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The Shanghainese language, also known as the Shanghai dialect, or Hu language, is a variety of Wu Chinese spoken in the central districts of the city of Shanghai and its surrounding areas. It is classified as part of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Shanghainese, like the rest of the Wu language group, is mutually unintelligible with other varieties of Chinese, such as Mandarin Chinese.
Shanghainese belongs to a separate group of the Taihu Wu subgroup. With nearly 14 million speakers, Shanghainese is also the largest single form of Wu Chinese. Since the late 19th century, it has served as the lingua franca of the entire Yangtze River Delta region, but in recent decades its status has declined relative to Mandarin, which most Shanghainese speakers can also speak.
Like other Wu varieties, Shanghainese is rich in and , with around twenty unique vowel qualities, twelve of which are Phoneme. Similarly, Shanghainese also has voiced obstruent initials, which is rare outside of Wu and Xiang Chinese varieties. Shanghainese also has a low number of tones compared to other languages in Southern China and has a system of tone sandhi similar to Japanese pitch accent.
During the 1850s, the port of Shanghai was opened, and a large number of migrants, particularly from Ningbo and the Jianghuai area, entered the city. Around this time, missionaries such as Joseph Edkins and Tarleton Perry Crawford would document the phonology of the language. This led to many from both the West and the East, especially from Ningbo dialect, and like Cantonese in Hong Kong, English language. In fact, "speakers of other Wu dialects traditionally treat the Shanghai vernacular somewhat contemptuously as a mixture of Suzhou and Ningbo dialects." This has led to Shanghainese becoming one of the fastest-developing languages of the Wu Chinese subgroup, undergoing rapid changes and quickly replacing Suzhou dialect as the prestige dialect of the Yangtze River Delta region. It underwent sustained growth that reached a peak in the 1930s during the Republican era, when migrants arrived in Shanghai and immersed themselves in the local tongue. Migrants from Shanghai also brought Shanghainese to many overseas Chinese communities. As of 2016, 83,400 people in Hong Kong are still able to speak Shanghainese. Shanghainese is sometimes viewed as a tool to discriminate against immigrants. Migrants who move from other Chinese cities to Shanghai have little ability to speak Shanghainese. Among the migrant people, some believe Shanghainese represents the superiority of native Shanghainese people. Some also believe that native residents intentionally speak Shanghainese in some places to discriminate against the immigrant population to transfer their anger to migrant workers, who take over their homeland and take advantage of housing, education, medical, and job resources.
After the People's Republic of China's government imposed and promoted Standard Chinese as the official language of all of China, Shanghainese had started its decline. During the Chinese economic reform of 1978, Shanghai has once again took in a large number of migrants. Due to the prominence of Standard Mandarin, learning Shanghainese was no longer necessary for migrants. However, Shanghainese remained a vital part of the city's culture and retained its prestige status within the local population. In the 1990s, it was still common for local radio and television broadcasts to be in Shanghainese. For example, in 1995, the TV series Sinful Debt featured extensive Shanghainese dialogue; when it was broadcast outside Shanghai (mainly in adjacent Wu-speaking areas) Mandarin subtitles were added. The Shanghainese TV series Lao Niang Jiu (老娘舅, "Old Uncle") was broadcast from 1995 to 2007; it was popular among Shanghainese residents. Shanghainese programming has since slowly declined amid regionalist-localist accusations. From 1992 onward, Shanghainese use was discouraged in schools, and many children native to Shanghai can no longer speak Shanghainese. In addition, Shanghai's emergence as a cosmopolitan global city consolidated the status of Mandarin as the standard language of business and services, at the expense of the local language.
Since 2005, movements to protect Shanghainese have emerged. At municipal legislative discussions in 2005, former Shanghai opera actress Ma Lili moved to "protect" the language, stating that she was one of the few remaining Shanghai opera actresses who still retained authentic classic Shanghainese pronunciation in their performances. Shanghai's former party boss Chen Liangyu, a native Shanghainese himself, reportedly supported her proposal. Shanghainese has been reintegrated into pre-kindergarten education, with education of native folk songs and rhymes, as well as a Shanghainese-only day on Fridays in the Modern Baby Kindergarten. Professor Qian Nairong, linguist and head of the Chinese Department at Shanghai University, is working on efforts to save the language. In response to criticism, Qian reminds people that Shanghainese was once fashionable, saying, "the popularization of Mandarin doesn't equal the ban of dialects. It doesn't make Mandarin a more civilized language either. Promoting dialects is not a narrow-minded localism, as it has been labeled by some netizens". Qian has also urged for Shanghainese to be taught in other sectors of education, due to kindergarten and university courses being insufficient.
During the 2010s, many achievements have been made to preserve Shanghainese. In 2011, Hu Baotan wrote Longtang (弄堂, "Longtang"), the first ever Shanghainese novel. In June 2012, a new television program airing in Shanghainese was created. In 2013, buses in Shanghai started using Shanghainese broadcasts. In 2017, Apple's iOS 11 introduced Siri in Shanghainese, being only the third Sinitic language to be supported, after Standard Mandarin and Cantonese. In 2018, the Japanese-Chinese animated anthology drama film Flavors of Youth had a section set in Shanghai, with significant Shanghainese dialogue. In January 2019, singer Lin Bao released the first Shanghainese pop record Shanghai Yao (上海謠, "Shanghai Ballad"). In December 2021, the Shanghainese-language romantic comedy movie Myth of Love (愛情神話) was released. Its box office revenue was ¥260 million, and response was generally positive. Similarly, in December 2023, the TV show Blossoms Shanghai (繁花) aired with the primary language being Shanghainese.
Today, around half the population of Shanghai can converse in Shanghainese, and a further quarter can understand it. Though the number of speakers has been declining, a large number of people want to preserve it.
As more people moved into Shanghai, the economic center of China, Shanghainese has been threatened despite it originally being a strong topolect of Wu Chinese. According to the Shanghai Municipal Statistics Bureau, the population of Shanghai was estimated to be 24.28 million in 2019, of whom 14.5 million are permanent residents and 9.77 million are migrant residents. To have better communication with foreign residents and develop a top-level financial center among the world, the promotion of the official language, Standard Mandarin, became very important. Therefore, the Shanghai Municipal Government banned the use of Shanghainese in public places, schools, and work. Around half of the city's population is unaware of these policies.
A survey of students from the primary school in 2010 indicated that 52.3% of students believed Mandarin is easier than Shanghainese for communication, and 47.6% of the students choose to speak Mandarin because it is a mandatory language at school. Furthermore, 68.3% of the students are more willing to study Mandarin, but only 10.2% of the students are more willing to study Shanghainese. A survey in 2021 has shown that 15.22% of respondents under 18 would never use Shanghainese. The study also found that the percentage of people that would use Shanghainese with older family members has halved. The study also shows that around one third of people under the age of 30 can only understand Shanghainese, and 8.7% of respondents under 18 cannot even understand it. The number of people that are able to speak Shanghainese has also consistently decreased.Gui and Zhou 2021
Much of the youth can no longer speak Shanghainese fluently because they had no chance to practice it at school. Also, they were unwilling to communicate with their parents in Shanghainese, which has accelerated its decline. The survey in 2010 indicated that 62.6% of primary school students use Mandarin as the first language at home, but only 17.3% of them use Shanghainese to communicate with their parents.
However, the same study from 2021 has shown that more than 90% of all age groups except 18–29 want to preserve Shanghainese. A total of 87.06% of people have noted that the culture of Shanghai cannot live without its language as it is used as a mechanism to bring people together and create a sense of community and warmth. Moreover, around half of the respondents stated that a Shanghainese citizen should be able to speak Shanghainese. More than 85% of all participants also believe that they help Shanghainese revitalization.Gui and Zhou 2021, p. 7.
Shanghainese as a branch of Northern Wu can be further subdivided. The details are as follows:Qian 2003, p. 395.
The following are often collectively known as Bendihua (本地話, Shanghainese: 本地閒話, Wugniu: pen-di ghe-gho)
| +Initial Consonants ! colspan="2" | !Labial consonant
!Dental consonant/ Alveolar !Palatal !Velar consonant !Glottal |
Voiced stops are phonetically voiceless with slack voice phonation in stressed, word initial position. (1996). 9780631198147, Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 9780631198147 This phonation (often referred to as murmur) also occurs in zero onset syllables, syllables beginning with fricatives, and syllables beginning with sonorants. These consonants are true voiced in intervocalic position. (1999). 9783895865848, Lincom Europa. ISBN 9783895865848 Sonorants are also suggested to be glottalised in dark tones (i.e. tones 1, 5, 7).
The transcriptions used above are broad and the following points are of note when pertaining to actual pronunciation:Chen and Gussenhoven 2015.Xu and Tang 1988, pp. 8.Qian 2007.
The Middle Chinese Nasal consonant Syllable rime are all merged in Shanghainese. Middle Chinese rimes have become glottal stops, .Svantesson, Jan-Olof. "Shanghai Vowels," Lund University, Department of Linguistics, Working Papers, 35:191–202
| +Five Shanghainese Citation Tones with Middle Chinese Classifications ! ! Level (italic=no) ! Rising (italic=no) ! Departing (italic=no) ! Checked (italic=no) (only with coda) |
Numbers in this table are those used by the Wugniu romanisation scheme.
The conditioning factors which led to the yin–yang (light-dark) split still exist in Shanghainese, as they do in most other Wu lects: light tones are only found with voiced initials, namely , while the dark tones are only found with voiceless initials.Xu and Tang 1988, pp. 15–23
The checked tones are shorter, and describe those rimes which end in a glottal stop . That is, both the yin–yang distinction and the checked tones are allophone (dependent on syllabic structure). With this analysis, Shanghainese has only a two-way phonemic tone contrast, falling vs rising, and then only in open syllables with voiceless initials. Therefore, many romanisations of Shanghainese opt to only mark the dark level tone, usually with a diacritic such as an acute accent or grave accent.
Word tone sandhi in Shanghainese can be described as left-prominent and is characterized by a dominance of the first syllable over the contour of the entire tone domain. As a result, the underlying tones of syllables other than the leftmost syllable, have no effect on the tone contour of the domain. The pattern is generally described as tone spreading (1, 5, 6, 7) or tone shifting (8, except for 4-syllable compounds, which can undergo spreading or shifting). The table below illustrates possible tone combinations.
| +Left-Prominent Sandhi Tone Values |
As an example, in isolation, the two syllables of the word 中國 ( China) are pronounced with a dark level tone ( tsón) and dark checked tone ( koq): and . However, when pronounced in combination, the dark level tone of 中 ( tsón) spreads over the compound resulting in the following pattern . Similarly, the syllables in a common expression for 十三點 ( zeq-sé-ti, "foolish") have the following underlying phonemic and tonal representations: ( zeq), ( sé), and ( ti). However, the syllables in combination exhibit the light checked shifting pattern where the first-syllable light checked tone shifts to the last syllable in the domain: .
Phrasal tone sandhi in Shanghainese can be described as right-prominent and is characterized by a right syllable retaining its underlying tone and a left syllable receiving a mid-level tone based on the underlying tone's register. The table below indicates possible left syllable tones in right-prominent compounds.
| +Possible Left Syllable Tone Values in Right-Prominent Sandhi |
For instance, when combined, 買 ( ma, , "to buy") and 酒 ( cieu, , "wine") become ("to buy wine").
Sometimes meaning can change based on whether left-prominent or right-prominent sandhi is used. For example, 炒 ( tshau, , "to fry") and 麪 ( mi, , "noodle") when pronounced (i.e., with left-prominent sandhi) means "fried noodles". When pronounced (i.e., with right-prominent sandhi), it means "to fry noodles".
Nouns and adjectives attached to nouns tend to start left-prominent sandhi chains, whereas right-prominent chains are triggered by verbs and adverbs. Grammatical particles cannot start chains of their own, but instead can be realised as a null tone (t=輕聲) or be part of another chain.Qian 2007
In the previous example sentence we see an adjective, noun and pronoun starting sandhi chains, the particles labels=no, labels=no and labels=no being incorporated into other sandhi chains, and the particle labels=no having a neutral tone.
Due to the large number of migrants into Shanghai, its lexicon is less noticeably Wu, though it still retains many defining features. However, many of these now lost features can be found in lects spoken in suburban Shanghai.
Its basic negator is ( veq), which according to some linguists, is sufficient ground to classify it as Wu.Richard VanNess Simmons 1999. Chinese Dialect Classification: A comparative approach to Harngjou, Old Jintarn, and Common Northern Wu
Shanghainese also has a multitude of loan words from European languages, due to Shanghai's status as a major port in China. Most of these terms come from English, though there are some from other languages such as French.Qian 2007 Some terms, such as 水門汀, have even entered mainstream and other Sinitic languages, such as Sichuanese.
| English |
| English |
| French |
| English |
| English |
| Shanghainese (language) | zaon-he ghe-gho | ||
| Shanghainese (people) | zaon-he-gnin | ||
| I | ngu | ||
| we or I | aq-la, aq-laq | ||
| he/she | yi | ||
| they | yi-la, yi-laq | ||
| you (sing.) | non | ||
| you (plural) | na | ||
| hello | non hau | ||
| good-bye | tsé-we | ||
| thank you | zhia-ya, zhia-zhia | ||
| sorry | te-veq-chi | ||
| but, however | , | , | de-zy, piq-ku |
| please | chin | ||
| that | , | é, í | |
| this | geq | ||
| there | , | , | é-taq, í-taq |
| here | geq-taq | ||
| to have | yeu | ||
| to be | zy | ||
| to be at | laq-he | ||
| now, current | , | , | yi-ze, ne |
| what time is it? | ？ | ？ | yi-ze ci-ti-tsón |
| where | , | , | gha-li-taq, sa(-)di-faon |
| what | sa | ||
| who | , | sa-gnin, gha-li-we | |
| why | we-sa | ||
| when | sa-zen-kuáon | ||
| how | na-nen | ||
| how much? | , | , | ci-di, tú-sau tsau-phiau |
| yes | é | ||
| no | , , , | , , , | m, veq-zy, m-meq, viau |
| telephone number | di-gho(-)hau-deu | ||
| home | oq-li | ||
| Come to our house and play. | ！ | ！ | tau aq-la oq-li-shian le beq-shian |
| Where's the restroom? | ？ | ？ | da-seu-ké laq-laq gha-li-taq |
| Have you eaten dinner? | ？ | ？ | ya-ve chiq-ku-leq-va |
| I don't know | 。 | 。 | ngu veq-shiáu-teq |
| Do you speak English? | ？ | ？ | non ín-ven kaon-teq le va |
| I adore you | ！ | ！ | ngu é-mu non |
| I like you a lot | ！ | ！ | ngu lau huóe-shi non gheq |
| news | shín-ven | ||
| one dead | shi-theq-leq | ||
| one alive | weq-laq-he | ||
| a lot | ciáu-kue | ||
| inside, within | li-shian | ||
| outside | nga-deu | ||
| How are you? | ？ | ？ | non hau va |
| jiā |
| yán |
| yīng |
| xiào |
| xué |
| wù |
| wǎng |
| fèng |
| féi |
| rì |
| rén |
| niǎo |
These readings must be distinguished in vocabulary. Take for instance the following.
sán-tshe |
gnin-le-fon |
ká-tsy |
Some terms mix the two pronunciation types, such as ("university"), where 大 is literary (da) and 學 is colloquial (ghoq).
Although formal inflection is very rare in all varieties of Chinese, there does exist in Shanghainese a morpho-phonological tone sandhiQuian, Nairon and Zhongwei Shen (1991). "The Changes in the Shanghai Dialect." Journal of Chinese Linguistics Monograph Series No. 3, pp. 405. that Zhu (2006) identifies as a form of inflection since it forms new words out of pre-existing phrases.Zhu 2006, pp.54. This type of inflection is a distinguishing characteristic of all Northern Wu dialects.
Affixation, generally (but not always) taking the form of suffixes, occurs rather frequently in Shanghainese, enough so that this feature contrasts even with other Wu varieties,Chao, Yuen Ren (1967). "Contrastive Aspects of the Wu Dialects." Language 43: 1, pp. 98. although the line between suffix and particle is somewhat nebulous. Most affixation applies to adjectives. In the example below, the term 頭勢 ( deu-sy) can be used to change an adjective to a noun.
Words can be Reduplication to express various differences in meaning. Nouns, for example, can be reduplicated to express collective or diminutive forms; adjectives so as to intensify or emphasize the associated description; and verbs to soften the degree of action. Below is an example of noun reduplication resulting in semantic alteration.
Word compounding is also very common in Shanghainese, a fact observed as far back as Edkins (1868),Edkins, Joseph. A Grammar of Colloquial Chinese, Shanghai Dialect. Presbyterian Mission Press, 1868, pp.114. and is the most productive method of creating new words. Many recent borrowings in Shanghainese originating from European languages are di- or polysyllabic.Zhu 2006, pp.56.
Older speakers of Shanghainese tend to place adverbs after the verb, but younger people, again under heavy influence from Mandarin, favor pre-verbal placement of adverbs.Pan et al 1991, pp.271.
The third person singular pronoun 伊 ( yi) (he/she/it) or the derived phrase 伊講 ( yi kaon) ("he says") can appear at the end of a sentence. This construction, which appears to be unique to Shanghainese,Han and Shi 2016, pp.51. is commonly employed to project the speaker's differing expectation relative to the content of the phrase.Han, Weifeng and Dingxu Shi (2014). "The Evolution of ɦi23kã34 ('he says') in Shanghainese." Language and Linguistics 15:4, pp. 479.
There are no articles in Shanghainese, and thus, no marking for definiteness or indefiniteness of nouns. Certain determiners (a demonstrative pronoun or numeral classifier, for instance) can imply definite or indefinite qualities, as can word order. A noun absent any sort of determiner in the subject position is definite, whereas it is indefinite in the object position.
Classifiers can be reduplicated to mean "all" or "every", as in:
| 本 | ||
| (classifier for books) | ||
| every book | ||
Progressive aspect expresses a continuous action. It is indicated by the particles 辣 ( laq), 辣辣 ( laq-laq) or 辣海 ( laq-he), which occur pre-verbally.
The resultative aspect expresses the result of an action which was begun before a specifically referenced timeframe, and is also indicated by 辣 ( laq), 辣辣 ( laq-laq) or 辣海 ( laq-he), except that these occur post-verbally.
Perfective aspect can be marked by 了 ( leq), 仔 ( tsy), 好 ( hau) or 唻 ( le).Zhu 2006, pp.83. 仔 is seen as dated and younger speakers often use 了, likely through lenition and Mandarin influence.
Zhu (2006) identifies a future aspect, indicated by the particle 要 ( iau).
Qian (1997) identifies a separate immediate future aspect, marked post-verbally by 快 ( khua).
Experiential aspect expresses the completion of an action before a specifically referenced timeframe, marked post-verbally by the particle 過 ( ku).Zhu 2006, pp.84.
The durative aspect is marked post-verbally by 下去 ( gho-chi), and expresses a continuous action.
In some cases, it is possible to combine two aspect markers into a larger verb phrase.
| 能 ( nen) / 能夠 ( nen-keu) / 好 ( hau) |
| 會 ( ue) / 會得 ( ue-teq) |
| 可以 ( khu-i) |
| 要 ( iau) |
| 應該 ( ín-ké) |
| 情願 ( zhin-gnioe) / 願意 ( gnioe-i) |
| 高興 ( káu-shin) |
| 想 ( shian) / 好 ( hau) |
Shen (2016) argues for the existence of a type of passive voice in Shanghainese, governed by the particle 撥 ( peq). This construction is superficially similar to by-phrases in English, and only transitive verbs can occur in this form of passive.Shen, Alice. "A Tough Construction of the Shanghainese 'Passive.'" PhD qualifying paper, University of Berkeley, pp.1–3.
| aq-la aq-laq |
| na |
| yi-la yi-laq |
There is some degree of flexibility concerning pronoun usage in Shanghainese. Older varieties of Shanghainese featured a different 1st person plural 我伲 ( ngu-gni),Hashimoto 1971, pp.249. whereas younger speakers tend to use 阿拉 ( aq-laq),Chao 1967, pp.99. which originates from Ningbo dialect.Xu and Tang 1988, pp. 418 While Zhu (2006) asserts that there is no Clusivity 1st person plural pronoun, Hashimoto (1971) disagrees, identifying 阿拉 as being inclusive. There are Sociolect in the usage of plural pronoun forms, as well as differences of pronunciation in the 1st person singular.
Reflexive pronouns are formed by the addition of the particle 自家 ( zy-ka),Zhu 2006, pp.65. as in:
Possessive pronouns are formed via the pronominal suffix 個 ( gheq), for instance, 我個 ( ngu gheq).Zhu 2006, pp.65–6. This pronunciation is a glottalised lenition of the expected pronunciation, ku.
Some of the time, nonstandard characters are used even when trying to use etymologically correct characters, due to compatibility (such as 伐) or pronunciation shift (such as 辣海).
Correct orthography according to 上海話大詞典
Mandarin-influenced orthography
Romanization of Shanghainese was first developed by Protestant English and American Christian missionaries in the 19th century, including Joseph Edkins. Usage of this romanization system was mainly confined to translated Bibles for use by native Shanghainese, or English–Shanghainese dictionaries, some of which also contained characters, for foreign missionaries to learn Shanghainese. A system of phonetic symbols similar to Chinese characters called "New Phonetic Character" were also developed by in the 19th century by American missionary Tarleton Perry Crawford. Since the 21st century, online dictionaries such as the Wu MiniDict and Wugniu have introduced their own Romanization schemes. Nowadays, the MiniDict and Wugniu Romanizations are the most commonly used standardized ones.
Protestant missionaries in the 1800s created the Shanghainese Phonetic Symbols to write Shanghainese phonetically. The symbols are a syllabary similar to the Japanese kana system. The system has not been used and is only seen in a few historical books.
| + !Name !Release year | |
| 繁花 (Blossoms Shanghai) | 2023 |
| Nothing But Thirty | 2020 |
| All Out of Love | 2018 |
| Women in Shanghai | 2018 |
| If You Are the One | 2010 |
| Shanghai Bund | 2007 |
| Home with Kids | 2005 |
| Once Upon a Time in Shanghai | 1996 |
| Sinful Debt | 1995 |
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