Initials

Finals

Rui'an has the following finals:

嘸 [m], 兒 [ŋ]

姹 [a], 好 [ɛ], 包 [ɔ]

海 [e̝], 先 [i], 思 [ɿ]

下 [o̝], 布 [ʉ] ~ 圖 [ɘʉ] ~ 水 [ʮ]

全 [y], 安 [ø], 歌 [ʋ̩ʷ]

會 [ɐi], 走 [ɐu̜]

李 [ei], 六 [əu̜]

涼 [iɛ], 關 [uɔ], 花 [uo̝]

經 [ɐŋ], 聽 [əŋ], 公 [oŋ].

Additional finals for older accents include

天 [ie̝], 橋 [yø], 頭 [iəu̜]

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 (陰) and low (陽) 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

This section does not cite any sources. (January 2019)

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.

This table may be confusing or unclear to readers. In particular, Chinese terms for tone categories should be explained or replaced by English terms. And what does “Example” stand for?. (January 2019)

Sentence Structure

Classifiers

Verbs

Adverbs

Ruian dialect

Pronouns

Numerals

¹ used when are alone or follow 第 to form ordinal numerals, and the later three lectures are cardinal numerals and are generally followed by a classifier.

² the first lecture is considered literal, the second colloquial.

Vocabulary

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

Readings

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