Shanghai dialect

The Shanghai dialect has been studied since the mid-19th century; Due to the constant influx of migrants, which began at the same time, Shanghai has been constantly changing since the 1850s ^[5] . The first works about him were published in 1853 ^[6] and 1862 ^[7] . The next wave of interest rose in the 1920s: Zhao Yuanzhen and Bernhard Karlgren described many dialects, including Shanghai. Zhao drew particular attention to the presence of variability due to the largest migration from Suzhou ^{[8] [9]} .

The use of Shanghai in schools was banned in 1985 ^[10] . In 1992, students began to be encouraged to tell teachers about other children using Shanghai; violators were punished ^[11] .

According to some, Shanghai is the main language of communication of 45% of local families ^[11] . On the other hand, in 2011, only 38% of Shanghai fifth graders reported that they speak Shanghai in the family ^[12] . There are signs of a linguistic death of the Shanghai dialect ^[4] .

Periodically, attempts are made to preserve the Shanghai dialect: in 2014, for example, a program was launched in 20 kindergartens that encourages children and educators to speak Shanghai ^[13]

Shanghai uses the division of a syllable into an optional initial and final. In addition, each syllable has a tone ^{[14] [15]} .

Initials

Voiced explosive consonants are pronounced muffled with weak phonation in stressed syllables starting the word ^[16] . This phonation is often found in syllables with zero initial, syllables starting with affricates and fricatives, as well as with sonor consonants . In the intervocal position, these consonants are voiced ^[17] .

Finals

Below is a table of all the possible finals of the Shanghai dialect, recorded in the international phonetic alphabet ^{[14] [18] [19]} :

Syllabic fricatives: [ z̩ ] [ ʑ̩ ] [ m̩ ] [ ʔm̩ ] [ n̩ ] [ ʔn̩ ] [ ŋ̍ ] [ əɫ ] ~ [ r̩ ] ~ [ ɫ̩ ].

The Middle Chinese final [ -ŋ ] was preserved as [ -ɲ ], and [ -n ] and [ -m ] either turned into [ -ɲ ] or disappeared. The terminals [ -p ] [ -t ] [ -k ] turned into a laryngeal bow, [ -ʔ ] ^[20] .

Tones

In Shanghai, there are five tones (in isolated pronounced syllables). Three of them are Yin (in the terminology of Middle Chinese phonetics; yin-shan and yin-qu merged), two - Yang (yang-ping, yang-shan and yang-qu also merged) ^{[21] [22]} . Yin tones are pronounced in a slightly higher voice than Yang tones ^[23] . The tones of “chew” abruptly break off, ending with a guttural bow [ / ʔ / ].

In Shanghai, two phonological tones contrast ^[24] : lowering and rising. They are formed from the five aforementioned as a result of the sandha : the drawing of the tones of each word depends only on the tone of its first syllable ^[25] .

The factors leading to the division of tones into Yin and Yang in Central Chinese still exist in all Us dialects: Yang tones are present in syllables with voiced initials ([ b ], [ d ], [ ɡ ], [ z ], [ v ] , [ dʑ ], [ ʑ ], [ m ], [ n ], [ ɲ ], [ ŋ ], [ l ], [ j ], [ w ], [ ɦ ]) ^[23] .

Words and Expressions

Literary and Shanghai Pronunciations

Changes in the speech of young speakers

From the 1990s, the Shanghai phonetic system began to rapidly approach putonghua . The laziness of initials is popular: the sounds absent in Putonghua either disappear altogether or are deafened. For example, among 10-15-year-olds, more than 84% of children omit the initial [ ŋ ] ^[26] . In addition, there are the following changes:

• [ ʑ ] → [ dʑ ] or [ ɕ ];
• [ v ] → [ f ] or disappears;
• [ ɦ ] disappears or loses weak phonation;
• all voiced consonants are stunned;
• the syllabic [ m ], [ n ] disappears;
• [ ɲ ] → [ l ] or [ z ] ^[27] .

The vowels [e] and [ɛ] were in the process of merging; in the late 1980s, it was believed that the merger was already completed, but under the influence of putonghua the reverse process began ^[9] .

Thanks to putonghua, a medal / y / ^{[8] [9]} appeared in Shanghai around the 1950s.

There are traces of the disappearance of low-register tones. The short tone of syllables with closed endings lengthens. The tone pattern also changes: polysyllabic words are divided into groups of syllables to which the corresponding rules apply (a five-syllable word, for example, is pronounced as a combination of two-syllable and three-syllable) ^[28] .

• Chen, Yiya & Gussenhoven, Carlos (2015), " Shanghai Chinese ", Journal of the International Phonetic Association T. 45 (3): 321–327, doi : 10.1017 / S0025100315000043 , < https://www.researchgate.net/ publication / 287375585_Shanghai_Chinese >  
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• Qian, N. A History of Shanghainese. - Shanghai People's Press, 2003.
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• Wang Hongyi. Shanghai kindergartens to promote local dialect . China Daily (February 7, 2014). Date of treatment October 14, 2014.
• Hannas WC The Writing on the Wall: How Asian Orthography Curbs Creativity . - University of Pennsylvania Press, Incorporated, 2011. - (Encounters with Asia). - ISBN 9780812202168 .

• Aleksakhin A.N. Initial course of spoken Shanghai language. - Tutorial. - Moscow: AST: East-West, 2007 .-- 175 p. - ISBN 978-5-7873-0436-8 .
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