Taixing, Jiangsu

The Taizhou dialect circle, generally known as Tairu (Taizhou-Rugao) dialect or Tongtai (Nantong-Taizhou) dialect in academic circles, is a sub-region of Xiajiang Mandarin (also known as Jianghuai Mandarin) . This article will refer to it as the "Taizhou dialect circle" for short. The Taizhou dialect circle includes Taizhou, Jiangyan, Taixing, Xinghua, Haian, Rugao, Rudong (northwestern), Dongtai, Dafeng and other counties and cities, covering the three prefecture-level cities of Taizhou, Nantong and Yancheng, with a total population of approximately 9 million.

The Taizhou dialect circle is located in the core area of ??central Jiangsu. Its geographical location is the sea to the east, the Yangtze River to the south, the Huaihe River to the north, and Yangzhou to the west. Historically speaking, this area used to be under the jurisdiction of Taizhou. After liberation, the prefecture-level Taizhou area was administratively revoked. Haian and Rugao (including Rudong) in the southeast were merged into Nantong, and Dongtai and Dafeng in the northeast were merged into Nantong. After being merged into Yancheng, Taizhou itself and the counties in the western part of the original Taizhou area were merged into Yangzhou and became the county-level area of ??Yangzhou. This is why I call this area the "Taizhou Dialect Circle".