ABSTRACT

Nantong Chinese is an in-depth account of an interesting and endangered Sinitic language spoken in Nantong, China, in an area in the Northern Yangtze River Delta about 800 square kilometers in size and 105 kilometers northwest of the city of Shanghai.

The Chinese language consists of several hundred local varieties known as Sinitic languages or Chinese dialects, each representing a unique linguistic system. This book offers a comprehensive and systematic insight into one such system that is even more complex and more interesting than standard Mandarin. The unique vocalization and other linguistic features of Nantong Chinese make it unintelligible to most Chinese people. All the important linguistic aspects of Nantong Chinese are covered, including its phonetic, lexical, morphological and syntactic subsystems.

Nantong Chinese will be of interest to professionals and students in linguistics worldwide.

chapter 1|13 pages

General information

chapter 2|17 pages

The sound system

chapter 3|23 pages

Sounds that change

chapter 4|24 pages

Journey from the past

chapter 5|8 pages

Place in the family

chapter 6|9 pages

The writing system

chapter 7|8 pages

The vocabulary

chapter 8|39 pages

Words and word classes

chapter 9|42 pages

Phrases and sentences

chapter 10|34 pages

A literary sampler