My archetype:
My first attempt
I choose Suzhou dialect as the main target for my self-tutorial project.
The Suzhou dialect ( 蘇州閒話, IPA: [səu ʦøʏ ɦᴇ ɦo]), formerly romanized as the Soochow dialect and now also known as Suzhounese, is a branch of the Wu languages, one of the families of oral Chinese. Suzhounese is spoken in the city of Suzhou in China's Jiangsu province and is the traditional prestige dialect of Wu. Considered one of the most flowing and elegant languages of China, even effeminate, it is rich in vowels and conservative in having many initials. (Wikipedia)
Though I'm basically a Suzhou citizen, I was born and grew up in Shanghai so I've never learnt to speak Suzhou dialect; however, since Shanghai dialect and Suzhou dialect are very similar, it would be not that difficult for me to imitate Suzhounese.
The clip I choose for this project is from one of the most famous TV talk show programs in Suzhou in which the host is talking about a tongue twister about a cat and a temple, which sound similar in Suzhou dialect.
There are several features I will work on in the following weeks:1. Initials:Suzhou dialect has a set of voiced initials and exhibits unvoiced unaspirated and aspirated stops, there are unvoiced and voiced fricatives sets.
2. Rhymes: Suzhou dialect has several unique diphthongs, nasals and glottal. It even has a triphthongs.
3. Tones: Suzhou dialect has seven tones, making it extremely difficult to imitate.
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