Wu: A Dying Chinese Dialect
When I was doing a research paper on the social stratification of the United Kingdom last quarter, I noticed that people from different classes do have various accents. Different pronunciation and grammar styles build several recognizable boundaries between classes (especially between middle/upper classes and lower class), which worsens the stratification problem even further. In Camelli,the author Alexandre Dumas depicted a picture of contemporary accent discrimination. He wrote, “It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman despise him.” Language, as a representative of culture, affects and reflects lives to a great extent, indicating the collective sense of belongings generated from tradition, history and society. Unlike the United Kingdom that class levels classify languages, Chinese dialect groups vary region by region. According to Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (2012), 66.2% of Chinese people speak Mandarin, followed by Min, Wu, and Cantonese (see pictures below). These dialects are similar in grammars and structures but different in pronunciations. Wu is originated and widely spoken in southeastern cities like Shanghai. However, nowadays there are fewer and fewer natives can speak Wu accurately even if they are born and grow in a Wu dialect environment.
Social development, policies and culture itself contribute to the disappearing of Wu dialect. I live in an island near Shanghai where most people speak Wu all lifetime. My grandfather, who was born in the 1930s and learned both English and Russian after graduating from a university, fails to understand Mandarin words even now. My parents use both Mandarin and Wu for communication. When it comes to my generation, we prefer Mandarin in daily life and only a small amount of us can talk by Wu very fluently. Why? One explanation is related to the economy. With the development of society, it becomes a tendency and necessity for Chinese people from different regions to exchange commercial goods and services. Expressing words in the same way promotes better cooperation. Meanwhile, the government forces elementary schools to teach in Chinese official language — Mandarin. This spoken language is well-educated around China since most students spend more time with friends and teachers in schools than with parents at home. Also, Mandarin is exactly the same as written Chinese words, while Wu has some slight differences. For example, translation of “What” is a two-word term in Chinese and we pronounce two words “Shen Me” in Mandarin. However, the pronunciation for Wu people is “Sou” (similar to “So” in English), and it is a one-word tone. A lack of logical and systematic usage makes it hard for people to master it. For all these reasons, only around 10% of young people in China communicate with Wu, leading this dialect to be the most vulnerable one in the country.
Replacing local dialects with official language helps to promote not only effective communication but also social harmony. In China, the differences between language are greater than other characteristics like food. Even though dialect groups are so colorful and widely divergent, it is an inevitable trend for people to learn and use uniform Mandarin as a communicating tool. Nowadays the only thing that Chinese people do is recording different types of dialects and upload them onto online profiles, instead of preventing dialects from disappearing. Despite that, there is nothing we can do. Simplifying the language brings a loss of belonging and weakens people’s ability to appreciate local culture. Hundreds of year later, can our next generation remember where they are from?
