Tong–Tai (

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

: 通泰), also known as Tai–Ru (

: 泰如) is a group of

Lower Yangtze Mandarin Lower Yangtze Mandarin () is one of the most divergent and least mutually-intelligible of the Mandarin languages, as it neighbours the Wu, Hui, and Gan groups of Sinitic languages. It is also known as Jiang–Huai Mandarin (), named after the ...

dialects spoken in the east-central part of

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...

province in the prefecture-level cities of

Nantong Nantong (; alternate names: Nan-t'ung, Nantung, Tongzhou, or Tungchow; Qihai dialect: ) is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Jiangsu province of China, province, China. Located on the northern bank of the Yangtze River, near the river mouth. ...

(formerly Tongzhou) and Taizhou. The alternative name refers to the county-level city of

Rugao Rugao () is a county-level city under the administration of Nantong, Jiangsu province, China, located in the Yangtze River Delta on the northern (left) bank of the river. History In 411, the western part of then Hailing ( Taizhou) was separated f ...

within Nantong. This region includes the areas which are to the north of

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest list of rivers of Asia, river in Asia, the list of rivers by length, third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in th ...

and to the east of Grand Canal. There are about 11.37 million speakers there (in 2004) and this region occupies about 15,000 square kilometers. This region can also be divided further into three districts: the west, the middle and the east. The west part includes Taizhou,

Jiangyan Jiangyan District () is one of three urban districts of the city of Taizhou, Jiangsu province, having been, until December 2012, a county-level city. Jiangyan is noted for being the birthplace of the former General Secretary of the Chinese Commun ...

, west of

Hai'an Hai'an () is a county-level city under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Nantong, in eastern Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of ...

, west of

Dongtai Dongtai () is a coastal county-level city under the administration of Yancheng, Jiangsu province, China. It has a population of roughly 1,170,000 estimated for 2007. Out of the total population, about 260,000 live in the Dongtai urban core, others ...

Dafeng Dafeng () is a coastal district under the administration of Yancheng, Jiangsu province, China. Located on the Jiangsu North Plain with a coastline of , Dafeng was historically one of the largest salt-making areas in China and now is famed for its ...

, Xinghua, east of

Jiangdu Jiangdu (), historically known as Kiangtu is one of three districts of Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, China. The district spans an area of , and as of November 1, 2020, has 926,577 inhabitants. Formerly a county, Jiangdu became a district in July 199 ...

. The middle part includes

Rudong Rudong County () is under the administration of Nantong, Jiangsu province, China, and lies on the Yellow Sea coast. It administers 14 towns and five districts. The 14 towns are Juegang, Matang, Fengli, Caobu, Chahe, Shuangdian, Xindian, Hekou, ...

Taixing Taixing () is a county-level city under the administration of Taizhou, Jiangsu province, China. It is located in the Yangtze River Delta, bordering the prefecture-level cities of Nantong to the east, Changzhou to the southwest, and Zhenjiang to th ...

, east of

and southwest of

Jingjiang Jingjiang () is a county-level city under the administration of Taizhou, Jiangsu province, China. It is located on the northern (left) bank of the Yangtze River, and is the southernmost part of Taizhou City, bordering Nantong to the northeast, Suz ...

. The east part includes downtown of

and southwest of Tongzhou. These vernaculars are distinguished by the difference in

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...

s. However these districts used to be the region of the Wu culture, so there are many features of

Wu Chinese The Wu languages (; Romanization of Wu Chinese, Wu romanization and Romanization of Wu Chinese#IPA, IPA: ''wu6 gniu6'' [] (Shanghainese), ''ng2 gniu6'' [] (Suzhounese), Mandarin pinyin and IPA: ''Wúyǔ'' []) is a major group of Sinitic languag ...

in these vernaculars, especially the vernacular in the middle part, known as middle Tong-Tai dialect. It is closely bounded on the Changzhou part in the Wu region.

Phonology

The

variety will be taken as representative.

Consonants

Vowels

r-colored ɜ: ɜ˞ tongue position for �is slightly higher than the standard � but lower than �is slightly lower than the standard � sounds close to � �is higher than the standard �close to � Tones Dark level 阴平21 Light level 阳平35 (Light)Rising 上声（阳上）55 Light departing 阳去213 Dark departing 阴去42 Light entering 阳入55ʔ Dark entering 阴入42ʔ

Dialects

Rugao dialect

The Rugaohua dialect of Jianghuai does not follow the T3 sandhi rule which most other Mandarin dialects follow. Linguists speculate that changes to pitch countours over time also removed the original motivation for T3 sandhi in the Beijing dialect underlying modern

Standard Mandarin Standard Chinese ()—in linguistics Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin, in common speech simply Mandarin, better qualified as Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin or Standard Mandarin Chinese—is a modern standar ...

(putonghua), but the sandhi was retained. When Chinese people were subjected to listening to various dialects such as Northern Mandarin (Yantai dialect), Standard Mandarin (Putonghua), and Jianghuai Mandarin (Rugao dialect of Jiangsu), "cross dialectal" differences appeared in their reactions.

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

Dialects

Rugao dialect

References

Further reading