It is spoken in the city of Changzhou and surrounding areas in Jiangsu province of China.
Phonetically, the Changzhou dialect makes use of a number of voiced or slack voiced initials [b̥ d̥ ɡ̊ d̥z̥ d̥ʑ̊ v̥ z̥ ɦ̥] that are not found in Mandarin as well as a larger number of vowel sounds [ɑ ɐ ɔ o æ ə ɨ ɨʷ ɛ ɤɯ e i u y].
Mr. Zhao Yuanren was the first person who used modern linguistic methods to study Changzhou dialect, and especially made a pioneering and outstanding contribution to the research on Changzhou dialect phonetics.
Within the prefecture, there are also small but noticeable distinctions in pronunciation between the city center and the more rural surroundings which can be easily detected by native speakers.
It is likely that as most residents have remained in the same village for many generations and have been locally educated these variations have managed to persist.
Speakers from the eastern Changzhou villages have little difficulty conversing fluently with those from the western end of Wuxi Prefecture.
[2] The Nandu of the Song dynasty had an important influence on the dialects of Zhejiang, especially along the Qiantang River and its upper reaches.
[2] In these areas, there is still a reading system called "Zhejiang Mandarin" by the locals, which has played a role in the regional common language.
[2] The Song dynasty moved south to Hangzhou, and the northern mandarin entered the Wu dialect area and formed a new level; Changzhou, Suzhou, Shanghai and other places changed the voicing of the Wu dialect due to the influence of the Lin'an Mandarin.
[3] It had three publications, although the time span is large, the focus is different, and the presentation methods are also different, the research conclusions are very uniform in nature, because the speaker is Mr. Zhao himself for the second time, and the object of the first pronunciation is a 35-year-old teacher, the same age as Mr.
[3] Zhao's Changzhou dialect has 7 single-character tones, 30 initials and 45 finals.
It is not clear when the differentiation began, because the earliest relevant record seen so far is Mr. Zhao's "Research on Modern Wu Dialects".
Presumably, this distinction already existed in the Qing dynasty - Mr. Zhao was talking about gentry since he was a child.
In the late period of Chinese feudal society, especially in the Qing dynasty, Changzhou enjoyed the reputation of "the important support of Wujin and the famous capital of Bayi", with convenient commerce and trade, leading economy, prosperous humanities, and prosperous academics.
[4] When Mr. Zhao Yuanren's great-grandfather moved his family to Qingguo Lane, his descendants settled here.
The seven tonic allophones were divided according to register by the Chinese-American linguist and Changzhou native Yuen Ren Chao.
[11] 挨肩擦背(Shoulder to Shoulder): crowded[11] 壁跟壁落(Walls and Walls): every corner[11] 别咧卜落(Don't be fooled): one after another, non-stop[11] 七搭八搭(Compatible with each other): describe the speech as being out of focus[11] 测测默默(Quietly): silently[11] 搭七搭八(Take seven and eight): casually strike up a conversation with people, and the relationship is ambiguous[11] 搭头搭脑(Head-to-head and head-to-head): total before and after[11] 得溜滚圆(Gotta be round): very round[11] 滴沥笃落(Drip drop): the sound of light rain, also refers to the flow of water is not smooth[11] 暗忽隆冬(Darkness and Midwinter): Dark, not bright[11] ......
[12] Due to the influence of the dialect habits, Changzhou people are very easy to pronounce the Yinren yin in the dialect with the pronunciation of the Mandarin, so there is a phenomenon that some Mandarin yangping and Qusheng characters are pronounced as yin jinxuan, such as "that is即, but却, "shu束" are very easy to be pronounced as yin people's voices.
[12] The influence of Changzhou dialect on the pronunciation of Changzhou Mandarin belongs to a special linguistic phenomenon produced by the contact and fusion of dialect and national common language.
"宋室南渡與臨安官話對吳語的影響 – 若干詞彙、語法的例證 (Influence of the southern migration of the Song Dynasty on Wu dialects via Lin'an Guanhua : Lexical and syntactic evidence)".
"赵元任与常州方言语音研究 (Zhao Yuanren and Changzhou Dialect Phonetics Research)".
"常州方言四字格俗成语释例(An Annotated Exemplification of the Four-character Folk Idioms in Changzhou Dialect)".