Lower Yangtze Mandarin

Lower Yangtze Mandarin
Xiajiang Guanhua
Region	Huai and Yangzi Rivers (Anhui, Jiangsu, Hubei, Jiangxi, Henan)
Ethnicity	Jianghuai people Subei people
Native speakers	ca. 70 million (2011)[1]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Mandarin Lower Yangtze Mandarin
Writing system	Written vernacular Chinese
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
ISO 639-6	juai
Glottolog	jing1262
Linguasphere	79-AAA-bi
Huang–Xiao   Western Hongchao   Eastern Hongchao   Tong-Tai / Tai–Ru

Lower Yangtze Mandarin (traditional Chinese: 下江官話; simplified Chinese: 下江官话; pinyin: Xiàjiāng Guānhuà) is one of the most divergent and least mutually-intelligible of the Mandarin languages, as it neighbours the Wu, Hui, and Gan groups of Sinitic languages. It is also known as Jiang–Huai Mandarin (traditional Chinese: 江淮官話; simplified Chinese: 江淮官话; pinyin: Jiānghuái Guānhuà), named after the Yangtze (Jiang) and Huai Rivers. Lower Yangtze is distinguished from most other Mandarin varieties by the retention of a final glottal stop in words that ended in a stop consonant in Middle Chinese.

During the Ming dynasty and early Qing dynasty, the lingua franca of administration was based on Lower Yangtze Mandarin. In the 19th century the base shifted to the Beijing dialect.