Suzhou dialect

Suzhounese (Suzhounese: 蘇州閒話; sou¹ tseu¹ ghe² gho⁶), also known as the Suzhou dialect, is the variety of Chinese traditionally spoken in the city of Suzhou in Jiangsu, China. Suzhounese is a variety of Wu Chinese, and was traditionally considered the Wu Chinese prestige dialect. Suzhounese has a large vowel inventory and it is relatively conservative in initials by preserving voiced consonants from Middle Chinese.^{[citation needed]}