Like other dialects in the Wu family, Tiantaihua has a three-way contrast betweenvoiced,unaspirated voiceless, andaspirated initial consonants (e.g.,/ttʰd/), preserving an earlier feature of Chinese which Mandarin has collapsed into a two-way distinction.
Proverbs and phrases in the Tiantai dialect can be shorter in comparison with the corresponding phrase in Standard Chinese. For example, the phrase "露出馬腳" (literally "exposing the cloven hoof", metaphorically "exposed") is shortened to the phrase "出腳", literally meaning "taking the foot out".[1]
Sentences can be shorter as well; see the example below.[6]
^ab天台話100句翻譯，啥意思格 [100 Sentences in the Tiantai Dialect and What do they Mean].iFuun.com (in Chinese). 17 July 2017. Retrieved13 December 2019.
^天台話中「壽頭」是指什麼頭？ [What Does "Long-Lived Head" Mean in the Tiantai Dialect?].iFuun.com (in Chinese). 2 September 2017. Retrieved13 December 2019.
^Dai, Zhaoming 戴昭铭 (2006).浙江天台方言词考源数则 [Etymological Notes on Dialectal Words of Tiantai Dialect in Zhejiang Province].方言 (in Chinese).2006 (4):374–377.
^Wang, Lin 汪林 (2008).大慧天台.安徽文學 (in Chinese).2008 (12):144–145.
^Chen, Luqian 陈露茜 (2012).从吴语趣谈“个”字 [Talking About the Word “个” from Wu Chinese].文学教育 (in Chinese).2012 (9):132–133.
^Xiong, Zhongru 熊仲儒 (2007).現代漢語與方言中差比句的句法結構分析 [An Analysis of Syntactic Structure of Difference Sentences in Modern Chinese and Regional Dialects](PDF).Language and Linguistics (in Chinese).8 (4):1043–1063.
^Dai, Zhaoming 戴昭铭 (2003).浙江天台方言的代词 [The Pronouns of the Tiantai Dialect in Zhejiang].方言 (in Chinese).2003 (4):314–323.
^ab天台话拼音方案 [Pinyin Scheme of the Tiantai Dialect].通用吴语拼音 (in Chinese). 15 March 2008. Retrieved13 December 2019.
^Dai, Zhaoming 戴昭铭 (1999).天台话的几种语法现象.方言 (in Chinese).1999 (4):249–258.
