英语维基百科【吴语】条引言试译

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Wu (simplified Chinese: 吴语; traditional Chinese: 吳語; pinyin: Wú yǔ, Suzhou Wu: [ŋ˨˦ ɲy˧˩]) is a grouping of linguistically similar and historically related varieties of spoken Chinese also known as a dialect family. Chinese varieties classified as Wu are primarily spoken in Zhejiang province, the municipality of Shanghai, and southern Jiangsu province.
吴语（汉语拼音: Wú yǔ, 苏州话: [ŋ˨˦ ɲy˧˩]）是语言特征相近并有历史联系的一族汉语方言。其下的方言主要分布在浙江、上海和苏南等地。
Major Wu dialects include those of Shanghai, Suzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Hangzhou, Shaoxing, Jinhua, and Yongkang. Wu speakers such as Chiang Kai-shek, Lu Xun, and Cai Yuanpei occupy places of great significance in modern Chinese culture. Wu can also be found in the language of Shaoxing opera which is second in national popularity only to Peking Opera as well as in the performances of the nationally popular entertainer Zhou Libo. Wu is also spoken in a large number of diaspora communities, with significant centers of immigration originating from Qingtian and Wenzhou.
吴语方言主要有上海话、苏州话、宁波话、温州话、杭州话、绍兴话、金华话、永康话等。诸如蒋介石、鲁迅、蔡元培等吴语者在现代中国文化中享有重要地位。在中国流行度仅次于京剧的越剧唱腔中，以及在国内当红笑星周立波的表演中亦不难得见吴语的踪影。吴语还通行在众多的移民社区中，其中以源自青田和温州附近的移民最为集中。
Suzhou has traditionally been the linguistic center of the Wu languages and was likely the first place a distinct variety of Chinese known as Wu developed. Suzhou Wu is widely considered to be the most linguistically representative of the family. It was mostly the basis of the Wu pidgin that developed in Shanghai leading to the formation of modern Shanghainese which as a center of economic power and possessing the largest population of Wu speakers has attracted the most attention. Because of the influence of Shanghainese, Wu is often inaccurately referred to in English as simply "Shanghainese" when introducing the dialect family to non-specialists. Wu is the more accurate terminology for the greater grouping that the Shanghai dialect is part of; other less precise terms include "Jiangnan speech" (江南話), "Jiangzhe (Jiangsu-Zhejiang) speech" (江浙話), and less commonly "Wuyue speech" (吳越語).
传统上以苏州作为吴语的中心，苏州亦有可能是吴语从汉语诸方言中分化而来的发源之地。苏州话公认是吴语方言中最具代表性的一支。上海以拥有最多吴语人口的经济中心而广受瞩目；在此产生了以苏州话为基础的糅合性质的吴语方言，并在后来演化成为了现代上海话。由于上海话的巨大影响力，向非专业人士介绍吴语时，英语中常以Shanghainese（上海话）来粗疏地括指。吴语是更准确的术语，而上海话是其中一支。其它不太准确的的叫法有“江南话”“江浙话”以及更少见的“吴越语”。
The dialect family especially Southern Wu is well-known among linguists and sinologists as being one of the most internally diverse among the spoken Chinese language families with very little mutual intelligibility among varieties within the family. Among speakers of other Chinese varieties, Wu is often subjectively judged to be soft, light, and flowing. There is an idiom in Chinese that specifically describes these qualities of Wu speech: Wú nóng ruǎn yǔ (吴侬软语), which literally means "the tender speech of Wu." While some Wu varieties like Wenzhounese have gained notoriety for their incomprehensibility to both Wu and non-Wu speakers alike, so much so that Wenzhounese was used during the Second World War to avoid Japanese interception.
吴语方言，其中尤以南部吴语为甚，凭汉语方言中鲜见的巨大内部差异及吴语下诸方言中极低的互通度，在语言学界和汉学界中广为人知。在外方言者眼中，吴语常被先入为主地冠上软糯、轻快、灵动的印象。汉语里有“吴侬软语”这样的说法来概括吴语的这些特质。然而有些吴语方言，如温州话，无论对其他的吴语者和非吴语者来说都难以听懂；正是有这个名声在外，抗日战争时温州话被用于防范日本人的窃听。
Along with Germanic languages, Wu dialects have the largest vowel quality inventories in the world. The Dônđäc or Jinhui dialect spoken in Shanghai's Fengxian District has 20 vowel qualities, the most among all world languages.[2][3]
与日耳曼语族齐名，吴语拥有的元音之众多是世上少见的。上海奉贤区的偒傣话，又名金汇话，有20个不同的元音，为举世之冠。
Wu dialects are typified linguistically as having preserved the voiced initials of Middle Chinese, having a majority of Middle Chinese tones undergo a register split, and preserving a checked tone typically terminating in a glottal stop,[4] although some dialects maintain the tone without the stop and certain dialects of Southern Wu have undergone or are starting to undergo a process of devoicing. The historical relations which determine Wu classification primarily consist in two main factors: firstly, geography, both in terms of physical geography and distance south or away from Mandarin, that is Wu dialects are part of a Wu-Min dialect continuum from southern Jiangsu to southern Fujian and Chaozhou. The second factor is the drawing of historical administrative boundaries which in addition to physical barriers limit mobility and in the majority of cases more or less determine the boundary of a Wu dialect.
语言学上吴语方言因以下这三点而归为一群：一．保留了中古汉语的全浊声母。二．声调阴阳分立。三．入声独立。典型的入声以喉塞音结尾，不过少数方言不收喉塞音而维持了独立的调类。南部吴语的某些方言已经或者正在经历浊音清化。决定吴语谱系的历史因素根本的有两大方面：首先无论是从地理位置的或其与官话区的山水遥隔考虑，总之吴语是苏南到闽南、潮州的吴闽方言连续体的一部分。其次，以地理屏障为依托，历史行政区划边界限制了人口的流动，最终或多或少地决定了吴语的边界。
Wu Chinese along with Min are also of great significance to historical linguists due their retention of many ancient features. These two families have proven pivotal in determining the phonetic history of the Chinese language.
由于吴、闽之间共存了不少古老的特征，两者在历史语言学上意义非凡。事实证明两族方言在重构汉语语音史的过程中也具有举足轻重的地位。
More pressing concerns of the present are those of dialect preservation. Many within and without the country fear that the increased usage of Mandarin may eventually supplant the languages altogether which have no written form, legal protection, or official status and are officially barred from use in public discourse. However, many analysts believes that a stable state of diglossia will endure for at least several generations if not indefinitely.
现如今更加紧迫的是方言保护的问题。吴语没有书面形式，也没有法律保护和正式地位，公开场合更是被明令禁止使用。国内外有许多人担心吴语最终会被日益盛行的普通话取而代之。然而也有不少分析认为，即使稳定的双语现象难以长期为继，至少还能够支撑几个世代。


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