Nanjing Dialect
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The Nanjing dialect ( zh, s=南京话, t=南京話, p=Nánjīnghuà), also known as Nankinese, Nankingese, Nanjingese, Nanjingnese and Nanjing Mandarin, is the prestige dialect of Mandarin spoken in the
urban area An urban area is a human settlement with a high population density and an infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas originate through urbanization, and researchers categorize them as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbani ...
of
Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...
, China. It is part of the Jianghuai group of Chinese varieties.


Phonology

A number of features distinguish the Nanjing dialect from other Mandarin varieties. It maintains the glottal stop final and the entering tone, which Northern Mandarin or
Southwestern Mandarin Southwestern Mandarin (), also known as Upper Yangtze Mandarin (), is a Mandarin Chinese dialect spoken in much of Southwestern China, including in Sichuan, Yunnan, Chongqing, Guizhou, most parts of Hubei, the northwestern part of Hunan, the nor ...
likely also had until recently. Like Northern Mandarin, it has preserved the retroflex initials of Middle Chinese. As with other Jianghuai Mandarin dialects, the Nanjing dialect has lost syllable-initial , which have all become . The opposite has occurred in Southwestern Mandarin, where has changed to . Northern Mandarin, on the other hand, retains distinct and initials. While Mandarin dialects typically feature two nasal finals ( and ), these have merged into one in Jianghuai Mandarin dialects.


Expansion

The earliest dialect of
Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...
was an ancient Wu dialect during the Eastern Jin. After the Wu Hu uprising, the Jin Emperor and many northern Chinese fled south, establishing the new capital
Jiankang Jiankang (), or Jianye (), as it was originally called, was the capital city of the Eastern Wu (229–265 and 266–280 CE), the Jin dynasty (265–420), Eastern Jin dynasty (317–420 CE) and the Southern Dynasties (420–552), including the Ch ...
in what is modern day Nanjing. It was during this time that the ancient Wu of Nanjing was replaced by Jianghuai Mandarin. Further events occurred, such as Hou Jing's rebellions during the Liang dynasty, the
Sui dynasty The Sui dynasty ( ) was a short-lived Dynasties of China, Chinese imperial dynasty that ruled from 581 to 618. The re-unification of China proper under the Sui brought the Northern and Southern dynasties era to a close, ending a prolonged peri ...
invasion of the
Chen dynasty The Chen dynasty (), alternatively known as the Southern Chen (南陳 / 南朝陳) in historiography, was a Dynasties in Chinese history, Chinese imperial dynasty and the fourth and last of the Northern and Southern dynasties#Southern dynasties, ...
which resulted in Jiankang's destruction, Ming Taizu's relocation of southerners from below the Yangtze to his newly established capital Nanjing, and the establishment of Nanjing as the capital of the Taiping Kingdom during the
Taiping rebellion The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a civil war in China between the Qing dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The conflict lasted 14 years, from its outbreak in 1850 until the fall of ...
which resulted in a significant decrease in the city's population. These events all played a role in forming the Nanjing dialect of today.


Old Nanjing dialect

Old Nanjing dialect is mostly found in old communities in Nanjing itself, and was the main form spoken in the 1930s.分析綜合自 何美齡(K.Hemeling)《南京官話》(1902)與 趙元任《南京音系》(《科學》第13卷第8期,1929) There is no /n/, it has been merged with /l/


New Nanjing dialect

New Nanjing dialect is the variety most frequently spoken in Nanjing of today, and is often simply referred to as "Nanjing dialect". It has more influence from Beijing dialect.


Tone


Prominence

Some linguists have studied the influence that Nanjing Jianghuai Mandarin had on the Mandarin-based koiné spoken by the Ming dynasty. Although it was based on the Nanjing dialect, there were important differences and the koiné exhibited non-Jianghuai characteristics. Francisco Varo, a Dominican friar living in 17th century China pointed to Nanjing as one of several places Mandarin speech paralleled that of the elites. During the 19th century, dispute arose over whether the Nanjing dialect or
Beijing dialect The Beijing dialect ( zh, s=北京话, t=北京話, p=Běijīnghuà), also known as Pekingese and Beijingese, is the prestige dialect of Mandarin spoken in the urban area of Beijing, China. It is the phonological basis of Standard Chinese, the ...
should be preferred by Western diplomats and translators, as the prestige of the Nanjing dialect seemed to be waning. Even when it was clear that the Beijing dialect had gained prominence, many sinologists and missionaries maintained their preference for the Nanjing dialect.
Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...
-based professor Georg von der Gabelentz even argued that the Nanjing dialect was preferable for scientific texts because it had fewer homophones: The originally Japanese book ''Mandarin Compass'' () was modified with Nanjing dialect's tones and published with French commentary by Jiangnan-based French missionary Henri Boucher. Calvin W. Mateer attempted to compromise between Northern and Southern Mandarin in his book ''A Course of Mandarin Lessons'', published in 1892.


Study of the Nanjing dialect

Important works written about the Nanjing dialect include ''Syllabar des Nankingdialektes oder der correkten Aussprache sammt Vocabular'' by Franz Kühnert, and ''Die Nanking Kuanhua'' by K. Hemeling. The ''English & Chinese vocabulary in the court dialect'' by Samuel Wells Williams was based on the Nanjing dialect, rather than the
Beijing dialect The Beijing dialect ( zh, s=北京话, t=北京話, p=Běijīnghuà), also known as Pekingese and Beijingese, is the prestige dialect of Mandarin spoken in the urban area of Beijing, China. It is the phonological basis of Standard Chinese, the ...
. Williams also described the differences between Nanjing and Beijing Mandarin in the same book and noted the ways in which the Peking dialect differs from the Nanjing dialect, such as the palatalization of velars before front vowels. Williams also noted that the changes were consistent so that switching between pronunciations would not be difficult.


Romanization

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, romanization of Mandarin consisted of both Beijing and Nanjing pronunciations. ''The Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal'' offered that romanizing for both Nanjing and Beijing dialects was beneficial. The journal explained that, for example, because and are pronounced the same in Beijing () but differently in Nanjing (with the latter being ''si''), the Standard System retains the two spellings. The system similarly retains contrasts in Beijing that are missing in Nanjing, such as that between () and ().


References


Citations


Bibliography

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Further reading

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* {{Chinese language Nanjing Mandarin Chinese City colloquials Dialects by location