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Shanghainese language

Shanghainese
上海話 / 上海话 Zaanhehho
上海閒話/上海闲话 Zaanheh-hehho
滬語 / 沪语 Hu nyy
Pronunciation [z̥ɑ̃̀héɦɛ̀ɦʊ̀], [ɦùɲý]
Native to China, overseas communities
Region City of Shanghai and surrounding Yangtze River Delta
Ethnicity Shanghainese
Language codes
ISO 639-3
ISO 639-6 suji
Linguist list
wuu-sha
Glottolog None
Linguasphere 79-AAA-dbb >
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.
Shanghainese language
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Shanghainese
Romanization
Zaanhehho
[z̥ɑ̃̀héɦʊ̀]
Literal meaning Shanghai language
Shanghainese
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Shanghainese
Romanization
Shanghe Hhehho
[z̥ɑ̃̀hé ɦɛ̀ɦʊ̀]
Literal meaning Shanghai speech
Hu language
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Shanghainese
Romanization
[ɦuɲy]
Literal meaning Hu (Shanghai) language

The Shanghainese language, also known as the Shanghai dialect, Hu language or Hu dialect, is a variety of Wu Chinese spoken in the central districts of the City of Shanghai and its surrounding areas. It is classified as part of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Shanghainese, like other Wu variants, is mutually unintelligible with other varieties of Chinese outside of the Wu region such as Mandarin, sharing just 29% lexical similarity with the Mandarin heard in Beijing.

In English, "Shanghainese" sometimes refers to all Wu languages, variants and dialects, although they are only partially intelligible with one another. Shanghainese proper is a representative language of Taihu Wu; it contains vocabulary and expressions from the entire Taihu Wu area of southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang. With nearly 14 million speakers, Shanghainese is also the largest single form of Wu Chinese. It serves as the lingua franca of the entire Yangtze River Delta region.

Shanghainese is rich in vowels [i y ɪ ʏ eⁱ ø ɛ ə a ɑ ɔ ɤᵚ o ʊ u] (twelve of which are phonemic) and in consonants. Like other Taihu Wu dialects, Shanghainese has voiced initials [b d ɡ ɦ z v dʑ ʑ]. Neither Cantonese nor Mandarin has voiced initial stops or affricates. The Shanghainese tonal system is also significantly different from other Chinese varieties, sharing more similarities with the Japanese pitch accent. Shanghainese has two level tonal contrasts (high and low), while Cantonese and Mandarin are typical of contour tonal languages.


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