Tiantai dialect

Wu dialect spoken in Taizhou, China

Tiantai Dialect

天台話 / 天台话
Pronunciation| Tiantai Dialect: [tʰi.tʰai.u]
Native to| China
Region| Tiantai County, Taizhou, Zhejiang

Language family

Sino-Tibetan

* Chinese
* Wu
* Taizhou Wu
* Taizhou
* Tiantai Dialect

Language codes
ISO 639-3| –

The Tiantai dialect, also known as Tiantaihua (simplified Chinese: 天台话; traditional Chinese: 天台話; pinyin: Tiāntāihuà; Tiantai dialect pronunciation: [tʰi.tʰai.u]) is a regiolect of Wu Chinese in the Taizhou Wu dialect group. It is spoken in Tiantai County, Taizhou, Zhejiang province, China.

Like other dialects in the Wu family, Tiantaihua has a three-way contrast between voiced, unaspirated voiceless, and aspirated initial consonants (e.g., /t tʰ d/), preserving an earlier feature of Chinese which Mandarin has collapsed into a two-way distinction.

Tiantai dialect

Traditional Chinese| 天台話
Simplified Chinese| 天台话
| Transcriptions

Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin| Tiāntāi Huà
IPA| [tʰjɛ́n.tʰáɪ.xwâ]
Yue: Cantonese
Jyutping| Tin1 Toi4 waa2
IPA| [tʰiːn˥.tʰɔːi˩.waː˧˥]

The Tiantai dialect is the main representative of the northern Taizhou dialect family.

## Comparison with Standard Chinese[edit]

The meaning of many common words and phrases in the Tiantai dialect differs from that of Standard Chinese. Below is a list of common differences:

Difference of meaning of words  Chinese word  | Original meaning  | Meaning in the Tiantai dialect  | References

|
|
|

味道  | Taste  | Comfort, enjoyment  | [1]
老實好  | Honestly good  | Praise, very good
煞夾  | Tightly squeezed  | Very powerful
老官  | Veteran official  | Husband
天亮  | Sunrise, dawn  | Tomorrow
拔好  | Properly pulled  | Immediately
活動  | Activity  | Smart, intelligent
壽  | Longevity  | Silliness, lack of empathy  | [2]
賴  | Sloppy  | Bad behaviour  | [3]
大慧  | Very intelligent  | Able person  | [4]
大吹  | Big blow  | Stupid person  | [5]

Proverbs and phrases in the Tiantai dialect can be shorter in comparison with the corresponding phrase in Standard Chinese. For example, the phrase "露出馬腳" (literally "exposing the cloven hoof", metaphorically "exposed") is shortened to the phrase "出腳", literally meaning "taking the foot out".[1]

Sentences can be shorter as well; see the example below.[6]

Original  | Chinese  | 和 | 小王 | 比起來 | ， | 還是 | 小李 |  | 高 | 。

|
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English  | Literal  | As  | John  | compared to  | ,  | it's still  | Terry  |  | taller  | .
Rearranged  | As  | compared to John  | (who is)
Contracted  | Literal  | ~~As compared to~~ John  | it's ~~still~~ | Terry  | ~~who is~~ | taller
Chinese  |  | 小王 |  |  | 是 | 小李 |  | 長 | 。

## Pronouns[edit]

Pronouns in the Tiantai dialect[7] Person  | Regular Chinese pronoun  | English equivalent  | Tiantai dialect pronoun(s)

|
|
|

1st person singular  | 我  | I  | 我
2nd person singular  | 你  | you (singular)  | 爾[n 1]
3rd person singular  | 他  | he  | 佢／渠[n 2]
她  | she
牠  | it (animals)
它  | it (objects)
1st person plural  | 我們  | we  | 我等／我拉／我拉個／項等
2nd person plural  | 你們  | you (plural)  | 爾拉／爾拉個
3rd person plural  | 他們  | they  | 佢拉／佢拉個／渠拉／渠拉個

1. ^ The word "爾" stands for "you" in middle Chinese.
2. ^ These words are thought to have come from the word "其", a 3rd person pronoun in Middle Chinese.

## Syllable structure[edit]

### Initials[edit]

Table of consonants (translated from[8]) Consonant  | Voiceless unaspirated plosive | Voiceless aspirated plosive  | Plosive voiced | Voiceless fricative | Voiced fricative | Glottalised?[citation needed] half voiced | Half voiced

|
|
|
|
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Consonant  | Example  | Consonant  | Example  | Consonant  | Example  | Consonant  | Example  | Consonant  | Example  | Consonant  | Example  | Consonant  | Example
Labial | p  | 幫  | ph  | 滂  | b  | 平  | f 敷  | 敷  | v  | 奉  | 'm  | 媽  | m  | 明
Dental | ts  | 知  | tsh  | 初  | dz  | 迟  | s 生  | 生  | z  | 是  | 'l  | 拉  | l  | 來
Coronal | t  | 端  | th  | 透  | d  | 定  |  |  |  |  | 'n  | 奶  | n  | 南
Alveolo-palatal | c  | 照  | ch  | 穿  | j  | 澄  | sh  | 心  | zh  | 從  |  |  |  |
Velar | k  | 見  | kh  | 溪  | g  | 群  |  |  |  |  | 'ng  | 嗯  | ng  | 牙
Glottal | '  | 影  |  |  |  |  | h  | 曉  | gh  | 匣  |  |  | y  | 移
w  | 胡

### Finals[edit]

Table of vowels (translated from[8]) See also: Four hu

Open mouth  | Closed mouth  | Even teeth  | Round mouth
Vowel  | Example  | Vowel  | Example  | Vowel  | Example  | Vowel  | Example
y  | 資  |  |  |  |  |  |
|  |  |  | i  | 衣  |  |
|  | u  | 烏  |  |  | iu  | 雨
a  | 矮  | ua  | 歪  | ia  | 野  |  |
e  | 哀  | ue  | 威  | i.e.  | 煙  |  |
o  | 掗  | uo  | 花  |  |  |  |
ae  | 晏  | uae  | 彎  |  |  |  |
oe  | 半  | uoe  | 碗  |  |  | ioe  | 遠
au  | 奧  |  |  | iau  | 要  |  |
eu  | 歐  |  |  | ieu  | 悠  |  |
ou  | 哥  |  |  |  |  |  |
an  | 杏  | uan  | 橫  | ian  | 央  |  |
aon  | 項  | uaon  | 汪  |  |  | iaon  | 雙
en  | 恩  | uen  | 溫  |  |  |  |
|  |  |  | in  | 音  | iuin  | 雲
on  | 翁  |  |  |  |  | ion  | 用
aeh  | 鴨  | uaeh  | 挖  |  |  |  |
ah  | 百  | uah  | 摑  | iah  | 腳  |  |
aoh  | 惡  | uaoh  | 鑊  |  |  | iaoh  | 捉
eh  | 黑  |  |  | ieh  | 葉  |  |
|  |  |  | ih  | 一  | iuih  | 出
oeh  | 脫  | uoeh  | 骨  |  |  | ioeh  | 月
oh  | 屋  |  |  |  |  | ioh  | 郁
|  | m  | 無白 | n  | 爾白 | ng  | 五

### Tones[edit]

There are 8 tones in the Tiantai dialect, which are obtained by splitting each of the four tones in Mandarin to yin (陰) and yang (陽).

Tones in Tiantai dialect[9] Tone name | Tone letters

|

yin ping (陰平)  | ˧˧ (33)
yang ping (陽平)  | ˨˦ (24)
yin shang (陰上)  | ˧˨˥ (325)
yang shang (陽上)  | ˨˩˦ (214)
yin qu (陰去)  | ˥˥ (55)
yang qu (陽去)  | ˧˥ (35)
yin ru (陰入)  | ˥ʔ (5)
yang ru (陽入)  | ˨˧ʔ (23)

## References[edit]

1. ^ a b 天台話100句翻譯，啥意思格 [100 Sentences in the Tiantai Dialect and What do they Mean]. iFuun.com (in Chinese). 17 July 2017. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
2. ^ 天台話中「壽頭」是指什麼頭？ [What Does "Long-Lived Head" Mean in the Tiantai Dialect?]. iFuun.com (in Chinese). 2 September 2017. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
3. ^ Dai, Zhaoming 戴昭铭 (2006). 浙江天台方言词考源数则 [Etymological Notes on Dialectal Words of Tiantai Dialect in Zhejiang Province]. 方言 (in Chinese). 2006 (4): 374–377.
4. ^ Wang, Lin 汪林 (2008). 大慧天台. 安徽文學 (in Chinese). 2008 (12): 144–145.
5. ^ Chen, Luqian 陈露茜 (2012). 从吴语趣谈“个”字 [Talking About the Word “个” from Wu Chinese]. 文学教育 (in Chinese). 2012 (9): 132–133.
6. ^ Xiong, Zhongru 熊仲儒 (2007). 現代漢語與方言中差比句的句法結構分析 [An Analysis of Syntactic Structure of Difference Sentences in Modern Chinese and Regional Dialects] (PDF). Language and Linguistics (in Chinese). 8 (4): 1043–1063.
7. ^ Dai, Zhaoming 戴昭铭 (2003). 浙江天台方言的代词 [The Pronouns of the Tiantai Dialect in Zhejiang]. 方言 (in Chinese). 2003 (4): 314–323.
8. ^ a b 天台话拼音方案 [Pinyin Scheme of the Tiantai Dialect]. 通用吴语拼音 (in Chinese). 15 March 2008. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
9. ^ Dai, Zhaoming 戴昭铭 (1999). 天台话的几种语法现象. 方言 (in Chinese). 1999 (4): 249–258.

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