Rui'an dialect


Ruian dialect is a dialect of Wu Chinese spoken in Ruian. It belongs to the Oujiang sub-group of Wu Chinese dialects. It is closely related to Pingyang dialect and Lucheng dialect, generally referred as Wenzhounese.

Phonology

Initials

Finals

There are the following finals:
嘸, 兒
姹, 好, 包
海, 先, 思
下, 布 ~ 圖 ~ 水
全, 安, 歌
會, 走
李, 六
涼, 關, 花
經, 聽, 公.
Additional finals for older accent including:
天, 橋, 頭

Tones

In Ruian dialect, a monosyllabic word can have one of the eight tones, but there are only four phonetically distinguished tones, divided into high and low categories. In combination with another tone, it can change depending on Tone Sandhi system.
Yin Ping 陰平 44 江天飛三
Yang Ping 陽平 31 來同魚球
Yin Shang 陰上 35 懂紙古本
Yang Shang 陽上 24 近淡厚似
Yin Qu 陰去 52 對去貨歲
Yang Qu 陽去 22 外地路住
Yin Ru 陰入 323 七博塔各
Yang Ru 陽入 212 六肉白石

Tone Sandhi

In bisyllabic words, there are phonetically only six tones, high flat ˦, middle flat ˧, rising ˨˦, departing ˦˨, entering ˨˩˨ and short ˨. We'll now use A, B, C, D, E, and 0 for these six tones.
tones陰平陰上陰去陰入陽平陽上陽去陽入
陰平0AACEDAEADExampleExampleExample
陰上AB0CD0AED0ExampleExampleExample
陰去ExampleExampleExampleD0Example0CExampleExample
陰入ExampleExampleE0ExampleExampleExampleExampleE0
陽平AEExample0CExampleExampleExampleExampleExample
陽上ExampleExampleExampleExampleExampleExampleExampleExample
陽去0AExampleC0ExampleExampleExampleC0Example
陽入0A0CExampleExampleExampleExampleExampleExample

Grammar

Sentence Structure

Classifiers

Verbs

Adverbs

;Ruian dialect

Lexicon

Pronouns

PronounIPATranscription
1st person sing.ŋ˧˦吾
2nd person sing.ȵi˧˦爾
3rd person sing.ɡe̝˧˩渠/佢
reflexive sing.zɿ˨自
1st person plur.ŋ˨˦ le̝˨, ŋ˨˦ la˨吾俚， 吾啦
2nd person plur.ȵi˨˦ le̝˨, ȵi˨˦ la˨爾俚， 爾啦
3rd person plur.ɡe̝˦˨ le̝˨, ɡe̝˦˨ la˨渠/佢俚，渠/佢啦
reflexive plur.zɿ˧ le̝˨, zɿ˧ la˨自俚， 自啦

Numerals

NumeralsIPATranscription
0ləŋ˧˩, dø˧˦零, 斷1
1ʔja˧˨˧, i˧˨˧一1 2
2ŋ˨, la˧˦二, 兩1
3sɔ˦三
4sɿ˥˨四
5ŋ˧˦五
6ləu̜˧˨˧六
7tsʰa˧˨˧七
8po̝˧˨˧八
9tɕɐu̜˧˥九
10za˨˩˨十
20ȵiɛ˨廿
30sɔ˧ za˧三十
100i˨ pa˧˨˧一百
1000i˨ tɕʰi˧一千
10.000i˨ mɔ˧一萬

ordinal numerals, and the later three lectures are cardinal numerals and are generally followed by a classifier.

Vocabulary

Below is a list of the most common vocabulary in Ruian dialect.
MeaningIPATranscriptionMandarin equivalent
to see, to look眥看
to hear, to listen聽聽
to ask問問
to look for尋找， 尋找
to smell嗅聞
to know識認識
to say, to speak講說
to curse謴罵
to eat喫吃
to drink呷喝
chopstick箸筷子
to stand徛站
poket兜口袋
salted vegetables菜鹹鹹菜
chopping block板砧砧板
icing sugar糖霜糖霜
thing, object物事東西
rice spoon飯槳飯勺
radish菜頭蘿蔔
trouble生受麻煩
doctor醫師醫生
blind盲瞊瞎子
wife老安老婆
unfamiliar打生陌生
eagle咄鷹貓頭鷹
mole cricket土狗蝼蛄
bicycle踏腳車自行车
instrument家生货家具
young, teenager後生兒年輕人
serious， powerful肚皮掌厲害

Readings

Like other Wu dialects, in Ruian dialect a Chinese character can have more than one reading, divided in vernacular readings and literary readings （文讀）, in comparison with other Wu dialects, Ruian dialect has relatively few multiple readings.
Below are some samples.