Suzhounese (Suzhounese: ; ), also known as the Suzhou dialect (alternatively Soochow dialect), is the variety of Chinese traditionally spoken in the city of Suzhou in Jiangsu, China. Suzhounese is a variety of Wu Chinese, and was traditionally considered the Wu Chinese prestige dialect. Suzhounese has a large vowel inventory and it is relatively conservative in initials by preserving voiced consonants from Middle Chinese.
Distribution Suzhou dialect is spoken within the city itself and the surrounding area, including migrants living in nearby Shanghai.
The Suzhou dialect is mutually intelligible with dialects spoken in its satellite cities such as Kunshan, Changshu, and Zhangjiagang, as well as those spoken in its former satellites Wuxi and Shanghai. It is also partially intelligible with dialects spoken in other areas of the Wu cultural sphere such as Hangzhou and Ningbo. However, it is not mutually intelligible with Cantonese or Standard Chinese; but, as all public schools and most broadcast communication in Suzhou use Mandarin exclusively, nearly all speakers of the dialect are at least bilingual. Owing to migration within China, many residents of the city cannot speak the local dialect but can usually understand it after a few months or years in the area.
Grammar
Personal pronouns Source:
+ Pronoun Number Word Pinyin IPA 1st Singular 吾 ngou6 ŋəu Plural 伲 gni6 nʲi 2nd Singular 倷 ne6 ne Plural 唔笃 n6 toq7 n toʔ 3rd Singular 俚 li1 li 俚倷 li1 ne6 li ne 唔倷 n1 ne6 n ne Plural 俚笃 li1 toq7 li toʔ
Second and third-person pronouns are suffixed with 笃 for the plural. The first-person plural is a separate root, 伲 .
Demonstrative + Proximal Neutral Distal 哀 e1 搿 geq8 弯 ue1 该 ke1 归 kue1
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.
+ Suzhou Mandarin English 哀葛 e1 keq7 这个 this (thing) 哀点 e1 tie3 这些 these 哀歇 e1 shieq3 这时候 this (moment) 哀呛 e1 tie3 这阵子 this (period) 哀面 e1 mie6 这边 this (side) 哀搭 e1 taeq7 这里 this place (here)
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
+ Initial consonants Labial Dental/Alveolar Alveolo-palatal Velar GlottalNasal Plosive tenuis aspirated voiced Affricatetenuis aspirated voiced Fricativevoiceless voiced Lateral
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 + Vowel nucleiFrontCentralBackUnroundedRoundedApicalFricated(Near-)Close Mid Open () Diphthong
+ FinalsMedial Rime liquid ⟨y⟩ ⟨y⟩ ⟨a⟩ ⟨au⟩ ⟨e⟩ ⟨oe⟩ ⟨eu⟩ ⟨ou⟩ ⟨an⟩ ⟨aon⟩ ⟨en⟩ ⟨on⟩ ⟨aeq⟩ ⟨aq⟩ ⟨eq⟩ ⟨oq⟩ ⟨er⟩ ⟨i⟩ ⟨ie⟩ ⟨ia⟩ ⟨iau⟩()() ⟨ian⟩ ⟨iaon⟩ ⟨in⟩ ⟨ion⟩ ⟨iaeq⟩ ⟨iaq⟩ ⟨iq⟩ ⟨ioq⟩ ⟨m⟩ ⟨u⟩ ⟨o⟩ ⟨ua⟩ ⟨ue⟩ ⟨uoe⟩ ⟨uan⟩ ⟨uaon⟩ ⟨uen⟩ ⟨uaeq⟩ ⟨ueq⟩ ⟨iu⟩ ⟨ieu⟩ ⟨ioe⟩ ⟨iun⟩ ⟨iuaeq⟩ ⟨iuq⟩ ⟨ng⟩
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
+Comparison of vowels in open rhymes (not including glides) 次 處 衣 雨 烟 有 夫 歐 半 巴 海 辦 河 好 家 Wang (2011) Ye (1988, 1993) Li (1998) Wugniu Ling (2009) Bu "Quain" (2025) Qian (1992) Yuan (1960) Chao (1928) late-19th century ɿ ʯ i y iɛ̃ iʏ u əʏ œ̃ o e æ̃ u, ɔ ɐɵ ɒ
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 ) 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 ). 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.)
+ Tone chart Tone number Wugniu Tone Tone name Tone letters Description 11 yin ping () (44) high 22 yang ping () (224) level-rising 33 shang () (52) high falling 45 yin qu () (412) dipping 56 yang qu () (231) rising-falling 67 yin ru () (4) high checked 7 8 yang ru () (23) rising checked
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.).
+Non-checked initial syllable patterns Initial syllable's tone 2-syllable 3-syllable 4-syllable Chain 陰平 44 4 0歡喜 4 4 0 4 4 4 0 1x 陽平 223 2 3圍身 2 3 0 2 3 4 0 2x 上聲 52 52 1寫意 52 1 0 52 1 1 0 3x 陰去 523 52 3啥體 52 3 0 52 3 4 0 5x 陽去 231 23 1後日 23 1 0 23 1 1 0 6x (or 4x) A tone level of 0 in the above chart indicates a syllable with a neutral 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.
Tone pattern 2-syllable 3-syllable 阳上式 (6x/4x) 23 1两人 23 44 21同志们，碰碰看，五十岁 去声式 (5x) 52 23四首 52 23 21解放军，打火机，卷心菜
Tone pattern 2-syllable 3-syllable 4-syllable 5-syllable 阴平式 (1x) 44 21天花 44 44 21天花板 44 44 33 21天花乱坠 44 44 33 22 21天花板浪向
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/). +Checked initial syllable patterns First tone Second tone 2-syllable 3-syllable 4-syllable Chain 陰入 5 平聲 44 or 223 4 23塌車 4 23 0 4 23 4 0 7.2 陽入 23 2 3搿星 2 3 0 2 3 4 0 8.2 陰入 5 上聲 52 5 51則到 5 51 0 5 51 1 0 7.3 陽入 23 2 51杌子 2 51 0 2 51 1 0 8.3 陰入 5 去聲523 or 231 5 523搭檔 5 52 3 5 52 2 3 7.5 陽入 23 2 523白菜 2 52 3 2 52 2 3 8.5 陰入 5ˀ 入聲5ˀ or 23ˀ 4 4赤膊 4 4 0 4 4 2 0 7.7 陽入 23ˀ 3 4直腳 3 4 0 3 4 2 0 8.7
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:
Phrase Wang 2011 Ye 1988 菊花cioq ho 4 23(p. 190) ˥ˀ ˥ (~4ˀ 44)(p. 124, 366) 綠豆loq deu 2 51(p. 191) (~3ˀ 21)(p. 126, 361) 赤豆tshaq deu 5 523(p. 181) 5 313(p. 119) 結冰ciq pin 4 23(p. 182) 5ˀ 5 (i.e. no change)(p. 124)
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