Tong–Tai ( zh, c=通泰), also known as Tai–Ru ( zh, c=泰如), is a group of
Lower Yangtze Mandarin
Lower Yangtze Mandarin () is one of the most divergent and least mutually-intelligible of the Mandarin language varieties, as it neighbours the Wu, Hui, and Gan groups of Sinitic languages. It is also known as Jiang–Huai Mandarin (), nam ...
dialects spoken in the east-central part of
Jiangsu
Jiangsu is a coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province in East China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the List of Chinese administra ...
province in the prefecture-level cities of
Nantong
Nantong is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Jiangsu province, China. Located on the northern bank of the Yangtze River, near the river mouth. Nantong is a vital river port bordering Yancheng to the north; Taizhou to the west; Suzhou, Wux ...
(formerly Tongzhou) and
Taizhou. The alternative name refers to the county-level city of
Rugao within Nantong. This region includes the areas which are to the north of
Yangtze River
The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...
and to the east of
Grand Canal. There are about 11.37 million speakers there (in 2004) and this region occupies about 15,000 square kilometers.
This region can also be divided further into three districts: the west, the middle and the east. The west part includes Taizhou,
Jiangyan, west of
Hai'an, west of
Dongtai,
Dafeng,
Xinghua, east of
Jiangdu. The middle part includes
Rugao,
Rudong,
Taixing, east of
Dongtai, east of
Hai'an and southwest of
Jingjiang. The east part includes downtown of
Nantong
Nantong is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Jiangsu province, China. Located on the northern bank of the Yangtze River, near the river mouth. Nantong is a vital river port bordering Yancheng to the north; Taizhou to the west; Suzhou, Wux ...
and southwest of
Tongzhou. These vernaculars are distinguished by the difference in
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...
s.
However these districts used to be the region of the
Wu culture, so there are many features of
Wu Chinese
, region = Shanghai, Zhejiang, southern Jiangsu, parts of Anhui and Jiangxi provinces; overseas and migrant communities
, ethnicity = Wu
, speakers = million
, date = 2021
, ref = e27
, fa ...
in these vernaculars, especially the vernacular in the middle part, known as
middle Tong-Tai dialect. It is closely bounded on the Changzhou part in the
Wu region.
Phonology
The
Nantong
Nantong is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Jiangsu province, China. Located on the northern bank of the Yangtze River, near the river mouth. Nantong is a vital river port bordering Yancheng to the north; Taizhou to the west; Suzhou, Wux ...
variety will be taken as representative.
Consonants
Vowels
r-colored ɜ: ɜ˞
tongue position for
�is slightly higher than the standard
� but lower than
�is slightly lower than the standard
� sounds close to
�
�is higher than the standard
�close to
�
Tones
Dark level 阴平21 Light level 阳平35
(Light)Rising 上声（阳上）55
Light departing 阳去213 Dark departing 阴去42
Light entering 阳入55ʔ Dark entering 阴入42ʔ
Dialects
Rugao dialect
The Rugaohua dialect of Jianghuai does not follow the T3 sandhi rule which most other Mandarin dialects follow. Linguists speculate that changes to pitch countours over time also removed the original motivation for T3 sandhi in the Beijing dialect underlying modern
Standard Mandarin
Standard Chinese ( zh, s=现代标准汉语, t=現代標準漢語, p=Xiàndài biāozhǔn hànyǔ, l=modern standard Han speech) is a modern Standard language, standard form of Mandarin Chinese that was first codified during the Republic of ...
(putonghua), but the sandhi was retained.
When Chinese people were subjected to listening to various dialects such as Northern Mandarin (Yantai dialect), Standard Mandarin (Putonghua), and Jianghuai Mandarin (Rugao dialect of Jiangsu), "cross dialectal" differences appeared in their reactions.
References
Further reading
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{{Chinese language
Mandarin Chinese