Questions tagged [topolect]
Questions regarding regional variants of the Chinese language
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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 ...
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Meaning of 悠了一把
see 今日说法, legal report, https://tv.cctv.com/2024/03/17/VIDEi0lCKhnIK1fZ0MuQch5J240317.shtml?spm=C31267.PdQGws28DOXv.E25JptH8Kkey.22 9:30
according to web seems to belong to 东北话
悠 HSK 5 English ...
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Is "哇咧老天哦" suppose to be a transaltion for "Oh My Gosh"?
In Pokémon Scarlet/Violet DLC，Kieran says “哇咧老天哦” when he was in shocked or frustrated. It's always funny when he says it so I got curious and searched it up. Turns out, no one uses it at all before ...
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鉛 Reading Phonology
Why does this word for Lead 鉛 seem to have two different pronounciations?
In most Chinese Languages / Languages that borrowed this word ( Japanese / Korean ) they all read similar to the Middle ...
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Teochew dialect in Southern China
The singular Naomi Wu mentions that many of the traders in the Huaqiangbei (electronics) area of Shenzhen are "from the city of Chaozhou and so speak a common dialect".
Chaozhou is a ...
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更: geng and jing
One of the less common meanings of 更 has to do with traditional Chinese time-keeping. There's a changing of the guard, and this is kept track of by hitting a drum or whatever. 更, extending from the ...
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Is 恁 related to 您?
I noticed that in Henan dialect people use 恁, nén in place of 你.
Some comments in this question:Why in Chinese Bible (和合本), "you" was translated as "你" instead of "您"? ...
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Is Cantonese Chinese? 【广东话属于中文吗】
I recall an incident that occurred once in (Mainland) China, which I found puzzling and intriguing.
It was in Zhengzhou, I think. There was some kind of sales activity where people were being given ...
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Fourth-tone 好 used as a complete stand-alone sentence to express agreement, a bit like "OK" or 行
While watching a TV series called 奈何BOSS要娶我 / Well-Intended Love I was struck by the way 好 is pronounced (*) when used as a complete stand-alone sentence to express agreement. It sounds to me much ...
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Audio recognition: "kai bu dao ku" (Southwestern Mandarin)
Here is a link to the mp3:
Vocaroo | Audio File
This is a dialect of 西南官话, Southwestern Mandarin.
My transcription:
就这个样子，我没有想到我今天还跟你们两个还可以这样子摆龙门阵。站起来就这样子，【开不到裤】了，造不造孽？那个活起有啥子意义嘛？是不是？
I'm struggling ...
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What exactly is the difference between 哲 and 喆？
I'm also interested in knowing the connotations and whether those terms are associated with specific dialects. Would the average mainland speaker know 喆?
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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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how do dialects deal with two separate falling tones accents?
I've asked a similar question before:
https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/8532/dialects-topolects-tone-marks
but I want to make this more specific here.
I know not everyone agrees with tone ...
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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 ...
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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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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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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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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Chinese language?
There are three articles in Wikipedia that disturb me.
Chinese language
Mandarin Chinese
Sinitic languages
Let's think about this for a moment. Mandarin Chinese is the official variety of China and ...
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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 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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documentation/references: 全 being pronunced `qian` in Southwestern Mandarin
I'd always had this hunch! The bus recording was supposed to be 安全 but why did it sound like 安前.
Then I got affirmation from 《成都方言》
刘前进
此词源于《刘全进瓜》的古典故事，即与瓜傻同义，便指傻瓜。又由于地域读音关系，“前”与“全”不分，此词又为“刘全进”。歇后语：“～...
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How do you write "yi ga shi duo" (Wu dialect)?
Either Han characters or a standard romanization would do. Thanks!
Mou某♦
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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 ...
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Resource request: Hainanese dictionaries
What are the available Hainanese (海南話) dictionaries? In particular, dictionaries of the Wenchang (文昌) dialect. If those are not available, dictionaries of the Haikou (海口) dialect are also fine.
If ...
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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?
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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"...
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What Chinese language(s) have pronunciation ㄍ丨(romanization: gi)
Heard pronunciation ㄍ丨(romanization: gi) recently in a dialect of south western mandarin.
I was trying to trace it together with something else.
Seems like Hakka pronounces 机/機 ㄍ丨but I couldn't ...
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Resources for learning Cantonese
I'd like to learn Cantonese. Does anyone know some good resources (books, websites) that provide a thorough introduction into the language? I know that the pronunciation is a lot harder than in ...
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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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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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What kind of nuance does 呗 have?
In the northeastern dialect, 呗 is sometimes added to the end of a sentence. Although I use it often as well, I don't really know how to explain why it is used and what nuance does it carry.
My first ...
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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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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 ...
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Any evidence for z(h)uang (这么) and luang (那么)?
I keep hearing:
zuang [tsuaŋ]
and
luang [Ĩuaŋ]
for 这么 and 那么, respectively.
I believe it is Minjiang dialect (岷江话, 岷江小片).
I've flipped through a couple of books I have but I haven't been able ...
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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 ...
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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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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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The slang meaning of "Seven/七" in Cantonese
I have heard a few Hongkongers saying seven in a similar, likely identical, context. I assume they are addressing a person because when they say it, they make the L hand gesture. I could be wrong, but ...
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Pronouncing pinyin "c" in Shanxi dialect
I had thought I knew how to pronounce pinyin "c," like the English "ts" in "cats." But on a trip to Shanxi it seemed like most of my friends were pronouncing it like pinyin "ch." Village names ending ...
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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!...
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What dialect/topolect is 凉薯 a part of?
《现代汉语大词典》defines 凉薯 as:
方言。即豆薯。有的地方也叫地瓜。藤本植物, 花色浅蓝或白色, 结荚, 种子有毒, 块根像甘薯, 可食。
It was the 方言 part that threw me off here.
Baidu Baike just calls it a
别称
other resources also just say something ...
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How many different dialect known to exist in the Chinese language and what are they?
From what I know there is
Mandarin,
Hokkien,
Cantonese
But are there other minority dialect?
I've heard one spoken outside the mainlands, can anyone confirm?
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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 the polite way to say a grandparent has passed away?
I've been trying to find out what is the polite way of telling someone that someone, specifically a relative, has passed away? I'm pretty sure it's not very nice to say someone died （死）。 Google ...
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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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Cantonese sandhi
In Mandarin, there is limited tone sandhi, mainly about third tones and the tone variations of yi1 (one) and bù (not). By contrast, Min has sandhi rules for all tones, as illustrated by this diagram. ...
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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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