Rui'an dialect

The Ruian dialect is a dialect of Wu Chinese spoken in Ruian. It belongs to the Oujiang sub-group of Wu Chinese dialects. It is closely related to the Pingyang dialect and Lucheng dialect, generally referred to as Wenzhounese.

Phonology

Initials

Finals

Rui'an has the following finals:
嘸, 兒
姹, 好, 包
海, 先, 思
下, 布 ~ 圖 ~ 水
全, 安, 歌
會, 走
李, 六
涼, 關, 花
經, 聽, 公.
Additional finals for older accents include
天, 橋, 頭

Tones

In the Ruian dialect, a monosyllabic word can have one of the eight tones, but there are only four phonetically distinguished tones, divided into high and low categories. In combination with another tone, it can change depending on the tone sandhi system.
Yin Ping 陰平 44 江天飛三
Yang Ping 陽平 31 來同魚球
Yin Shang 陰上 35 懂紙古本
Yang Shang 陽上 24 近淡厚似
Yin Qu 陰去 52 對去貨歲
Yang Qu 陽去 22 外地路住
Yin Ru 陰入 323 七博塔各
Yang Ru 陽入 212 六肉白石

Tone sandhi

In bisyllabic words, the Rui'an dialect phonetically has only six tones, high flat ˦, middle flat ˧, rising ˨˦, departing ˦˨, entering ˨˩˨ and short ˨. We'll now use A, B, C, D, E, and 0 for these six tones.

tones	陰平	陰上	陰去	陰入	陽平	陽上	陽去	陽入
陰平	0A	AC	ED	AE	AD	Example	Example	Example
陰上	AB	0C	D0	AE	D0	Example	Example	Example
陰去	Example	Example	Example	D0	Example	0C	Example	Example
陰入	Example	Example	E0	Example	Example	Example	Example	E0
陽平	AE	Example	0C	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example
陽上	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example
陽去	0A	Example	C0	Example	Example	Example	C0	Example
陽入	0A	0C	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example

Grammar

Sentence Structure

Classifiers

Verbs

Adverbs

;Ruian dialect

Lexicon

Pronouns

Pronoun	IPA	Transcription
1st person sing.	ŋ˧˦	吾
2nd person sing.	ȵi˧˦	爾
3rd person sing.	ɡe̝˧˩	渠/佢
reflexive sing.	zɿ˨	自
1st person plur.	ŋ˨˦ le̝˨, ŋ˨˦ la˨	吾俚，吾啦
2nd person plur.	ȵi˨˦ le̝˨, ȵi˨˦ la˨	爾俚，爾啦
3rd person plur.	ɡe̝˦˨ le̝˨, ɡe̝˦˨ la˨	渠/佢俚，渠/佢啦
reflexive plur.	zɿ˧ le̝˨, zɿ˧ la˨	自俚，自啦

Numerals

Numerals	IPA	Transcription
0	ləŋ˧˩, dø˧˦	零, 斷¹
1	ʔja˧˨˧, i˧˨˧	一¹ ²
2	ŋ˨, la˧˦	二, 兩¹
3	sɔ˦	三
4	sɿ˥˨	四
5	ŋ˧˦	五
6	ləu̜˧˨˧	六
7	tsʰa˧˨˧	七
8	po̝˧˨˧	八
9	tɕɐu̜˧˥	九
10	za˨˩˨	十
20	ȵiɛ˨	廿
30	sɔ˧ za˧	三十
100	i˨ pa˧˨˧	一百
1000	i˨ tɕʰi˧	一千
10.000	i˨ mɔ˧	一萬

Vocabulary

Below is a list of the most common vocabulary in Ruian dialect.

Meaning	IPA	Transcription	Mandarin equivalent
to see, to look		眥	看
to hear, to listen		聽	聽
to ask		問	問
to look for		尋	找，尋找
to smell		嗅	聞
to know		識	認識
to say, to speak		講	說
to curse		謴	罵
to eat		喫	吃
to drink		呷	喝
chopstick		箸	筷子
to stand		徛	站
pocket		兜	口袋
salted vegetables		菜鹹	鹹菜
chopping block		板砧	砧板
icing sugar		糖霜	糖霜
thing, object		物事	東西
rice spoon		飯槳	飯勺
radish		菜頭	蘿蔔
trouble		生受	麻煩
doctor		醫師	醫生
blind		盲瞊	瞎子
wife		老安	老婆
unfamiliar		打生	陌生
eagle		咄鷹	貓頭鷹
mole cricket		土狗	蝼蛄
bicycle		踏腳車	自行车
instrument		家生货	家具
young, teenager		後生兒	年輕人
serious， powerful		肚皮掌	厲害

Readings

Like other Wu dialects, in the Ruian dialect a Chinese character can have more than one reading, divided into vernacular readings and literary readings, in comparison with other Wu dialects, the Ruian dialect has relatively few multiple readings.
Below are some samples.