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 ( (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 sy11lau6-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.

Locatives
Wugniu Etymological Phonetic
laq
la
leq
le
liq
li
ke ()
ho / ?
he
hoq
han
hen
laon
gnian
lau ?
lu
taq 𡍲
teq ?
toq
ta
da
taon
ton
don
tiq
te 𡍲? /
teq
ti
khaq ?
kheq
(d)ze
(d)zeq/tseq
Personal pronouns
Wugniu Etymological Phonetic
ngu/vu/(w)u (-ou: ?)
ngoq ?
ng ?
nge ?
a(q)
nga(q) 𠊎?
ghaq ?
an
n(g)
gni
ne
yi(q)
i(q)
ji ?
g(e)i
tha/tho ?
da/do
zeq- / ?
ze-
zian-/yan-
don- ?
weq- ?
li ?
-la ?
-le
non
-noq
nou
na 爾拉
-da ? ?
-daq
-taq
-teq
-toq
-men
-ten
-pae
-ko ?
-s(i)e(q)
family
Definition Wugniu Etymological Phonetic
~人 ku
possessive keq / /?
geq ?
gheq
deixis keq
geq

Examples


  • 天才: zh-pron|w=sh:1thi ze;sz:1thie ze2

  • 火葬場火葬场: zh-pron|w=sh:5hu tsaon zan;sz:3hou tsaon5 zan2

  • 電視电视: zh-pron|w=sh:6di zy;sz:6die zyu6

  • 韓國韩国: zh-pron|w=sh:6ghoe koq;sz:2ghoe koq7

  • 法律: zh-pron|w=sh:7faq liq;sz:7faq liq8

  • 日本: zh-pron|w=sh:8zeq pen;sz:8zeq pen3

  • Resources

    • 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

    If unsure, hassle User:ND381 or User:Musetta6729.