Questions tagged [topolect]
Questions regarding regional variants of the Chinese language
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Is 早晚 included in 普通话？
I knew the term 早晚 today.
早晚 zǎo wǎn morning and evening / (dialect) some time in the future; some day
There is the literal "(dialect)" below (the whole line was quoted from the above ...
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Is there a website that has sound clips with written transcription for various dialects?
My specific use case is I want to hear how 私 is pronounced in Hunanese, but I remember coming across a website a few years ago with lots of speech recordings in various Chinese dialects with written ...
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What is the word ler (ex. in 精/光巴ler1 胖乎ler1) in Sichuan Mandarin?
It is a word that has the initial [l] and likely Tone 1 (阴平). I suspect it is a suffix representing a person. (Below the horizontal bar is the evidence and line of reasoning on how I come to these ...
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Is 的 used in Singlish?
In Singlish (Singaporean English creole), is 的 used? And if so, is it used for simple possession ("*Jenny de dog") or for introduction of a subordinate clause? ("*Jenny found last week ...
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How do you write "yi ga shi duo" (Wu dialect)?
Either Han characters or a standard romanization would do. Thanks!
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扣里：里 as verbal complement?
I've encountered the sentence 把准备好的葱姜蒜全扣里, in the context of having to tip some ingredients into a previously-mentioned pan.
I wonder if 里 is acting as an internal object of 扣 or as its locative ...
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A Cantonese-influenced Old National Pronunciation (老國音) system
I need advice/help on creating a system similar to the Old National Pronunciation system/language for a worldbuilding project called Roses, Tulips, and Liberty.
Some background: Imagines, it's a world ...
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What does GG mean here?
Saw this FB post about this unfortunate taxi accident in HK:
However I have never heard the term GG before and was wondering if its supposed to be shorthand for something else?
user31212
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What do people in Hong Kong say when you are approaching a counter to buy something?
I've often found myself at the typical 7/11 waiting in line to ring out, and almost every time the cashier will say something right before I am to purchase. It sounds something like "lao wei"...
user31212
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''China'' name in different chinese dialects
I would like to know wether most chinese dialects agree on a similar pronunciation/name of the country (中国/Zhōngguó) as in Mandarin, or there are some dialects who call it with a totally different (...
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How many Cantonese speakers who don't speak Mandarin exist? [closed]
I wonder how many Cantonese speakers (either native or L2 learners) who don't speak Mandarin exist in the world. At least in mainland China, as far as I know almost all people born in 1980 or later ...
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Is the number 4 really considered unlucky because it sounds similar to the word for "death"?
From what I've Googled so far, there are lots of claims that the number 4 is considered unlucky in Chinese. 四 is understandably considered unlucky in Japanese and Korean because it sounds identical to ...
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The readings of 栅
What is the deal with the readings of 栅 (柵) and how do they appear?
According to modern dictionaries (such as the 漢語大字典 2nd Ed.), there are three readings for 栅?
zhà, in the meaning of "fence, ...
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Reverse Translation: “The Devil’s own uncle knows!“
In Peter Hessler’s (何伟) latest article for The New Yorker, China’s Reform Generation Adapts to Life in the Middle Class, there is a paragraph which reads:
The man swore in dialect: “The Devil’s own ...
Mou某♦
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What were the court/administrative languages of various dynasties?
It's called "Mandarin" (and 官话) precisely because it was the language of courtly officials at a time when there was no unified national language of China. This was the case in both the Ming ...
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Help understanding the Min song 追追追
Cross-post notice
I already posted the question here, but have since received only one helpful answer, which promised "more later" but never came back with "more". Since it's been ...
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Chongqing Dialect Dictionary
Does anybody know of any Chongqing dialect dictionaries, preferably available in PDF format? I've tried to find some dictionaries but the only one I found is not available seemingly anywhere.
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What is 乜 doing in my landlord's WeChat message 明天有人在家乜?
I live in Beijing, and my landlord (who I think is from the Dongbei region) sent our group this WeChat message yesterday:
明天有人在家乜
We're getting a new fridge delivered, and she wants to know if ...
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Pronouncing pinyin "ing" (bopomofoㄧㄥ ) as /iŋ/ or /jəŋ/ e.g. in 冰
The book "Sounds of Chinese" gives the surface representation IPA transcription for the word 冰 as /pjəŋ/ and the underlying representation as /piŋ/ (in section 8.1), while the example at 3....
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In Chinese are American English and British English different 方言?
American English and British English are different dialects of English.
The basic translation of dialect is 方言.
But I feel that 方言 corresponds to say different dialects of British English, or ...
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List of Beijing and Standard Chinese vocabulary
I am looking for a list that has a 1-on-1 mapping between common Beijing and Standard Chinese vocabulary. For instance, a native from Beijing one would say things like 今儿 and 這兒 which could then be ...
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Which Chinese dialect group is the surname Kuok from?
Which Chinese dialect group is the surname Kuok from?
I assume it's a variant of the Mandarin Guo (郭).
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吸 read ji or jie?
I know in some dialects of Southwestern Mandarin 吸 is read ji or jie. This is most likely due to the fact that 吸 is made up of 口 + 及 and 及 is read ji or jie in these same topolects.
Does this ...
Mou某♦
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How to translate “这帮丫头片子，也不知道都便宜哪帮孙子了”?
I'm adding english subtitles to some mandarin movies, as volunteer and hobby. How to translate the following line better?
The main male character was waiting for his flight at the airport when he saw ...
user21286
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Why is 灸 pronounced jiu1?
The pinyin of 灸 as in 针灸 (acupuncture) or 艾灸 (moxibustion) is clearly given as jiu3, as shown in, among others, MDGB and Zdic.
The single character doesn't even have alternate pronunciations, only ...
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Are there any multi-syllabic words in Chinese without a glottal stop?
Are there any words in Chinese of 2 more syllables where there isn't a glottal stop between the syllables such that each syllable is not pronounced clearly, that a final consonant and initial ...
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Did any pidgin terms survived in Chinese? (or any topolects?)
I've been looking through some of the words in《红毛通用番话诠释》
Here's a little sample
This pidgin words are based on Cantonese.
I'm curious if any of these pidgin words actually made it as loanwords into ...
Mou某♦
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佢 read "jì" from Hakka?
Looking through the book 四川德阳方言语音演化与接触研究, I came across the following chart excerpt:
表1-6 四川境内非西南官话方言岛与湖广方言特征词对比
In some locales 他 is documented as being read: 佢, tɕi⁵¹ -or- jì, if you prefer.
...
Mou某♦
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Are there any Mandarin dialects with three tones?
有只有三个声调的官话方言吗？东干语有四个音素的声调，但是在没有变调的上下文只有三个不同的声调, 例如在短语的末尾。有没有在每个上下文都用三个声调的方言？
Are there any Mandarin dialects with three tones? Standard Dungan has four phonemic tones, but only has three in contexts ...
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Is /ʑ/ stigmatized in Wu?
The voiced alveolo-palatal sibilant fricative /ʑ/ can be found in Wu words like: thank you. 谢谢 is said to be read:
ʑia ʑia
I'm seeing many resources online claiming that the reading can just be:
谢谢!...
Mou某♦
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Data on the endangerment of Southwestern Mandarin?
I'm looking for some data on the endangerment of Southwestern Mandarin.
Since it is rather a broad subject, it can be broken down to the Cheng–Yu 成渝 branch as it is quite representative of the ...
Mou某♦
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Where does 别间 ("other") as in 别间大学 come from?
As a follow up to this question What does 别间 in 别间大学的男生都土里土气的 means? I was trying to figure out where the term 别间 comes from.
Judging by the context, it appears having the same meaning as 别的 (other, ...
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What does the inital /dⁿ/ stand for?
While answering @Qiangong2's question here: Are Characters customized in different provinces due to dialectal differences? I was looking through the table on 四川方言字.
On the table the following initial ...
Mou某♦
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Are Characters customized in different provinces due to dialectal differences?
In other character-based writing systems such as Chu Nomh, Kanji, and Hanja, there are customized characters due to regional dialects. Has this occurred with Simplified at all? Or has the government ...
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How did 贼 come to mean "extremely"?
While watching a tv show, I heard the presenter, a Beijinger, say 贼好. In that particular context, the only possible meaning was 很好.
Later I did some research and, as a matter of fact, it turns out 贼 ...
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Why are there different pronunciations of 复杂？
During a Chinese class, a student pronounced 复杂 as fu3za2, instead of the official pronunciation fu4za2. The Chinese teacher corrected the student but then mentioned many native speakers pronounce it ...
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Do any Chinese languages or dialects contain a rolled/trilled R?
From 20:00 to 22:00 of this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnMeISMY6eM), the speaker appears to pronounce the R sound with standard Mandarin pronunciation in 若 and 仍然. However, he rolls the R ...
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What is the etymologically correct character for the Min-Nan words for meat (bah)?
In both the teoswa and hokkien, the common word for meat is pronounced something like /baʔ/. I.e., it has a voiced initial stop (not like pinyin "b") and a glottal final.
This doesn't seem ...
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How should I understand the pronunciation of 驾驶证 (jiàshǐ zhèng) as 酱汁儿 (jiàng zhī er)?
I was reading this website ( https://pinyin.sogou.com/zimeiti/article/1255 ) to understand colloquial Beijing Mandarin and came across this pronunciation for 驾驶证
驾驶证 > "酱汁儿", i.e Jiàshǐ zhèng > jiàng ...
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"Why" in Beijing Dialect [duplicate]
I've been wondering how to correctly say "why" in Beijing dialect.
I know that in colloquial beijing mandarin 什么 is pronounced as shém with a final m. I thus thought the same was for 为什么 as weishem. ...
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When is f not pronounced?
I've seen that in Beijing Mandarin f can be pronounced as something of a final consonant when in an unstressed syllable, e.g. 豆腐 dòu fǔ = dòuff.
However, in other cases it disappears in unstressed ...
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When is d elided? [closed]
I know that plosive consonants can change in natural Mandarin speech, like intervocalic g is almost always elided, and sometimes k, but b and p are almost never elided, but when should d be elided?
...
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吞音 rules for Beijing Dialect
I've been wanting to learn more about beijinghua and it's been more challenging than I expected.
I've heard that sh, ch, and zh, all turn to r in beijinghua. However, I've also heard some examples ...
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Is there any way to detect dialect automatically?
For current task I need to create a solution how to detect if some video or audio of Chinese speech is Mandarin or Cantonese (for now I do not need others dialects).
For example, there is almost ...
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What topolects distingish between 娘 and 孃? Why?
In MSM 娘 and 孃 are usually considered one and the same, where 孃 is Traditional and 娘 is simplified. These two characters can practically be used interchangeably. In Southwestern Mandarin, however, a ...
Mou某♦
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Places where the use of 小姐 is inappropriate
Wikitionary has a cool feature that shows a dialectal map with word differences across all Chinese dialects, as in this example.
The problem is that I was trying to see which places it was OK to use ...
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Do any good topolect maps exist for Chinese?
I've been rummaging through English dialect maps. Here's an example of one on Twitter:
And an American one for good measure:
Do any good topolect maps exist for Chinese?
Mou某♦
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Are there northern dialects which still preserve velars before front vowels?
It's well known that Modern Standard Mandarin has merged what were historically velar stops and alveolar silibants when followed by front vowels. For instance, 京 is "jing" rather than "ging", and 津 is ...
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What does 跳马猴子 mean?
The term literally indicates some kind of monkey jockey riding a racehorse.
I’m guessing it means “lunatic”.
I can’t find it in any dictionary. Any ideas?
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What does "和尚撞了道士" mean?
In the song《掐死大象的蚂蚁》by Bridge and 二毛 there's a bar by twenty-cents(?) that goes:
咋个回事咋个回事
十点半还不晓得回家
问起咋子问起咋子
也不晓得打个电话
有事有事安啥子事嘛啥子事嘛
和尚撞了道士上房揭瓦你要造次
The part that is tripping me up is: ...
Mou某♦
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