Suzhou dialect is spoken within the city itself and the surrounding area, including migrants living in nearby Shanghai. The Suzhou dialect is mutually intelligible with dialects spoken in its satellite cities such as Kunshan, Changshu, and Zhangjiagang, as well as those spoken in its former satellites Wuxi and Shanghai. It is also partially intelligible with dialects spoken in other areas of the Wu cultural sphere such as Hangzhou and Ningbo. However, it is not mutually intelligible with Cantonese or Standard Chinese; but, as all public schools and most broadcast communication in Suzhou use Mandarin exclusively, nearly all speakers of the dialect are at least bilingual. Owing to migration within China, many residents of the city cannot speak the local dialect but can usually understand it after a few months or years in the area.
History
A "ballad–narrative" known as "The story of Xue Rengui crossing the sea and Pacifying Liao", which is about the Tang dynasty hero Xue Rengui is believed to have been written in the Suzhou dialect.
Some non-native speakers of Suzhou dialect speak Suzhou dialect in a "stylized variety" to tell tales.
Phonology
Initials
The Suzhou dialect has series of voiced, voiceless, and aspirated stops, and voiceless and voiced fricatives. Moreover, palatalized initials also occur.
Finals
Syllabic continuants:
The Suzhou dialect has a rare contrast between "fricative vowels" and ordinary vowels. As with Shanghainese, the Middle Chinese entering tone characters, which ended in, now end in a glottal stop in the Suzhou dialect, while Middle Chinese nasal endings have now merged as generic nasal finals or dropped nasalization altogether.
Tones
Suzhou is considered to have seven 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: ping, shang, and qu.
Tone number
Tone name
Tone letters
Description
1
yin ping
high
2
yang ping
level-rising
3
shang
high falling
4
yin qu
dipping
5
yang qu
rising-falling
6
yin ru
high checked
7
yang ru
rising checked
In Suzhou, the Middle Chinese Shang tone has partially merged with the modern yin qu tone.
