The Jinxiang dialect ( zh, s=金鄉話, p=Jīnxiānghuà) is a

Taihu Wu Taihu Wu () or Northern Wu () is a Wu Chinese language spoken over much of southern part of Jiangsu province, including Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, the southern part of Nantong, Jingjiang and Danyang; the municipality of Shanghai; and the northern p ...

dialect, or a Northern Wu dialect, spoken in the county of

Cangnan Cangnan County ( ) is a county in the prefecture-level city of Wenzhou in southern Zhejiang. The county government is in Lingxi. Cangnan has 20 towns, 14 townships, and two nationality townships. The predominant Chinese dialect spoken in Cangnan ...

of the prefecture-level city

Wenzhou Wenzhou (pronounced ; Wenzhounese: Yuziou �y33–11 tɕiɤu33–32 ), historically known as Wenchow is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Zhejiang province in the People's Republic of China. Wenzhou is located at the extreme south east ...

. It is considered to be a Taihu Wu linguistic exclave within the mostly

Min Nan Southern Min (), Minnan ( Mandarin pronunciation: ) or Banlam (), is a group of linguistically similar and historically related Sinitic languages that form a branch of Min Chinese spoken in Fujian (especially the Minnan region), most of Taiwan ...

-speaking part of Southern Zhejiang. The Modern Jinxiang dialect is descended from the speech of soldiers from Northern Zhejiang who settled during the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peo ...

due to

Wokou ''Wokou'' (; Japanese: ''Wakō''; Korean: 왜구 ''Waegu''), which literally translates to "Japanese pirates" or "dwarf pirates", were pirates who raided the coastlines of China and Korea from the 13th century to the 16th century.

pirate raids, during the reign of the

Jiajing Emperor The Jiajing Emperor (; 16September 150723January 1567) was the 12th Emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1521 to 1567. Born Zhu Houcong, he was the former Zhengde Emperor's cousin. His father, Zhu Youyuan (1476–1519), Prince of Xing, w ...

. These soldiers were sent to Jinxiang to protect the town from raids by the Wokou. The majority of Jinxiang natives today are descended from those soldiers who served under

Qi Jiguang Qi Jiguang (, November 12, 1528 – January 17, 1588), courtesy name Yuanjing, art names Nantang and Mengzhu, posthumous name Wuyi, was a Chinese military general and writer of the Ming dynasty. He is best known for leading the defense on the ...

. Isolated from the other Taihu Wu-speaking regions, surrounded by

-speaking areas, the Jinxiang dialect has some degree of influence from

Zhenan Min Zhenan Min (), is a Min Nan Chinese language spoken in the vicinity of Wenzhou, in the southeast of Zhejiang province. The Zhenan Min people had settled in areas such as Cangnan County, Pingyang County, Yuhuan County and Dongtou County from ...

. It has also some influence from Mandarin Chinese.

References

{{st-lang-stub Wu Chinese