New life for old dialects

[Randy W]

in the Sixth Tone

 

Hip-Hop Gives Chinese Dialects Fresh Expression

 

Well-versed in dozens of dialects, Chinese rap is breaking free of Mandarin.

 

 

 

 

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Rap music will let people listen to the dialect with new ears.

- Rui Zhongke, Nanjing rapper and event host

 

 

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Mandarin was proposed as a national lingua franca in the early 20th century. Based on the Beijing dialect, the language was spread after the Chinese Communist Party came to power in 1949 through various linguistic, education, and media policies mandating its use. It has since come to be associated with sophistication and success, while dialects are often considered useless — especially as bilingualism increasingly comes to mean fluency in Mandarin and English. Regional dialects have also declined with increased domestic migration and mobility.

 

In recent years, however, concerns about the loss of dialects — and with them, rich and distinctive local cultures — have led to official and civil efforts to preserve them. The government has established a national database of dialects, and local “language corner” activities encourage children to speak their native dialect. Many dialects are recognized as forms of “intangible cultural heritage” (ICH) alongside traditional art forms such as opera and calligraphy.

 

 

 

Edited August 1, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

. . . and the SCMP

 

Where the word gweilo comes from, and other names East Asians have for foreigners

Once considered offensive, the Cantonese slang for white man is now generally accepted, even embraced, by some expats as a light-hearted epithet

 

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“Foreign devil” is how gweilo, that widely used epithet in Hong Kong for Caucasians, is usually translated. Composed of the Cantonese 鬼 “gwái” (“ghost”) and 佬 “lóu” (“man, chap, regular guy”), gweilo/gwai lo literally means “ghost/devil man”, and has been considered pejorative, especially if prefaced by 死 (“dead”), to give séi gwáilóu, akin to “damn foreigner”. The Oxford English Dictionary’s earliest documentation, in an 1878 Far East glossary, is kwei-tsze, kuei-tzu ˘ (“devil”), with “kwai-lo” noted in 1969.

 

Such a descriptor was purportedly coined in early encounters in the Pearl River Delta with Europeans in reference to their pale skin. The recog­nition of this physical feature is also reflected in other languages. The Indonesian term for foreigner is orang bule – “orang” is “person” and “bule”, originally “bulai”, is “albino” – referring to the light hair and eye colour and pale skin of foreigners of European descent.

 

 

Edited August 1, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

in the SCMP

 

 

Mandarin may be the ‘common language’, but here’s why Cantonese reigns supreme

Love it or hate it, nothing says ‘Hong Kong’ like this lively, noisy tongue

 

 

There is also the phrase “sup sup sui”, which literally means “wet, wet scraps”, describing a task that is trivial, easy or a piece of cake. You can also use it as a casual response when someone thanks you for doing something for them as it also means “no worries”, or “don’t mention it”.

Another classic is “sik ling mung”, which means “eat lemons”. Imagine the face of someone who has just sunk their teeth into a lemon – their grimace would be similar to the expression of a person being rejected, and that is exactly what it means. This phrase is usually applied in a romantic situation.

Spoken Cantonese is so descriptive that many of its figurative expressions allow you to visualise their meaning quite easily. The popular Cantonese saying “all 10 fingers are not of the same length” is used to describe a conventional understanding that every person has their own strengths and weaknesses.

 

 

[Randy W]

North vs. South - as far as I can tell, the main source of confusion lies in the pronunciations of 's'-like and 'sh'-like sounds, such as 4, 10, and 11 - si, shí, and shíyī - in the Sixth Tone (the article is dated June 3, 2017.

 

 

North or South? What’s Behind China’s Linguistic Rivalry

 

The standardization of Mandarin allows Chinese speakers to move among regional identities — but the feud over pronunciation rages on.

 

Mandarin spoken across the north — particularly the areas around Beijing and the northeast — is characterized most distinctively by the retroflex “r” affixed to the ends of words: For example, the word “hua,” meaning “flower,” becomes “huar.” Northerners also use the fifth, or neutral, tone more widely.

This pronunciation contrasts with that of southern Chinese speakers. While the vast southern region is more linguistically diverse than the north — the area is dotted with dialects bearing little resemblance to Mandarin — in general, southern speakers of the standard language are more likely to eschew the retroflex; soften the consonants “s,” “sh,” “zh,” and “ch”; and, in some cases, struggle to differentiate between the “n” and “ng” sounds at the ends of syllables.

 

 

[dnoblett]

 

North vs. South - as far as I can tell, the main source of confusion lies in the pronunciations of 's'-like and 'sh'-like sounds, such as 4, 10, and 11 - si, shí, and shíyī - in the Sixth Tone (the article is dated June 3, 2017.

 

Mandarin spoken across the north — particularly the areas around Beijing and the northeast — is characterized most distinctively by the retroflex “r” affixed to the ends of words: For example, the word “hua,” meaning “flower,” becomes “huar.” Northerners also use the fifth, or neutral, tone more widely.

This pronunciation contrasts with that of southern Chinese speakers. While the vast southern region is more linguistically diverse than the north — the area is dotted with dialects bearing little resemblance to Mandarin — in general, southern speakers of the standard language are more likely to eschew the retroflex; soften the consonants “s,” “sh,” “zh,” and “ch”; and, in some cases, struggle to differentiate between the “n” and “ng” sounds at the ends of syllables.

 

 

 

 

My wife grew up in the south Guilin, however she was born in Beijing she moved to Guilin sometime around 10 years of age she speaks Mandarin like a northerner, her mother insisted she pronounce things properly.

 

I remember when traveling with her, while returning to Guilin after her interview in Guangzhou, I hired a car to pick us up at the Guilin airport and transport us to the city, the car had a guide to act as a translator thinking we needed one, the translator thought we were visitors from Beijing and complemented my wife on her precise mandarin, she said my wife speaks the royal tongue.

[Allon]

The wife is from the old province of Manchuria or now Liaoning, just north and west of Beijing. She went for her interview at Guangzhou and was fit to be tied. She did not understand a word spoken to her, even when the locals tried Mandarin. She uses that "r" sound heavily and wonders why everyone there speaks "Chinese" so crudely.

 

She could not wait to get out of there. May have been reason for her rejection. She still won't go back. The south of China may as well be on another planet.

 

For God's sake don't ever tell her she is wrong. She knows China.