Consonants

Unlike Mandarin and Cantonese, Wu distinguishes between aspirated and unaspirated consonants, as well as voiceless and voiced. It maintains the three-way contrast of Middle Chinese stop consonants and affricates, e.g. /p ph b/, /tɕ tɕh dʑ/. Aspirated sounds are pronounced with a puff of air, as in English at the beginning of words. Unaspirated sounds lack the puff, as in English clusters.

Vowels
Wu has a vertical vowel system composed of high vowels /i y ɯ u/, mid vowels /e ø  ə o/, and low vowel /a/. Vowel length is phonemic in Wu.

Tones
Wu has two tones – high and low. The tones can change the meaning of a word. For example, /ma1/ means “mother” while /ma2/ means “horse”. The high tone is represented by 1 and pronounced with a higher pitch. The low tone is represented by 2 and pronounced with a lower pitch.

Some Useful Phrases
Here are some useful Shanghainese greetings and phrases to get you started:

Nong hao – Hello
Xie Xie – Thank you
Zai jian – Goodbye
Ni hao ma? – How are you?
Wo mingzi shi… – My name is…

Letter	IPA	English example	Notes
p	p	span	same as pinyin ‘b’ in Mandarin
ph	pʰ	pan	same as pinyin ‘p’ in Mandarin
b	b	ban
m	m	man
f	f	fan
v	v	van
t	t	stan	same as pinyin ‘d’ in Mandarin
th	tʰ	tan	same as pinyin ‘t’ in Mandarin
d	d	dog
ts	ts	cats (unaspirated)	same as pinyin ‘z’ in Mandarin
tsh	tsʰ	cats (aspirated)	same as pinyin ‘c’ in Mandarin
s	s	sit
z	z	zip
n	n	not
l	l	let
c	tɕ	cheese (unaspirated)	same as pinyin ‘j’ in Mandarin
ch	tɕʰ	cheese	same as pinyin ‘q’ in Mandarin
j	dz	jeep
sh	ɕ	sheep	same as pinyin ‘x’ in Mandarin
zh	ʑ	pleasure
gn	ȵ	canyon
k	k	skin	same as pinyin ‘g’ in Mandarin
kh	kʰ	kite	same as pinyin ‘k’ in Mandarin
g	g	get
ng	ŋ	singer
h	h	hat
gh	ɦ	behind (Australian / Received Pronunciation) haat (Dutch)

Consonants m, n or ng alone can form a syllable without any extra vowels.

Note: when gh is followed by i, u and iu (/y/, listed in vowels below), it sounds like “y” in yard or “w” in way to English speakers. The spelling is changed to “y” or “w” accordingly:

• gh + i = yi
• gh + ieu = yeu
• gh + iu = yu
• gh + uan = wan
• gh + u = wu

It should be noticed that “y” and “yu” represents two other sounds if not at the beginning of a syllable (as listed in vowels below), different from this case where “y” or “yu” is at the beginning.

Vowels

Wu is rich in vowels. Do not worry if some of them are difficult for you. Speak a little slowly and native speakers will probably understand you even when you make a mistake.

A “q” after a vowel represents a glottal stop (ʔ), and in this case, the vowel should be short in time, and ends suddenly. Otherwise the vowel should be relatively long. When “n” follows “a” or “ao”, it means the vowel is nasalized.

Letter	IPA	English example	Notes
a	a	hat (California / Canadian / Modern speakers of Received Pronunciation) las (Spanish)	same as pinyin ‘a’ in Mandarin
ao	ɑ	star	usually merged with “a” in Shanghai on all occasions, and in Suzhou when followed by “q”; younger generation of Shanghai may further merge “aq” with “eq”
ae	æ	hat
au	ɔ	not (Australian/New Zealand) thought (General American)
e (not before n or q)	e̞	let
e (before n or q)	ə	Tina
o	ʊ	hook (Australian/Northern English/Welsh/Conservative Received Pronunciation/New Zealand)
oe	ɵ	foot (Received Pronunciation)
i (not before q)	i	feet	Usually the tongue is high enough to touch the palate and make an additional sound of friction. The friction is rather important to distinguish “i” sound from “ie” (/ɪ/) sound. However in Shanghai this is not so important as people merge the two sounds.
i (before q)	ɪ	sit
ie	ɪ	sit	pronounced longer than “i” in sit in English
u	u	boot (General American)
eu (Shanghai)	ɤ	long ago (Received pronunciation)	for the same sound in Suzhou, it is pronounced as a diphthong /øʏ/, as listed below
ieu (Suzhou)	ʏ	schützen (German)	for the same sound in Shanghai, it is pronounced as a diphthong /iɤ/, just combining i with eu (/ɤ/)
iu	y	lune (French) grün (German)	same as pinyin ‘ü’ in Mandarin
y (not at beginning)	ɿ/z̩		not really a vowel, only appears after the consonants ts, tsh, s and z, pronounced as the consonant is stretched out, same as pinyin ‘i’ in ‘zi’, ‘ci’ and ‘si’ in Mandarin
yu (not at beginning)	ʮ/z̩ʷ		not really a vowel, only appears after the consonants ts, tsh, s and z, labialized “y” /ɿ/ (pronouncing /ɿ/ while labialized), not used in Shanghai where it is merged with “y” (/ɿ/)

Attention that y/yu at the beginning of a syllable means gh + i/iu, as mentioned above in consonants.

Common diphthongs

Most diphthongs in Wu starts with i, u or iu (/y/) and ends with another vowel in the list above. The exceptions are as below.

Letter	IPA	English example	Notes
eu (Suzhou)	øʏ		for the same sound in Shanghai, it is pronounced as /ɤ/, as listed above
ou	ou

Tones

Like other varieties of Chinese, Wu is tonal. Tone sandhi (tone changes) is very common in Wu, making it harder to learn than Mandarin. However, unlike Mandarin and Cantonese, Wu distinguishes between voiceless and voiced consonants, as in Middle Chinese.

The tones of a syllable beginning with a voiceless consonant (“yin” tones) usually sound higher than those with a voiced consonant (“yang” tones). When these rules are followed, native speakers can likely understand you even when you make a mistake.

Since there is no standardized symbol to represent tones in Wu, here numbers are used according to Middle Chinese, as is used by most scholars.

Since there is no standardized symbol for Wu tones, numbers are used here according to Middle Chinese, as most scholars do:1. High level tone – Sounding higher in pitch. Represented by

1. For example, /ma1/ means “mother”.
2. Low falling tone – Sounding lower in pitch and falling. Represented by 2. For example, /ma2/ means “horse”.
3. Low rising tone – Sounding lower in pitch and rising. Represented by 3. For example, /ma3/ means “hemp”.
4. High falling tone – Sounding higher in pitch and falling. Represented by 4. For example, /ma4/ means “scold”.
5. Neutral tone – A light tone with a short sound. Represented by 5. Used for grammatical words.

Tones in Suzhou

Number	Name	Pitch	Notes
1	Yinping	˦˦ (44)	For syllables beginning with a voiceless consonant and NOT ending with “q”
2	Yangping	˨˧ (23)	For syllables beginning with a voiced consonant and NOT ending with “q”
3	Yinshang	˥˩ (51)	For syllables beginning with a voiceless consonant and NOT ending with “q”
4	Yangshang	˧˩ (31)	For syllables beginning with a voiced consonant and NOT ending with “q”
5	Yinqu	˦˩˨ (412)	For syllables beginning with a voiceless consonant and NOT ending with “q”
7	Yinru	˥ʔ (5)	For syllables beginning with a voiceless consonant and ending with “q”
8	Yangru	˧ʔ (3)	For syllables beginning with a voiced consonant and ending with “q”

Tone sandhi in Suzhou

First syllable＼Second syllable	T1 ˥˥ 55	T2 ˩˧ 13	T3 ˥˩ 51	T4 ˧˩ 31	T5 ˥˩˧ 513	T7 ˥ʔ 5	T8 ˧ʔ 3
T1 ˥˥ 55	˥˥ ˨˩ (55 21)					˥˥ ˨ (55 2)
T2 ˩˧ 13	˩˧ ˧˧ (13 33)					˩˧ ˨ (13 2)
T3 ˥˩ 51	˥˩ ˧˧ (51 33)			˥˩ ˨˩ (51 21)	˥˩ ˨˩ (51 21)	˥˩ ˨ (51 2)
				˥˩ ˧˧ (51 33)
T4 ˧˩ 31	˩˧ ˧˧ (13 33)					˩˧ ˨ (13 2)
	˧˩ ˨˩ (31 21)					˧˩ ˨ (31 2)
T5 ˥˩˧ 513	˥˥ ˨˩ (55 21)					˥˥ ˨ (55 2)
	˥˩ ˧˧ (51 33)			˥˩ ˧˧ (51 33)		˥˩ ˨ (51 2)
				˥˩ ˨˩ (51 21)
T7 ˥ʔ 5	No change			No change	No change
				˥ʔ ˧˩˧ (5 313)
T8 ˧ʔ 3	˧ʔ ˨˩ (3 21)					No change

Tones in Shanghai

Number	Name	Pitch	Notes
1	Yinping	52	For syllables beginning with a voiceless consonant and NOT ending with “q”
5	Yinqu	34	For syllables beginning with a voiceless consonant and NOT ending with “q”
6	Yangqu	23	For syllables beginning with a voiced consonant and NOT ending with “q”
7	Yinru	44	For syllables beginning with a voiceless consonant and ending with “q”
8	Yangru	24	For syllables beginning with a voiced consonant and ending with “q”

Tone sandhi in Shanghai

Tone	One syllable	Two syllables	Three syllables	Four syllables	Five syllables
T1	52	55 22	55 44 22	55 44 33 22	55 44 33 33 22
T5	34	33 44	33 44 22	33 44 33 22	33 44 33 33 22
T6	14	11 44	11 44 11	11 44 33 11	11 44 33 22 11
T7	44	33 44	33 44 22	33 44 33 22	33 44 33 22 22
T8	24	11 24	11 11 24	11 22 22 24 22 44 33 11	11 11 11 11 24 22 44 33 22 11

Usually among young generations in Shanghai who speak Mandarin more often, tones have become pitch accent, only appear in falling and rising, similar to Japanese.

General correspondence between Suzhou and Shanghai

	Suzhou	Shanghai	Note
consonants and vowels	ao (not before n or q)	a (not before n or q)
	aoq	aq	may be further merged with eq by younger generations of Shanghai
	aq
	i	i
	ie
	ae	au
	ou	u	“ou” never appears after labial consonants (p, ph, b, m, f, v) in Suzhou
	u		“u” (not followed by another vowel) only appears after labial consonants (p, ph, b, m, f, v) in Suzhou
	eu /øʏ/	eu /ɤ/	attention the spelling is the same, as mentioned above
	ieu /ʏ/	ieu /iɤ/	attention the spelling is the same, as mentioned above
	y (not at beginning)	y (not at beginning)
	yu (not at beginning)
	tsi	ci
	ci
	tshi	chi
	chi
	si	shi
	shi
	zi	zhi
	ts/tsh/s/z + eu	ts/tsh/s/z + eu
		c/ch/sh/zh + ieu
Tones	T1	T1
	T3	T5
	T5
	T2	T6
	T4
	T7	T7
	T8	T8
Vocabulary and grammar	你 ne4	儂 nong6	meaning “you” (singular)
	唔篤 ng4 toq7	㑚 na6	meaning “you” (plural)
	俚 li1	伊 yi6	meaning “he/she/it”
	俚篤 li1 toq7	伊拉 yi6 laq8	meaning “they”
	哉 tse1	勒 leq8	meaning some action was did or has been done
	弗 feq7	弗 veq8	meaning “not”
	覅 fiae5	弗 viau6	meaning “do not want” or “(please) do not”
	無不 m2 peq7	無沒 m6 meq8	meaning “do not have/own” or “there is no”
	朆 fen1		meaning “did not do / have not done”
	啊___？ aq7 __?	___𠲎？ __ vaq8?	yes-no questions

Enjoy learning Shanghainese, Tzêwe!