Shanghai dialect combines the mainstream characteristics of northern Wu dialect and becomes the fastest-growing and strongest dialect in Wu dialect area of Taihu Lake. Therefore, Shanghainese has the foundation and trend to become the lingua franca of Wu dialect, at least in the northern Wu dialect area, and once became the lingua franca of wuyue in the Yangtze River Delta before 1980s. Since the new century, due to some measures taken by the government in the process of promoting Putonghua, the use of dialect mass media and public places has been wrongly restricted, and the influence of Shanghai dialect in Wu-speaking areas has decreased.
To discuss the origin of Shanghainese, we should first distinguish the two concepts, because in the historical development of Shanghai, two Shanghainese dialects have been formed. An ancient Shanghainese dialect, which we call "Shanghai", began in the population settlement formed in the Southern Song Dynasty more than 700 years ago and still exists in the suburbs of Shanghai. The other is the urban "New Shanghainese" formed with the rapid development of Shanghai urban area after the opening of Shanghai port. The "Shanghai dialect" collectively referred to at home and abroad refers to the new Shanghai dialect. However, to trace the origin of Shanghai dialect, we have to start with the dialect of Shanghai dialect before the opening of the port. Shanghai dialect originated from Songjiang dialect and has a history of 700 years. Shanghai's population settlement is named after Shanghai Pu. Shanghai Pu is the Huangpu River from Longhua to Waibaidu Bridge today. Shanghai dialect was formed with the emergence of Shanghai Pu and the settlement of Shanghainese. In ancient times, on the delta where the Yangtze River went to sea, there was a Songjiang River (namely Wusong River and Suzhou River) with great water potential from west to east. At its downstream near the sea, there are two tributaries, Shanghai Pu and Shanghai Pu. The settlement corresponding to "Shanghai" was first seen in the tenth year of Xining in the Northern Song Dynasty (1077). At that time, there was a market called "Shanghai Affairs" in the northeast of Huating County, which managed the sales and collection of wine tax, and the others were in the northeast of the old city of Shanghai today. To the east is Shanghai Beach more than 900 years ago.
Later, in the Southern Song Dynasty, Wusong River began to silte up. Qinglong Town, a big port on Wusong River, was replaced by Shanghai Affairs. The government has set up the Urban Shipping Service Bureau in Shanghai, which is responsible for collecting merchant shipping tax. At the turn of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Shanghai has developed into a big town in the northeast of Huating County. In the 28th year of Yuan Zhizheng (129 1), when the five townships in the northeast of Huating County were Shanghai counties, the county government was located in the Shanghai office of the Song Dynasty, which formed a large-scale settlement center and formed a Shanghai dialect different from Songjiang dialect. Roughly in the original area of Shanghai County, the population in the county gradually spread around, and in the Ming Dynasty, the Shanghai dialect area was formed, which was different from Songjiang dialect. Therefore, the most authoritative and representative dialect in Shanghai is the dialect in the old city of Shanghai. Of course, Shanghai County was originally a part of Songjiang Prefecture, and its early population mainly spread from the old Songjiang area in Jiaxing, a southwest suburb of Shanghai. In this way, Shanghai dialect is also a variant of Songjiang dialect in Huangpu River basin. For a long time, Fucheng Songjiang dialect is also the authoritative dialect of Shanghai dialect.
Suzhou and Jiaxing are two major capitals in history, with developed economy and prosperous culture, but Songjiang is relatively backward and Shanghai is near the beach, so as far as Songjiang dialect is concerned, it develops slowly in Taihu Lake, and Shanghai dialect is older. Many ancient sounds and characters left by Songjiang dialect are preserved. As Shanghai faced the East China Sea, it met a special opportunity in the late Qing Dynasty. After Shanghai was forced to open its port in 1843, it became a concession with free development, and long-term civil autonomy made Shanghai quickly become an international metropolis and financial center. With the huge immigration and the rapid economic development, Shanghai dialect has become the fastest-growing language in Wuyu area of Taihu Lake. In the past 150 years, Shanghai dialect has developed by leaps and bounds with the development of Shanghai. In a short period of two or three generations, some components of Shanghainese dialect can see a remarkable change track, which is unique in the history of modern language development in China.
After the opening of Shanghai, a large number of immigrants poured in, and the languages of immigrants from all walks of life had a considerable influence on Shanghai dialect, especially Suzhou dialect and Ningbo dialect. Suzhou dialect also has an important influence on Shanghai dialect because of its authority and rich literary forms (Wu novels, legends, tanci, folk songs, etc.). There are many immigrants in Ningbo, and the first person plural "Allah" and more swearing words in Shanghai dialect come from Ningbo dialect. In this way, a new Shanghai dialect is formed, which is dominated by Shanghai local dialect (Songjiang Fu dialect) and a variety of Wu dialects (Suzhou dialect and Ningbo dialect) coexist. The new Shanghai dialect inherits the basic features of the old Shanghai dialect and integrates the mainstream features of northern Wu dialect, becoming the fastest-growing dialect in Wu dialect area of Taihu Lake. It also replaced the traditional Suzhou dialect to become the most influential Wu dialect, and became the representative dialect of contemporary Wu dialect together with Suzhou dialect.
The pronunciation of Shanghai dialect is the "greatest common denominator" and representative pronunciation of Wu dialects in various places. Other Wu speakers can easily understand the pronunciation, vocabulary and grammatical structure of Shanghai dialect.
The 1930s was the golden age of Shanghai dialect. Similar to Hong Kong, writers in Shanghai freely translated or transliterated many English words, which were used in written texts, spread through various developed print media in Shanghai at that time, and then absorbed by Mandarin. Shanghai dialect was once considered as one of the most influential and representative dialects in Wu dialect. Due to the rapid transformation brought by population integration and the implementation of Putonghua, compared with other dialects of Wu dialect, Shanghai dialect has changed rapidly and become mandarin, losing its representativeness and characteristics. The phenomenon of lazy pronunciation is very serious, and the ability of young people in Wu dialect is generally low, so people begin to doubt the representative position of Shanghai dialect.
However, in the past thirty years, due to the popularity and dependence of Putonghua, the word-building ability of Shanghai dialect has declined seriously, and only a few new words such as "don't be too special" and "Taohu" have appeared.
Due to the lack of mother tongue education, there are "lazy sounds" in Wu dialects to varying degrees, such as Shanghai dialect, which used to be divided into sharp sounds, but most of them have disappeared in Puxi city. Some suspicious mothers have dropped, and the correct pronunciation of the self-proclaimed pronoun "I" in Shanghai dialect should be ngu；; In addition, the voiced word "period" will be misunderstood as unvoiced (see the entry "lazy sound" for details).
Since the end of1965-1980s, all schools in Shanghai have been teaching in Putonghua, and many schools have also dealt with dialect speaking alone. It can be said that "when you enter the school gate, you will arrive in Beijing." In addition, in terms of media communication, the government has cancelled the content of Shanghainese in almost all radio and TV programs. In the early 1990s, the Shanghai dialect TV series karma was welcomed by Shanghai audiences. However, the second Shanghai dialect series was stopped before it started broadcasting, and only the dubbed version of Mandarin was broadcast later. In recent years, some sitcoms with Shanghai dialect as the main language have appeared on TV screens in Shanghai, such as "Old Man". Many Shanghai dialect training departments have also closed down because of lack of students. Ma Lili, a famous Shanghai Opera actress, found it difficult to recruit young Shanghai Opera actors with qualified pronunciation. She put forward some suggestions to protect Shanghai dialect. Chen Liangyu, then secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, gave positive instructions.
200 1, the initiator of the online dialect protection movement, Shanghai Bagua abc, published the article "The Cultural Value of Wu Language and the Cultural Defects in Promoting Putonghua", which opened the prelude to the Wu Language protection movement. Since 2005, the voice of "defending Shanghainese dialect" in Shanghai's public opinion circles has become louder and louder. In recent years, some Shanghai residents and people of insight have strongly urged the government to protect Shanghai culture and dialects. Many Shanghainese only use Shanghainese to communicate with each other and refuse Mandarin. Compulsory education adds elective subjects, local geography. Some scholars even compiled a dictionary of Shanghai dialect to reveal the legendary story behind Shanghai dialect. Faced with the negative attitude of the government, the influx of a large number of migrants, and the inexplicable prejudice and exclusion of Shanghainese and Shanghainese in China, some people worry that Shanghainese and Shanghai culture are still in jeopardy.
Now some children in Shanghai can't communicate with others in Shanghainese, or even can't speak it at all. An article in Xinmin Evening News holds that "speaking Shanghai dialect in Pudong is a sign of illiteracy", which has attracted widespread criticism from Shanghai locals. In response to the growing public demand for the protection of traditional Shanghainese, the Shanghai education department has taken some measures, such as deploying Shanghainese teachers in major public kindergartens. The children have a Shanghai dialect class every week. Some people think that as the most prosperous and economically and culturally developed area in China, the popularization of Putonghua has really played a very important role in promoting economic development and reducing communication barriers between people. But some people think that it will lead to the disappearance of traditional dialects and traditional regional culture. Some Shanghainese, especially some young people, began to question whether dialects would hinder economic development and expressed dissatisfaction with the situation of Shanghainese dialect. The objective facts show that Shanghai dialect has been severely treated differently and unfairly, which has also caused many disturbances in society, the most influential of which is the "Tuantuanmen" incident at the end of 2009. As a result of this incident, some Shanghai residents began to doubt the motivation of the relevant departments to pay special attention to promoting Putonghua in Shanghai.
20 1 1 Publish the first Shanghai dialect novel Lane. Mark the phonetic symbols of Shanghai dialect for many Shanghai dialects that can speak and write. In this way, protecting Shanghai dialect is a kind of progress.