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Rui'an dialect

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Pronunciation
  
[zʉ˦ø˧ɦo˨]

Glottolog
  
None

Native speakers
  
1 million (2011)

Native to
  
People's Republic of China

Region
  
Wenzhou prefecture, Zhejiang province

Language family
  
Sino-Tibetan Chinese Wu Oujiang Ruian dialect

Ruian dialect (瑞安話; pronounced [zʉ˦ø˧ɦo˨] in Ruian dialect) is a dialect of Wu Chinese spoken in Ruian. It belongs to the Oujiang sub-group of Wu Chinese dialects. It is strictly related to Pingyang dialect and Lucheng dialect, generally referred as Wenzhounese.

Contents

Finals

There are the following finals:

[m], 兒 [ŋ]

[a], 好 [ɛ], 包 [ɔ]

[ɪ], 先 [i], 思 [ɨ]

[o], 布 [ɯ], 水 [ɘʉ]

[y], 安 [ø]

[ai], 走 [ɐɯ]

[ei], 六 [əɯ]

[iɛ], 關 [uɔ]

[̥ɐŋ],聽 [əŋ], 公 [oŋ]

Tones

In Ruian dialect, a monosyllabic word can have one of the eight tones, but there are only four phonetically distinguished tones, divided into high (陰) and low (陽)categories. In combination with an other tone, it can change depending on Tone Sandhi system.

Yin Ping 陰平 [˦] 44 江天飛三

Yang Ping 陽平 [˧˩] 31 來同魚球

Yin Shang 陰上 [˧˥] 35 懂紙古本

Yang Shang 陽上 [˨˦] 24 近淡厚似

Yin Qu 陰去 [˥˨] 52 對去貨歲

Yang Qu 陽去 [˨] 22 外地路住

Yin Ru 陰入 [˧˨˧] 323 七博塔各

Yang Ru 陽入 [˨˩˨] 212 六肉白石

Tone Sandhi

In bisyllabic words, there are phonetically only six tones, high flat ˦, middle flat ˧, rising ˨˦, departing ˦˨, entering ˨˩˨ and short ˨. We'll now use A, B, C, D, E, and 0 for these six tones.

Adverbs

Ruian dialect

Numerals

1 the first three lectures are used when are alone or follow 第 to form

ordinal numerals, and the later three lectures are cardinal numerals and are generally followed by a classifier.

2 the first lecture is considered literal, the second colloquial.

Vocabulary

Below is a list of the most common vocabulary in Ruian dialect.

Readings

Like other Wu dialects, in Ruian dialect a Chinese character can have more than one reading, divided in vernacular readings (白讀)and literary readings (文讀), in comparison with other Wu dialects, Ruian dialect has relatively few multiple readings. Below are some samples.

References

Rui'an dialect Wikipedia