"People say that Shanxi has beautiful scenery, fertile land, beautiful water and beautiful grains. The left hand points to the Taihang Mountains, and the right hand points to Luliang..." Shanxi is a provincial administrative region located in North China, with a total area of ??156,700 square kilometers. It is the center of Chinese civilization.

One of the birthplaces.

The soil and water support the people, and the people speak the same language.

Shanxi is rich in local languages.

Li Rong, a famous Chinese phonologist and dialectologist, once said: "Shanxi's dialects are like Shanxi's coal. They are endless treasures that need to be developed urgently." Among them, Yuncheng's dialects are unique.

It is very different from the dialects in other areas of Shanxi, but is very similar to the dialect in Xi'an, Shaanxi.

When a Yuncheng native goes to Taiyuan, the provincial capital, or to Shuozhou or Datong further north, if he speaks his hometown dialect, the locals are often confused and have no idea what he is talking about.

This person from Yuncheng went to Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, and felt very friendly when listening to the Xi'an dialect on the streets - in his opinion, isn't this the Yuncheng dialect?

Indeed, Yuncheng dialect and Taiyuan dialect are almost two language systems.

The characteristics of its speech are: there are basically no front nasal sounds, only 4 tones, and the pronunciations of zh, ch, and sh have become v, tf, f... This kind of pronunciation is similar to Xi'an dialect.

In addition to speaking, Yuncheng's food customs are also biased towards Xi'an.

For example, people in Xi'an like to eat mutton steamed buns and fried noodles, and people in Yuncheng also have a special liking for these two delicacies, which can be found everywhere in the streets and alleys.

People in northern Shanxi cannot accept such strong tastes, and tend to eat noodles, ramen, etc.

Many people in Yuncheng have never heard of the noodles that are popular in Taiyuan, Shanxi.

Yuncheng is a prefecture-level city in Shanxi. Why does its language and food look like Xi'an?

This is related to Yuncheng’s unique geographical location.

Opening the map, we will find that Yuncheng is located in the southwest of Shanxi, bordering Weinan City in Shaanxi Province - only the Yellow River separates them.

The Yellow River is known as the "Sky Cut". The flow of this section of the Yellow River between Keyuncheng and Weinan is relatively gentle and it is easy to cross.

Moreover, whether you are crossing the Yellow River from Xi'an to Yuncheng, or crossing the Yellow River from Yuncheng to Xi'an, as long as you cross the Yellow River, you will be in a flat plain.

In this way, the economic and cultural exchanges between Yuncheng and Xi'an will become very frequent, and the mutual influence and gradual integration of the customs and habits of the two places will become a natural thing.

Speaking and eating are two concrete manifestations of this influence and integration.

The distance between Yuncheng and Xi'an is about 250 kilometers, and the distance from the provincial capital Taiyuan is about 400 kilometers.

On the surface, the distance difference is only over 100 kilometers.

To get to Taiyuan from Yuncheng, you need to cross Jiangshan Mountain, cross Fenhe River and Weihe River, cross Linghuo Mountain Gorge, Hanxin Ridge, and pass through mountains and ridges several times before you can reach the Taiyuan Basin (Jinzhong Basin) where Taiyuan is located.

In ancient times when transportation conditions were very backward, traveling from Yuncheng to Taiyuan was much more difficult than traveling to Xi'an.

Therefore, economic and cultural exchanges between Yuncheng and Taiyuan are very rare. How can we talk about the mutual influence and gradual integration of customs and habits?

In fact, in history, Yuncheng also accepted the jurisdiction of Xi'an.

That was during the Northern Song Dynasty.

In the third year of Emperor Taizong's reign in the Song Dynasty (997), the imperial court adjusted the administrative divisions of the country and divided them into 15 roads, namely Jingdong Road, Jingxi Road, Hebei Road, Hedong Road, Shaanxi Road, Huainan Road, Jiangnan Road, Jingxi Road,

Hunan Road, Jinghu North Road, Liangzhe Road, Fujian Road, Xichuan Road, Xiaxi Road, Guangnan East Road, Guangnan West Road.

At that time, Yuncheng belonged to Shaanxi Road, and the administrative seat of Shaanxi Road was located in Jingzhao Mansion, which is today's Xi'an, Shaanxi.

At that time, the area north of Wenxi County in Shanxi today and south of the Great Wall was under the jurisdiction of Hedong Road. The administrative seat of Hedong Road was located in Bingzhou, which is today's Taiyuan, Shanxi.

Although during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, Yuncheng was no longer under the jurisdiction of Xi'an, Shaanxi, and returned to the administrative division of Shanxi. However, during the Northern Song Dynasty for more than a hundred years, the cultural traditions of Yuncheng must have had elements of Xi'an, Shaanxi.

It's not that easy to change easily.