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Glite Dictionary
Wu dialect

Wu dialect

9.9
A form of Chinese spoken in the area around the Yangtze River, including Shanghai
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : dialecto Wu
  • When visiting the Yangtze River delta, I enjoyed listening to the Wu dialect spoken by locals.

Examples

  • The Wu dialect is known for its unique tones and vocabulary distinct from Mandarin.

  • Have you not read it in its original Wu dialect?

    Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)

  • Many people in Shanghai use the Wu dialect to communicate with their families.

Synonyms

Wu
vsWu dialect
  • Specialized
9.9

A group of related Chinese dialects spoken around Shanghai and Suzhou

is the same group but uses a longer more formal phrase

How Widely Spoken

national
∞ 2.0
Wu dialect
  • Specialized
9.9

Surface Forms

Wu dialect singular
Wu dialects plural

Morphology

Wu + dialect

The phrase is a straightforward combination of the proper noun 'Wu' and the noun 'dialect', denoting the dialect(s) associated with the Wu region. This compositional pattern (place/name + dialect) is cross-linguistically common and immediately derivable by a B1 learner who knows both constituents.

Etymology

Wu dialect comes from an old kingdom called Wu that once ruled the area around the Yangtze River. So today, Wu dialect means the group of related local ways of speaking Chinese from that region.