Surviving Wu Nanjing

Nanjing was the former capital of China and the official dialect of China was first based on Nanjing Mandarin..

What would be the effects on China if Nanjing still speaks Wu in the present.
 
Was Nanjing ever a majority Wu speaking area? I thought most of the upper half of Jiangsu province was Mandarin speaking and had been for a while.

I think Beijing dialect is the most influential because of the Qing dynasty and subsequent adoption of Beijing Mandarin (with elements from other regions) as the standard. I'm not sure Nanjing Mandarin played a large part in the development of Standard Mandarin. However, due to the large number of immigrants from the Shanghai-Nanjing area, Taiwanese Mandarin has quite a few Wu elements in the accent and some of the words. For example, 'trash' is 'le4 se4' instead of 'la1 ji1'. IIRC, 'le4 se4' is ultimately derived from Shanghainese.
 
Was Nanjing ever a majority Wu speaking area? I thought most of the upper half of Jiangsu province was Mandarin speaking and had been for a while.

I think Beijing dialect is the most influential because of the Qing dynasty and subsequent adoption of Beijing Mandarin (with elements from other regions) as the standard. I'm not sure Nanjing Mandarin played a large part in the development of Standard Mandarin. However, due to the large number of immigrants from the Shanghai-Nanjing area, Taiwanese Mandarin has quite a few Wu elements in the accent and some of the words. For example, 'trash' is 'le4 se4' instead of 'la1 ji1'. IIRC, 'le4 se4' is ultimately derived from Shanghainese.
Nanjing Mandarin was the official language of China in the Ming Dynasty.

Actually, Wu Chinese is still spoken in the Gaochun County of Nanjing.
 
Perhaps if the Shun, instead of the Qing, had successfully followed up the Ming, and then decided to move the capital south to Nanjing to be further away from disruptive Manchu influences?

Or perhaps the Qing momentum runs out after awhile (Wu Sangui doesn't switch sides, perhaps) and while they take Beijing and hold it, they are unable to make headway against the Southern Ming? Nanjing becomes the capital for long enough that it pretty much stays that way into the modern era. Modernization and mass education come in, and the Standard Dialect is based on Nanjinghua instead of Beijinghua.
 
Perhaps if the Shun, instead of the Qing, had successfully followed up the Ming, and then decided to move the capital south to Nanjing to be further away from disruptive Manchu influences?

Or perhaps the Qing momentum runs out after awhile (Wu Sangui doesn't switch sides, perhaps) and while they take Beijing and hold it, they are unable to make headway against the Southern Ming? Nanjing becomes the capital for long enough that it pretty much stays that way into the modern era. Modernization and mass education come in, and the Standard Dialect is based on Nanjinghua instead of Beijinghua.

Actually, I was asking for a Wu Nanjing instead of Nanjing Mandarin being Official because at the time of the Ming Nanjing was already Mandarin..perhaps the only way for that to happen is for the Song Dynasty to survive..
 
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