The Evolution of Guangfeng Dialect

Jiangxi Wu dialect retains many characteristics of ancient Wu dialect.

Wuyue is one of the ancient nationalities in the East. Although wuyue was two hostile countries in the Spring and Autumn Period, it was actually a fraternal country with the same nationality, culture and language. It is generally believed that Yue represents the aborigines in a broad sense and Wu represents the primitive migration of ancient China, which probably caused the earliest contradiction in wuyue. But after the Spring and Autumn Period, especially after Sun Quan suppressed Shanyue, wuyue was invincible.

Jiangxi Wu dialect refers to the dialects of Yushan, Guangfeng and Shangrao in the upper reaches of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the northeast of Jiangxi. Jiangxi Wu dialect and southern Zhejiang Wu dialect belong to southern Wu dialect. Northeast Jiangxi is the border between Jiangxi and Fujian, Zhejiang and Anhui, and there are many dialects. There are Wuyishan in the south, Yushan Huaiyu Mountain in the north, Guangfeng and Shangrao in the upper reaches of Xinjiang. The traffic between north and south is inconvenient, but the east and west are connected by land and water, which is closely related to Zhejiang, and the language is naturally close. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Xin Qiji once left a famous saying in Shangrao that Shangrao spoke Wu dialect for a long time.

However, Jiangxi Wu dialect also has some viewpoints that are different from those in southern Zhejiang. For example, Guangfeng calls "dressing" "wearing a shirt", and Shangrao has many places called "wearing a shirt". Mandarin says "sit and eat", and Jiangxi Wu dialect generally says "sit and eat". The water is boiling. There are two sayings in Jiangxi Wu dialect, namely "water splashing" and "water rolling". Guangfeng said "roll", Yushan said "splash" and Shangrao said "splash" and "roll". These pronunciation methods are even older than the northern Wu dialect popular in southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang. Hu said that with the development of urban economy and the continuous promotion of Putonghua, dialects in economically developed areas such as northern Wu dialect areas have been greatly influenced, while Jiangxi Wu dialect areas have been less influenced by other languages, so the characteristics of ancient Wu dialect have been preserved obviously.

Guangfeng dialect is the most difficult to understand in Jiangxi's Chinese dialect.

Professor Hu said that after years of research on Hakka dialect and Gan dialect, there is no constant comparison standard for which dialects are difficult to understand. Everyone's knowledge, experience and language learning ability determine his understanding of dialects. Therefore, we must compare dialects in different areas of Jiangxi, and we can only make a general comparison. According to ordinary standards, the farther away from Mandarin, the more difficult it is to understand, and the older the dialect, the more difficult it is to understand. According to this standard, Guangfeng dialect should be regarded as one of the most difficult dialects to understand.