Hangzhounese is also lexically and morphosyntactically difficult to categorise, leading to some linguists calling it a "Mandarinicised Wu" hybrid variety, or even a creole language.

[5] Its usage has also declined due to the dominance of Standard Mandarin in education and public life.

The linguistic transformation that led to its Mandarinic appearance is in primarily due to the Jingkang incident of the Song dynasty, in which the imperial court was moved from Bianjing (today Kaifeng) to Lin'an, modern day Hangzhou.

[16] As Hangzhou was the primary political and commercial centre of the region, Hangzhounese also took on the role as a local merchant language and lingua franca,[17] leading to many Wu varieties adopting Hangzhounese's Mandarin pronunciations to form a literary layer locally called "Zhejiang Mandarin" (浙江官話).

[19][20] During the Qing dynasty, Hangzhounese underwent another instance of Mandarinisation, due to the presence of Manchu bannermen in the city.

[21] Hangzhounese is today a "developing" language, with a rating of 5 on the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS), meaning it is still in vigorous use, but its written form are neither sustainable, nor widespread.

[4] A study in 2016 found that only around 20% of student respondents could proficiently use the variety, which, in contrast to the 48% figure quoted for Shanghai, is low.

[4] Nonetheless, use of Hangzhounese can at times still be seen in official media, such as in the TV show Old Liutou Tells the News (阿六頭說新聞), which has been running since 2004.

The cross-linguistically rare apical glide /-ʮ-/ appears after dentialveolars and in complementary distribution with the /-u-/ medial.

[33] More precise descriptions of these rimes are as follows:[24][34][35][36] Hangzhounese, like other Sinitic languages, have phonemic tone.

More precise descriptions of the above are as follows:[24][41] Like Northern Wu languages, Hangzhounese exhibits complex tone sandhi.

[31][42] A trisyllabic sandhi chain ˨ 2 ˨ 2 ˧ 33 is also seen in a small number of words starting with light checked syllables.

[45] Some historical light rising syllables may switch categories in sandhi, for instance 3lau 老 in 老鴨兒 "old duck" takes the dark rising pattern, whereas in 老酒 "huangjiu" it takes the light departing pattern.

The right-prominent sandhi tone change only applies to the syllable directly adjacent to the head.