tone Sandhi section below).

Therefore, 买 and 卖 has exactly the same pronunciation in literary and colloquial readings ⁶ma , but can be distinguished in tone sandhi. 弗买 ≠ 弗卖 .

Tone Sandhi

Tone in Suzhou dialect, like other Northern Wu varieties is generally grouped by phrasal tone pattern, also called sandhi chains or sandhi domains.

An analysis by Wang (2011) describes Suzhou tone sandhi as rightward tone-spreading of the left-most (i.e. initial) syllable of a phrase. Such described "left-prominent" phrases with non-checked initial syllables of a given length have one of five possible contours, each equivalent to each of the five tones. While generally described as rightward tone-spreading of the initial syllable, it is also common for the phrasal tone pattern to not be the same as that of the initial tone. This is currently the system used on Wiktionary entries with Suzhou data.

To distinguish the individual tone from the pattern expected from its tone spreading, the patterns themselves are referred to with the format of tone number + X (1x, 2x, 3x, etc.).

A tone level of 0 in the above chart indicates a syllable with a neutral tone (轻声; 輕聲; qīngshēng; 'light tone'), functionally comparable to that of Standard Chinese. The surface realization at the end of an utterance is a low akin to downstep, but in flowing speech is a mid/neutral pitch or may appear to copy the previous tone target.

Additionally, Li (1998) describes the 5x chain such that the second syllable has a slight rise. Li also describes a higher mid/high-level for the second syllable of a 6x chain. Li's 1x chain describes the pitch declining after the second syllable.

In phrases with checked initial syllables, the first two tones determine the overall contour. The resulting contour can be summarized as retaining the tone class (平上去) of the second syllable, but not the voicing class (陰陽). Both Tone 1 陰平 /44/ and Tone 2 陽平 /223/ will result in a Tone 2 contour (/223/). Both Tone 5 陰去 /523/ and Tone 6 陽去 /231/ will result in a Tone 5 contour (/523/).

Ye 1988 describes additional patterns where

• Tone 7 阴入 + Tone 1/3/5 retaining full tone, resulting in a /5ˀ 5/ pattern if Tone 7 阴入 is followed by Tone 1 阴平
• the original un-merged Yangshang 阳去 313 tone still occurs as the second element of a chain, following a 阴入 syllable (7.6 chain).
• The second syllable of an 8x chain having a low-falling /21/ regardless of original tone

However, Wang describes the same phrases differently, and so it is debatable whether these form distinct patterns:

Tone category shifts

As mentioned above, the tone pattern of a phrase frequently does not match the expected pattern based on the initial syllable's underlying tone.

Most frequently:

• a phrase beginning with a Tone 3 syllable takes on the tone pattern expected of a Tone 5 syllable (in other words, a 5x chain) or a Tone 1 syllable (a 1x chain)
  • i.e. expected 3x > 5x or 1x
    • (5x) 短衫 : ⁵toe₃-se₁
    • (1x) 暑假 : ¹syu₃-ka₅
• a phrase beginning with a Tone 5 syllable frequently takes on the tone pattern expected of a Tone 1 syllable (a 1x chain)
  • i.e. expected 5x > 1x
    • (1x) 菜飯 : ¹tshe₅-ve₆
• a phrase beginning with a Tone 6 syllable frequently takes on the tone pattern expected of a Tone 2 syllable (a 2x chain)
  • i.e. expected 6x > 2x
    • (2x) 大菜 : ²da₆-tshe₅, ²dou₆-tshe₅
• less frequently, the above shifts can happen in reverse
  • i.e. expected 5x > 3x
  • i.e. expected 2x > 6x
• syllables following Tone 7 can also shift chains
  • Tone 7 + Tone 5/6 > (Tone 7 + Tone 1/2) > 7.2
  • Tone 7 + Tone 6 > 7.3
• most non-checked syllables following Tone 8 collapse into a falling tone, equivalent to an 8.3 chain
  • Tone 8 + {Tone 1, 2, 3, 5, 6} > 8.3

Functionally, a Tone 3 pattern (3x chain) is the least common to occur and mostly surfaces when the initial syllable is a numeral phrase (几时; 機時 ³ci-zyu₆ ) or reduplicated verb (写写; 寫寫 ³sia-sia₃ ). Below is a chart with examples of the common tone patterns:

Tone reduction

Wang (p. 50) additionally identifies a pattern where in certain constructions Tone 5 (/523/) followed by another syllable simplifies to [52] while the second syllable retains its full tone. This can be analyzed comparably to Shanghainese right-prominent sandhi that prioritizes the second syllable and reduces preceding syllables. This right-prominent sandhi pattern occurs commonly in Verb + Object compounds.

做人

In addition to the above simplification of Tone 5 /523/ to [52], Li (p. 216) additionally describes Tone 2 /223/ and Tone 6 /231/ similarly simplifying to [23 ˨˧] in similar Verb + Object, as well as Adverb + Adjective structures

穷大 dʑioŋ^223-23 dou²³¹

是鬼 zɿ^231-23 tɕy⁵²

过桥 kou^523-52 dʑiæ²²³

Identified by Bu (2025) describing Suzhou pingtan (but also applicable to Suzhou dialect normally), such tonal reduction generally occurs particularly for Tone 2 and Tone 6 syllables even when not in sandhi chains, and can further reduce to a simple mid/low tone. Because it can occur outside of Verb + Object or Adverb + Adjective syntactic conditions, Bu considers this tonal reduction to simply be a reduction of non-final syllables motivated by those tones (Tone 5 /523/, Tone 2 /223/, Tone 6 /231/) underlyingly being longer and having more tonal targets.

我

⁶ngou

/ŋəu˨˧˩

[ŋəuᵝ˨˧

1sg

是

⁶zy

zz̩˨˧˩

zz̩˨˧~zz̩˨

COP

蘇 州 人

¹sou-tseu_¹-gnin_²

səu˥ tsøʏ˥ ɲ̟iɲ˨˧/

səuᵝ˥ tsʏ˥ ɲ̟iɲ˩]

Suzhou person

"I am a Soutseu native"

In contrast, Wang (p. 348) treats this pronoun + copula construction as a single 6x phrase.

我 是

ŋəu‿zɿ²³¹

1sg COP

老 三

læ‿sᴇ²³

Lao San

"I am Lao San"

Casual Speech

There can be additional variation in how reduced the tones can become based on how casual the sentence is spoken by the speaker.

搿麽

⁸geq meq

ɡəʔ˨ məʔ˦

ɡəʔ˨ məʔ˧

倷

⁶ne

ne˨˧

ne˨˧

吃仔

⁷chiq-³tsy

tɕʰiəʔ˦ tsz̩˥˩

tɕʰiəʔ˦ tsz̩˥

飯

⁶ve

vɛ˨˧

vɛ˨˧

勒

leq

ləʔ˨

ləʔ˨

再

⁵tse

tse˥˩

tse˥

去吧

⁵chi ba

tɕʰi^ʑ˥˩ bɑ˨˧

tɕʰi^ʑ˥˩ bɑ˨˧

"So, maybe you eat your meal first and then go."

In the above sentence, the falling tone [˥˩] on 仔 tsy and 再 tse is reduced to a high-flat [˥] in casual speech, in addition to the Tone 6 /231 ˨˧˩/ (倷 ne, 飯 ve) and Tone 5 /523 ˥˩˧/ (再 tse, 去 chi) words already reducing to [23 ˨˧] and [52 ˥˩] even in slower speech.

In the case of casual speech spoken quickly, Wang does describe a pattern where the preceding syllable takes a neutral tone. If the word (often a pronoun, adverb, or quantifier) precedes another phrase, it can reduce to a simple /3/ tone. This reduced pattern can apply across polysyllabic words or even multiple words. This can be considered as describing the same phenomenon as above but with less phonetic detail.

交差 |

搿人有点弗大适意 |

Stress

The same phrase can take a different chain depending on which syllable or word is stressed.

看戏 'to watch shows/movies"

(a 1x chain)

generally without emphasis, it would be treated as a single concept and be a single sandhi chain.

emphasizing what is being watched—the verb is treated separately and reduced to either /52/ or /3/

Writing

Suzhou dialect in literature

Ballad-narratives

A "ballad–narrative" (說唱詞話) known as "The story of Xue Rengui crossing the sea and Pacifying Liao" (薛仁貴跨海征遼故事), which is about the Tang dynasty hero Xue Rengui is believed to have been written in the Suzhou dialect.

Novels

Han Bangqing wrote The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai, one of the earliest novels in Wu dialect, in Suzhou dialect. Suzhou serves as an important drive for Han to write the novel. Suzhou dialect is used in innovative methods to demonstrate urban space and time, as well as the interrupted narrative aesthetics, making it an integral part of an effort, which is presented as a fundamental and self-conscious new thing. Han's novel also inspired other authors to write in Wu dialect.