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Wenzhou
溫州話
Spoken in	Wenzhou Prefecture, Zhejiang, China
Region	Southeastern China, in Wenzhou immigrant populations in Europe and North America
Total speakers	5 million est.
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Wu Wenzhou; ; ; ;
Official status
Official language in	not official
Regulated by	No official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1	None
ISO 639-2	–
ISO 639-3	–
	Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Wenzhou (simplified Chinese: 温州话; traditional Chinese: 溫州話; pinyin: wēnzhōuhuà) or Oujiang (simplified Chinese: 瓯江话; traditional Chinese: 甌江話; pinyin: ōujiānghuà) is the speech of Wenzhou, the southern prefecture of Zhejiang Province, China. It is the most divergent division of Wu Chinese, and is sometimes considered a separate language. It has noticeable elements of Min, which borders it to the south. The term Oujiang is sometimes used to disambiguate this broad sense of the term, as opposed to Wenzhou or Wenzhounese as the dialect of Wenzhou proper.

Wenzhou is not mutually intelligible with other varieties of Wu neighboring it to the north and west, let alone with Min Dong to the south or with the official language of China, Mandarin.

Due to its long history and the geographical features of the region on which it is located, Wenzhou Chinese is so eccentric in its phonology that it has the reputation of being the "least comprehensible dialect" for an average Mandarin speaker. It preserves some vocabulary from classical Chinese lost elsewhere, and has noticeable grammatical differences from Mandarin.

[edit] Classification

The linguistic mosaic that makes up China is especially diverse in Zhejiang province, where Wenzhou is located. Wenzhou is further divided into many dialects. When people refer to the standard Wenzhou dialect, they usually mean the language spoken by the people living in more developed areas of Wenzhou, i.e. Lucheng, Ouhai, Longwan, Yongjia, Ruian, and Yueqing, though they may mean Oujiang as a whole. Over five million people speak dialects of Oujiang/Wenzhou that are mutually intelligible, but differences are marked, with sound systems change almost comprehensively every ten kilometers, especially in rural areas. People from Taizhou, who speak the Wu dialect which borders Wenzhou to the north, cannot comprehend Wenzhou.

[edit] Reputation for Eccentricity

Due to its high degree of eccentricity, the language is reputed to have been used during the Second Sino-Japanese War during wartime communication. Due to its unique grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation, the language is basically impossible for any non-local to understand.

There is a famous rhymed saying in China that goes, "Do not fear the heavens and the earth (i.e. anything), but be afraid of hearing a person from Wenzhou speak in their local tongue." (天不怕，地不怕，就怕温州人说温州话)

[edit] Geographic distribution

[edit] Dialects

[edit] Phonetics and phonology

[edit] Consonants

Consonants of Wenzhou dialect
		bilabial	labio-dental	alveolar	alveolo-palatal	palatal	velar	glottal
nasal		m		n	ɲ		ŋ
plosives	voiced	b		d			ɡ
	voiceless unaspirated	p		t			k
	voiceless aspirated	pʰ		tʰ			kʰ
fricatives	voiced		v	z				ɦ
fricatives	voiceless		f	s	ɕ			h
affricates	voiced			dz	dʑ
	voiceless unaspirated			ts	tɕ
	voiceless aspirated			tsʰ	tɕʰ
approximants						j
lateral approximants				l

[edit] Vowels

[edit] Monophthongs

[edit] Diphthongs

[edit] Triphthongs

[edit] Syllable structure

[edit] Onsets

[edit] Rimes

[edit] Tones

[edit] Citation tones

Wenzhou is considered to have eight tones. However, since the tone split dating from Middle Chinese still depends on the voicing of the initial consonant, these constitute just three phonemic tones: pin, shang, and qu. (Ru syllables are phonemically toneless.)

Tone chart of Wenzhou dialect
Tone number	Tone name	Tone contour
1	yin ping (陰平)	44
2	yang ping (陽平)	31
3	yin shang (陰上)	45
4	yang shang (陽上)	34
5	yin qu (陰去)	42
6	yang qu (陽去)	22
7	yin ru (陰入)	323
8	yang ru (陽入)	212

[edit] Tone sandhi

[edit] Grammar

[edit] Morphology

[edit] Syntax

[edit] Vocabulary

[edit] History

[edit] Examples

[edit] See also

[edit] References

Qián,nǎiróng (1992). Dāngdài Wúyǔ yánjiū. (Contemporary Wu linguistics studies). Shànghǎi: shànghǎi jiāoyù chūbǎnshè. (錢乃榮. 1992. 當代吳語研究. 上海敎育出版社) ISBN 7532023559

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