Suzhou dialect

Suzhounese
蘇州閒話；苏州闲话 Sou-tseu ghé-ghô
Pronunciation	[soʊ˥tsøʏ˥꜓ ɦɛ˨˨˧꜕ɦo˨˧˩꜔] or [soʊ˥tsøʏ˥꜓ ɦɛ˨˨˦꜔ɦo˨˧˩꜕꜖]
Native to	China
Region	Suzhou and southeast Jiangsu province
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Wu Taihu Suzhou–Shanghai–Jiaxing (Su-Hu-Jia) Suzhounese
Writing system	Chinese characters
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
ISO 639-6	suji
Linguist List	wuu-suh
Glottolog	suzh1234
Linguasphere	79-AAA-dbb

Suzhou dialect
Traditional Chinese	蘇州話
Simplified Chinese	苏州话
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Sūzhōuhuà Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Sōujāu wá Jyutping sou1 zau1 waa2
Alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	蘇州閒話
Transcriptions Wu Suzhounese Sou-tseu ghé-ghô

Suzhounese (Suzhounese: 蘇州閒話; sou¹ tseu¹ ghe² gho⁶), also known as the Suzhou Language, is the language belonging to the Sinitic Language Family traditionally spoken in the city of Suzhou in Jiangsu, China. Suzhounese is a dialect 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

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 [toʔ] for the plural. The first-person plural is a separate root, 伲 [nʲi].

Demonstrative

Proximal		Neutral		Distal
哀	e1	搿	geq8	弯	ue1
该	ke1			归	kue1

In the Suzhou dialect, geq8 /ɡəʔ/ [gə̯] 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	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	n̠ʲ	ŋ
Plosive	tenuis	p	t		k	ʔ
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ		kʰ
	voiced	b	d		ɡ
Affricate	tenuis		ts	tɕ
	aspirated		tsʰ	tɕʰ
	voiced			dʑ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ɕ		h
	voiced	v	z			ɦ
Lateral			l

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

Finals

Vowel nuclei

	Front		Central	Back
	Unrounded	Rounded
Apical	/ɿ/	/ʮ/
Fricated	/i/	/y/		/u/
Close	/ɪ/	/ʏ/
Near-close			/ɵ/	/o/
Mid	/ɛ/		/ə/
Open	/æ/		/a/	/ɑ/
Diphthong	/øʏ, oʊ/

Finals

Coda		Open			Nasal				Glottal stop
Medial		∅	j	w	∅	j	w	ɥ	∅	j	w	ɥ
Nucleus	ɿ [z̩]	z̩
	ʮ [z̩ʷ]	z̩ʷ
	u	u
	i	i			iɲ
	y	y
	ɪ		jɪ
	ʏ	ʏ~øʏ	jʏ		ʏɲ
	ɵ	ɵ	jɵ	wɵ
	ɛ	ɛ		wɛ
	ə				ən		wən	ɥən	əʔ	jəʔ	wəʔ	ɥəʔ
	o	o	jo		oŋ	joŋ			oʔ	joʔ
	oʊ	oʊ
	æ	æ	jæ
	a				ã	jã	wã		aʔ	jaʔ	waʔ	ɥaʔ
	ɑ	ɑ	jɑ	wɑ	ɑ̃	jɑ̃	wɑ̃		ɑʔ	jɑʔ

Syllabic continuants: /ɿ/ [z̩] /ʮ/ [z̩ʷ] /u/ [β̩~v̩] [m̩] [ŋ̩] [l̩]

Notes:

• The Suzhou dialect has a rare contrast between "fricative vowels" [i, y] and ordinary vowels [ɪ, ʏ].
• /j/ is pronounced [ɥ] before rounded vowels.
• /ɛ/ is a true mid vowel, [ɛ̝]. May also be transcribed with the Sinological symbol /ᴇ/.
• In open syllables, /o/ is articulated close to a position for a close back vowel [o̝]
• Depending on the source, transcriptions differ:
  • /oʊ/ may also be transcribed as /əu/
  • /ɵ/ may also be transcribed as /ø/; also applies to on-glide final rhymes /jɵ/ (/iø/) and /wɵ/ (/uø/)
  • /øʏ/ may also be transcribed as /ʏ/
  • Close vowels /ɪ ʏ/ may be analyzed as diphthongs and transcribed as /iɪ iʏ/

Historical Finals

The Suzhou dialect allows a nasal coda but does not distinguish between them. As such, the Middle Chinese nasal codas *-m *-n *-ŋ have largely either merged or been lost depending on the vowel it follows. Historical *-ŋ rimes following certain vowels are distinguished as the nasalized vowels /ã ɑ̃/, but otherwise merge into modern /-n/. Historical *-n and *-m rimes are entirely merged and also result in modern /-n/, or are lost after certain vowels becoming modern /ɪ ɛ ɵ/. Modern /ɛ/ also results from the monophthongization of the historical diphthong rime *-ɑi (-oj in Baxter's notation, corresponding to the 咍 final).

Middle Chinese *-p *-t *-k rimes have become glottal stops, [-ʔ]. Like other Northern Wu varieties, syllables with an underlying glottal stop coda /-ʔ/ usually manifest as a shortening of the vowel instead of an actual glottal stop [-ʔ], 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
1	1	yin ping (阴平)	˦ (44)	high
2	2	yang ping (阳平)	˨˨˦ (224)	level-rising
3	3	shang (阴上)	˥˨ (52)	high falling
4	5	yin qu (阴去)	˦˩˨ (412)	dipping
5	6	yang qu (阳去)	˨˧˩ (231)	rising-falling
6	7	yin ru (阴入)	˦ʔ (4)	high checked
7	8	yang ru (阳入)	˨˧ʔ (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 /mɑ˨˧˩/

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 (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.

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

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 [tɵ⁵² sɛ³]
    • (1x) 暑假 : ¹syu₃-ka₅ [sʮ⁴⁴ kɑ⁰]
• 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 [tsʰɛ⁴⁴ vɛ⁰]
• 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 [dɑ²² tsʰɛ³³ ~ dəu²² tsʰɛ³³]
• 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 a 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 [tɕi⁵² zʮ¹]) or reduplicated verb (写写; 寫寫 ³sia-sia₃ [siɑ⁵² siɑ¹]). Below is chart with common other tone patterns included:

Initial syllable's tone	Chains	2-syllable	3-syllable
陰平 44	1x	sin syu 新书	sy tsy lin 狮子林
陽平 223	2x	zie syu 泉水	waon thie gnioe 黃天源
	6x	don zin 同情	don zy men 同志们
上聲 52	5x	tshau tsy 草纸	tan hou ci 打火机
	3x	cieu ngeq 九月
	1x	khou nen 可能
陰去 523	1x	syu ka 世界
	5x	ho kon 化工	ia faon ciun 解放军
	3x	phiau lian 漂亮
陽去 231	2x	zy ka 自家	dou khue deu 大块头
	6x	gheu gnie 后年	ng seq se 五十岁
	1x	lau sy 老师

Initial Syllable	Chain	阴平 44	阳平 223	阴上 52	阴去 523	阳上去 231
7x	7.2	tshaeq tsho 塌车	tsiq deu 节头		piq kou 不过	feq de 弗但
	7.3			poq pau ve 八宝饭
	7.5				taeq taon 搭档
8x	8.3	gnioq te 褥单	ngoq jiau 乐桥		beq thi 鼻涕	gniq li 日里

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 tsəu^523-52 ɲin²²³

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

我 是 {蘇 州 人}

⁶ngou ⁶zy {¹sou-tseu₁-gnin₂}

/ŋəu˨˧˩ zz̩˨˧˩ {səu˥ tsøʏ˥ ɲ̟iɲ˨˧}/

[ŋəuᵝ˨˧ zz̩˨˧~zz̩˨ {səuᵝ˥ tsʏ˥ ɲ̟iɲ˩}]

1sg COP {Suzhou person}

"I am a Soutseu native"

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

tɕiəʔ˦ tsz̩˥˩

tɕiəʔ˦ tsz̩˥

飯

⁶ve

vɛ˨˧

vɛ˨˧

勒

leq

ləʔ˨

ləʔ˨

再

⁵tse

tse˥˩

tse˥

去吧

⁵chi ba

tɕi^ʑ˥˩ bɑ˨˧

tɕi^ʑ˥˩ bɑ˨˧

搿麽 倷 吃仔 飯 勒 再 去吧

{⁸geq meq} ⁶ne {⁷chiq-³tsy} ⁶ve leq ⁵tse {⁵chi ba}

{ɡəʔ˨ məʔ˦} ne˨˧ {tɕiəʔ˦ tsz̩˥˩} vɛ˨˧ ləʔ˨ tse˥˩ {tɕi^ʑ˥˩ bɑ˨˧}

{ɡəʔ˨ məʔ˧} ne˨˧ {tɕiəʔ˦ tsz̩˥} vɛ˨˧ ləʔ˨ tse˥ {tɕi^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.

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.

See also

• Wu Chinese
  • Shanghainese
  • Hangzhounese
  • Ningbonese
• List of varieties of Chinese

External links

• Wu Association