Wuhan dialect

Wuhan dialect
Wuhan dialect
武汉话
Pronunciation	[u⁴²xan¹³xua³⁵]
Native to	China
Region	Wuhan, Hubei
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Chinese Mandarin Southwestern Wu-Tian Wuhan dialect; ; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
ISO 639-6	xghu
Linguist List	cmn-xwu
Glottolog	None

The Wuhan dialect (simplified Chinese: 武汉话; traditional Chinese: 武漢話, local pronunciation: [u⁴²xan¹³xua³⁵]; pinyin: Wǔhànhuà), also known as the Hankou dialect after the former town of Hankou, belongs to the Wu–Tian branch of Southwest Mandarin spoken in Wuhan, Tianmen and surrounding areas in Hubei, China. The Wuhan dialect has limited mutual intelligibility with Standard Chinese. Grammatically, it has been observed to have a similar aspect system to Xiang Chinese.^[1]

Phonology

Tones

Like other Southwest Mandarin varieties, there are four tones. Words with the checked tone in Middle Chinese became the light level tone.

Dark level 55 (also 44)
Light level 312
Rising 42
Falling 35
Neutral

Middle Chinese tone class	Wuhan	Example
Dark level	āōēīūǖ	拉 (la⁵⁵)
Light level	ǎǒěǐǔǚ	爸 (pa²¹³)
Rising tone	àòèìùǜ	走 (zou⁴²)
falling tone	áóéíúǘ	叫 (tɕiau³⁵)
neutral tone		.

Media use

Wuhan dialect is used in the 2019 film The Wild Goose Lake.

It is also used in the 2021 film Embrace Again, which is set in Wuhan. Embrace Again was filmed and released in two versions, one in Wuhan dialect and one in Standard Mandarin.^[2]

References

^ Zhang, Shiliang (2015). The Wuhan Dialect: A Hybrid Southwestern Mandarin Variety of Sinitic (MA thesis). The University of Hong Kong. doi:10.5353/th_b5481914 (inactive 1 November 2024). hdl:10722/211145.{{cite thesis}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)
^ "Light in the early, dark days of the pandemic". global.chinadaily.com.cn. Retrieved 8 January 2022.

[1] Zhang, Shiliang (2015). The Wuhan Dialect: A Hybrid Southwestern Mandarin Variety of Sinitic (MA thesis). The University of Hong Kong. doi:10.5353/th_b5481914 (inactive 1 November 2024). hdl:10722/211145.{{cite thesis}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)

[2] "Light in the early, dark days of the pandemic". global.chinadaily.com.cn. Retrieved 8 January 2022.

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