The Dialectal Division of Tianjin
天津方言的分区
The Dialectal Division of Tianjin
The Dialectal Division of TianjinThe dialects of the districts and counties in Tianjin fall within the scope of Mandarin Chinese, specifically under the categories of Jilu Mandarin and Beijing Mandarin. Among them, the Tianjin city dialect belongs to the Jilu Mandarin (Baotang subdialect, Tianjin small sub-dialect), which is quite close to Standard Mandarin. The differences mainly lie in pronunciation, followed by vocabulary, while the grammar is essentially the same as Standard Mandarin.
Based on major phonetic characteristics, the Tianjin dialect is divided into 9 sub-dialects: Tianjin dialect, Jinghai dialect, Cangtang Jingxi dialect, Jibao Ning dialect, Wuqing dialect, Anci dialect, Cangzhou dialect, Wangqingtuo dialect, and Jin-Cang-Lu mixed dialect. This website mainly focuses on the study of the Tianjin dialect. The Tianjin dialect sub-dialect is centered around the old city area, including the current districts of Nankai, Hebei, Hedong, Hexi, and Heping, most of Hongqiao district, the middle and northern parts of Xijiao Zhongbei Town, the eastern part of Yonghong, the northern parts of Dasi and Wangwenzhuang, most of the southern suburbs, and the northwestern part of the eastern suburbs.
The main phonetic features of the Tianjin dialect include the low flat tone of the Yinping tone and a higher occurrence of dental sounds, although the specific number of dental sounds varies among individuals.
Regarding the classification of the Tianjin city dialect, scholars have various opinions. Zhang Xu divides the city dialect into two main groups based on the phonetic characteristics of speakers from different age groups: the "old school" is more conservative and retains many older pronunciations, while the "new school" shows more distinct variations. Li Shiyu and Han Gendong further subdivide the Tianjin city dialect into two categories, A and B, based on the frequency of dental sounds. They also identified the boundary line between the two: areas west of the Haihe River, including the old city and the two ends of the city, have fewer dental sounds and are classified as "A type Tianjin dialect", while the old Hedong and Hebei areas, which have more dental sounds, are classified as "B type Tianjin dialect”.
天津方言的分区
天津方言的分区天津市各区、县的方言都在官话的范围内，分别属于冀鲁官话和北京官话，其中天津市区方言①属于冀鲁官话保唐片天津小片，与普通话接近，其差异主要表现在语音方面，其次在词汇方面，而语法与普通话基本相同。
依据主要的语音特点，天津方言分为9小片②，即天津话片、静海话片、仓塘静西话片、蓟宝宁话片、武清话片、安次话片、沧州话片、王庆坨话片和津沧鲁混音片。本网站主要研究的是天津话片。天津话片以旧城区③为中心，包括现在的南开、河北、河东、河西、和平5个区，红桥区的大部分，西郊中北镇和永红的东部，大寺、王稳庄的北部，南郊大部分和东郊西北部。主要的语音特点是:阴平的发音低平，即低平调，齿音字较多，但具体的齿音字情况因人而异。
关于天津市区方言的划分,学者多有论及。张旭先生④根据市区不同年龄段发音者的发音特点，将天津市区方言分为新、旧两派，“旧派”偏于保守，保持了较多的方音旧读;“新派”则表现出了比较明显的变异特征。李世瑜先生和韩根东先生⑤将天津市区方言又分为甲乙两类，区别就是齿音字的多少。同时他们还为这两个类型找出了分界线，即海河西包括天津旧城和两头一带，这类话齿音字较少，被称为“甲类天津话”:旧河东、河北一带齿音字较多，被称为“乙类天津话"。
注释：
①《中国语言地图集》B2 中国社会科学院、澳大利亚人文科学院(香港)郎文(远东)出版有限公司1988
②《天津简志》 天津市地方志编修委员会，天津人民出版社 1991
③旧城区是以鼓楼为中心，由东、西、南、北四条马路构成的方圈
④张旭:《天津话新旧两派声类分析》，载《语言研究论丛》第4辑，南开大学出版社，1987⑤李世瑜、韩根东:《略论天津方言岛》，载《天津师范大学学报》，1991年第二期
