A comprehensive guide to Shanghainese vs Mandarin from qocsuing's blog

A comprehensive guide to Shanghainese vs Mandarin

Mandarin Chinese, or standard Chinese, is the official language of China. But it's not the only language. Chinese locals speak. There are other regional languages, such as Cantonese, and dialects, such as the Beijing dialects, spoken throughout China.To get more news about shanghainese, you can visit shine news official website.

In Shanghai, locals use Mandarin Chinese and its provincial dialect, Shanghainese. Although Shanghainese has many similarities to Mandarin Chinese, there are many differences in pronunciation, tone and vocabulary.
What is Shanghainese?
Shanghainese 上海话 (Shànghǎi huà), or Shanghai dialect, is a Wu dialect, which means it belongs to the Wu Chinese language group, the third most widely spoken Chinese language after Mandarin and Cantonese. Compared to other northern Wu dialects, Shanghainese is certainly the most popular, with nearly 14 million speakers.

Shanghainese was the common language in the Yangtze River Delta region (eastern China). However, its popularity has declined in recent decades compared to Mandarin, the official language of China and the main language spoken by most people in Shanghai today.
One of the reasons for this is the Chinese government's efforts to promote a national language, Putonghua or Mandarin. As a result, young people in Shanghai now tend to speak Mandarin, or a variety that is increasingly similar to standard Mandarin Chinese.

Shanghainese is a dialect of Wu Chinese, originating from the Taihu Wu dialects spoken in the Suzhou region. As Shanghai grew, a distinct variety of Wu dialects developed and became known as Shanghainese. Find out more about Shanghainese below.
Is Shanghainese difficult to learn?
Learning Shanghainese can be difficult compared to learning Mandarin, especially as there are few textbooks and resources available.

If you want to learn Shanghainese, the best thing to do is to move to Shanghai and meet people there. You can also find an online teacher through apps like Tandem.

Another useful resource is YouTube, where you can find videos that introduce you to Shanghainese. However, if you are looking for a deeper understanding, I would suggest finding a private native speaker to teach you.

I would say that you should have a solid grasp of Mandarin Chinese so that the learning process will be easier for you as you will have an understanding of the grammar and sentence structure of Shanghainese. The writing system is the same: it is based on Chinese characters. You can use the Pandanese web application to learn Chinese characters quickly and easily.
Is Shanghainese the same as Mandarin?
Although Shanghainese and Mandarin Chinese are written similarly (they both use simplified Chinese characters or 汉字 hanzi) and have overlapping vocabulary and grammar points, Shanghainese has its own pronunciation, sounds and wording.
1. Shanghainese vs. Mandarin: Pronunciation
Shanghainese is rich in vowels (e, ae, oe, a, ei, eu, i, ü, u, o, ou, ao) and consonants (b, d, g, p, t, k, ph, th, kh). What's special about it? This dialect uses many unique consonants, such as "ng" (heavier n) and "gh" (heavier vowel), which Mandarin does not have.

2. Shanghainese vs. Mandarin: Tones
Shanghainese speakers also have a different tonal system from Mandarin speakers.

The Shanghainese tonal system has more in common with the Japanese pitch-accent system, with two tonal contrasts - high and low - as opposed to Mandarin with its distinctive contour tones (5 tones, each with a different internal pattern of rising and falling pitch).
3. Shanghainese vs. Mandarin: vocabulary
For those wondering what the biggest difference between Shanghainese and Mandarin Chinese is, we have the answer: vocabulary. The difference in vocabulary is the main difference between Shànghǎihuà and Standard Chinese.

Although there is an overlap in vocabulary between Shanghainese and Mandarin Chinese, Shanghainese shares only 29% of the lexical similarity with Mandarin. The other 71% of words are different, including many basic everyday words.