Origin of Wu language Part 1

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Introduction

The Wu language subfamily is spoken mainly in Shanghai, Zhejiang province, southern Jiangsu province, south-eastern Anhui province today. It has four main phases in its development that can be seen in the chart below.

Wu-Yue language

Chinese linguists have identified the natives spoke a proto-Tai language. The documents used to reach this conclusion were mainly Yue people's boatman song《越人擁楫歌》and Goujian's battle cry《勾踐維甲令》.
Song of the Yue boatman translated into Chu language

Although the natives were proto-Tai people but the rulers were the ancestors of Han Chinese. Wu state was founded by Tai-Bo (吳泰伯), a prominent Zhou clan of Shang dynasty, who established its capital around Nanjing in 1096 BC.

Whereas Yue state was founded by Wu-Yu (姒無餘), a son of Xia dynasty king, who established its capital around Shaoxing in 2032 BC. Wu state was absorbed by Yue state to form Wu-Yue state in 473 BC.

Proto-Wu language

The Chinese Chu state borders Wu-Yue state in the west.
Warring States before 333 BC

King Wei (楚威王) of the Chu state conquered the northern part of Wu-Yue state in 333 BC and named the region East Chu.

King Wujiang (無疆) of Wu-Yue state was killed in the battle but his second son Prince Ti (蹄) managed to set up another kingdom named Dong-Ou (東甌) state along Ou river (甌江) basin in southern Zhejiang.

This event started a massive migration of officials, army and traders from West and South Chu regions into the previous Wu-Yue region. These migrants brought along the Chu language which later developed into the East Chu language.
Han Chinese migration into East Chu

Proto-Wu aka East-Yangtze (江東) language gradually formed from 333 BC until 310 AD from a mixture of East Chu language and Wu-Yue language.

This language is the ancestral language of modern-day Wu languages, Hui 徽 and Jiang-Huai Mandarin.

Old Wu

During the Han dynasty (206 BC-220 AD), Han Chinese population concentrated around Lake Tai basin around modern-day Suzhou (蘇州 aka 吳), Shaoxing (紹興 aka 會稽), Xuancheng (宣城 aka 宛陵) and Nanjing (南京 aka 秣陵).


When northern China was invaded by the 'five-barbarian' groups from 311 AD-316 AD, there was a massive Han Chinese migration to southern China.

The Jin dynasty also moved its original capital from Luoyang (洛陽) to Nanjing (建鄴) in 317 AD along with this massive wave.


This was a pivotal event which resulted in a major change in the language. The proto-Wu language gradually mixed with the Western Jin dynasty's imperial language to form the Old Wu language.

The Wu dialect spoken in Nanjing became known as Jin-Ling (金陵) and was the standard Chinese dialect in southern China until the reunification of northern and southern China by the founder of the Sui dynasty in 581 AD.

Middle Wu

When the Sui dynasty united a previously fragmented China in 581 AD, there were two standard Chinese languages which were Luo-Yang (洛陽), the northern standard, and Jin-Ling (金陵), the southern standard.

However, the Luo-Yang dialect was not the same Luo-Yang dialect spoken during the Western Jin dynasty after a few hundred years rule of various northern dynasties.

In 601 AD, the Sui emperor combined both the standard languages into one and recorded it in the standard dictionary called Qieyun (切韻).

It is highly likely that this new standard influenced the Wu language such that the phonology of a substantial number of words resembles Qieyun's Middle Chinese phonology rather than Old Chinese.

The colloquial readings of Middle Wu language reached stabilization in the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD).

Conclusion

The Wu language originated from the Wu-Yue state which was continually influenced by western (i.e. Chu language) and northern Chinese languages over the course of many dynasties.

The original Wu speaking region stretches from south of Huai (淮) river which was the northern boundary, to southern Zhejiang province which was the southern boundary, mainly along the three provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui and Zhejiang.

Due to the close proximity of the Wu-Yue region to northern China, it received considerable more influence from northern China as compared to other parts of southern China such as Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi and Annam.

After the end of the Song dynasty in 1279 AD, the new waves of Mandarin speaking migrants shrunk the northern boundary of the Wu speaking region to the south of Nanjing city.

Part 2 of this article will explore the different varieties of the Wu languages.

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Last updated: 8 May 2019
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