Lower Yangtze Mandarin

Lower Yangtze Mandarin (simplified Chinese: 下江官话; traditional Chinese: 下江官話; pinyin: xiàjiāng guānhuà) is one of the most divergent groups of Mandarin dialects, as it neighbors the Wu, Hui, and Gan groups of Chinese varieties. It is also known as Jiang–Huai Mandarin (simplified Chinese: 江淮官话; traditional Chinese: 江淮官話; pinyin: jiānghuái guānhuà), after the Yangtze (Jiang) and Huai Rivers. Lower Yangtze dialects are distinguished from most other Mandarin varieties by their retention of a final glottal stop in words that ended in a final stop in Middle Chinese.

Features and location

Sixty-seven million people speak Jianghuai Mandarin. Some features of Jianghuai Mandarin include retention of Middle Chinese syllable-final stops.

The Portuguese Chinese Dictionary (PCD) written by missionaries during the Ming dynasty categorized several Jianghuai dialects with rounded finals. The eastern and southeastern variants of Jianghuai contain these rounded finals, Nanjing dialect, on the other hand, is located in another group.