Shanghainese

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See also Shanghainese people
Shanghainese
上海閒話 
Pronunciation: zɑ̃̀héɦɛ̀ɦʊ̀
Spoken in: People's Republic of China 
Region: Shanghai
Total speakers: 14 million
Language family: Sino-Tibetan
 Chinese
  Wu
   Shanghainese 
Official status
Official language in: none
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: zh
ISO 639-2: chi (B)  zho (T)
ISO 639-3: wuu
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Shanghainese (上海閒話 [zɑ̃̀héɦɛ̀ɦʊ̀] in Shanghainese), sometimes referred to as the Shanghai dialect, is a dialect of Wu Chinese spoken in the city of Shanghai, and the surrounding region. It is classified as a Sino-Tibetan language. Shanghainese, like other Wu dialects, is not mutually intelligible with other Chinese dialects such as Standard Mandarin (see Mutually intelligible languages). Shanghainese is the representative dialect of Northern Wu; it contains vocabulary and expressions from the entire Northern Wu area (southern Jiangsu, northern Zhejiang). With nearly 14 million speakers, Shanghainese is also the largest single coherent form of Wu Chinese. In Western sources, the term "Shanghainese" often refers to all Wu dialects and not specifically the particular Wu dialect spoken in Shanghai. The total number of Wu speakers is over 80 million, the second most widely spoken Chinese language after Mandarin.

Shanghainese is rich in consonants and pure vowels [i y ɪ ɥ e ø ɛ ə ɐ a ɑ ɔ ɤ o ʊ u]. Like other northern Wu dialects, the Shanghai dialect has voiced initials [b d g ɦ z v ʥ ʑ] (although technically these are slack voiced, adding a slightly breathy quality to a following vowel). Neither Mandarin nor Cantonese has voiced initials. The Shanghainese tonal system is significantly different from other Chinese languages. Shanghainese is a language with two live tonal contrasts (high and low), while Mandarin and Cantonese are contour tonal languages.

Contents

[edit] Language policy

Shanghainese is not encouraged to be spoken in schools and written in newspapers, and the media is strongly discouraged from broadcasting in contemporary Shanghainese. There is a lot of uncertainty between what gets aired in Shanghainese and what becomes censored (due to government fears of regionalism), thus most producers do not take this risk and only produce in Mandarin. Several television advertisements in Shanghainese have been removed shortly after airing, but there have been some TV series in Shanghainese that have been approved since the mid-1990s. Back in 1995, a TV play series called "Nie Zhai" (the Evil Debt) was in Shanghainese; when it was broadcast in other places in China, mainly in adjacent Wu-speaking provinces, subtitles in Mandarin were added rather than a Mandarin version of the TV series. Another TV comedy programme "Lao Niang Jiu" (Old Uncle) has been broadcast since 1999, and is still quite popular among Shanghainese residents. In 2004, a Tom and Jerry cartoon program dubbed with Shanghainese was blocked from broadcasting. Older and more rural forms of Shanghainese are still heard on the radio (catering to farming communities in the suburbs). However, Shanghainese are encouraged by the government to speak Mandarin and celebrities are put on billboards with slogans like "Be a modern Shanghai person, speak Mandarin."

In August 2005, there was media coverage reporting that Shanghainese would be taught in secondary school. This introduced great controversy. Proponents argued that this would make the students know their hometown better and help preserve local culture. Opponents argued that this would encourage discrimination based on people's origin.

In September 2005, the Shanghai municipal government also launched a campaign to encourage Mandarin speaking in Shanghai. Among other requirements, all service-industry workers in Shanghai will be required to greet customers in Mandarin only, and pass a Mandarin-fluency test by 2010. Those with bad or heavily-accented Mandarin must enroll in remedial Mandarin classes.

[edit] Sounds

The sounds of Shanghainese are categorized in initials and rimes. Initial is the first part of syllable, usually a consonant, and rime is the part that follows. Tone is also a phonological feature in Shanghainese. Syllabic tone, which is typical to the other Sinitic languages, has largely become verbal tone in Shanghainese.

[edit] Initials

  Labial Dental Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ  
Plosive voiceless p t k ʔ
aspirated pʰ tʰ kʰ  
slack voice b̥ d̥ ɡ̊  
Affricate voiceless ts tɕ
aspirated tsʰ tɕʰ  
slack voice (d̥z̥) d̥ʑ̊  
Fricative voiceless f s ɕ   h
slack voice v̥ z̥ ʑ̊    
Approximant l (j) (w) ɦ

Shanghai dialect has a set of "voiced" (actually slack voiced) as well as tenuis and aspirated stops and affricates. Moreover, there are unvoiced and slack voiced sets of fricatives. Palatalized initials also feature in Shanghai dialect. The /l/ consonant is also particular in that there is a slight flapping of the tongue during speech, somewhat similar to the Japanese /ɺ/ (which is romanized as r). The sound may be made by lightly placing the tongue on the back of the upper set of teeth. However this flapping is not present when each character is individually pronounced.

[edit] Rimes

monophthong diphthong with
unrounded onglide		 diphthong with
rounded onglide
pure checked nasal pure checked nasal pure checked nasal
a ɐʔ ã ia iɐʔ iã ua uɐʔ uã
ɛ əʔ əɲ iɛ iəʔ iəɲ uɛ uəʔ uɛɲ
ɔ ɔʔ oŋ iɔ iɔʔ ioŋ uo
i ɪʔ iɲ iɪʔ y yɪʔ yɪɲ
ø yø
ɤ iɤ ɯ

The Middle Chinese [-m] ending rimes in Shanghai dialect have merged with [-n], some of which subsequently dropped off. Some Middle Chinese [-ŋ] ending rime characters have become rimes with a nasalised ending, [iã, uã, uɒ̃]. Middle Chinese [-p -t -k] rimes have become glottal stops [-ʔ].

In certain variants, the [u] is pronounced unrounded (close back unrounded, [ɯ]).

[edit] Tones

The Shanghainese tone system is simpler than that of other Wu dialects. However, traditional descriptions use the customary Chinese tone classification, with five named tones in this case:

The traditional tone classification of Shanghainese
Yin (陰) Yin Ping (陰平) Yin Shang-Qu (陰上去) Yin Ru (陰入)
IPA a˥˨ = â (52) a˧˥ = ǎ (335) aʔ˥ = áʔ (5)
Yang (陽) Yang Shu (陽舒) Yang Ru (陽入)
a˩˧ = a̗ (113) aʔ˨˧ = ǎʔ (23)

The term yang shu represents a conflation of the yang registers of the historical ping, shang, and qu tones. The conditioning factors which led to the yin-yang split still exist in Shanghainese, as they do in other Wu dialects: Yang tones are only found with voiced initials (b d g z v dʑ ʑ m n ɲ ŋ l j w ɦ), while the yin tones are only found with voiceless initials. The ru tones are abrupt, and describe those rimes which end in a glottal stop /ʔ/. That is, both the yin-yang distinction and the ru tones are allophonic (dependent on syllabic structure); the Shanghai dialect has only a two-way phonemic tone contrast, falling vs rising, and then only in open syllables with voiceless initials. It will be seen next that this tone contrast actually applies to the phonological word, not to the syllable: No matter how many syllables there are in a word, there can only be a two-way contrast, and then only if the first syllable is open and has a voiceless initial.

[edit] Tone sandhi and the case for word-level tone

In polysyllabic words or set phrases (phonological words), all syllables after the first lose their original tone and are pronounced with a high or low tone, depending on the tone of the first syllable, as shown in the table below. (That is, they take "neutral" tones as in many Mandarin words.) The first syllable is also modified (to some extent its tone spreads across to the following syllable), but it does not loose the tonal distinctions it may have.

If the first syllable is open and with a voiceless initial, the word will have a high pitch on either the first or second syllable, depending on whether the first syllable would have had a falling or rising tone when spoken alone. If the first syllable in closed and with a voiced initial, the last syllable of the word will have a high pitch. In all other cases, the second syllable will have a high pitch. The other syllables will have predictable mid or low pitches. That is, there are three tone patters, only two of which are contrastive.

Possible tone patterns in Shanghainese
Initial 1 syllable 2 syllables 3 syllables 4 syllables 5 syllables
voiceless ˥˨ ˥.˨˩ ˥.˨.˨˩ ˥.˨.˨.˨˩ ˥.˨.˨.˨.˨˩
HL HL HLL HLLL HLLLL
˧˧˥ ˧.˦ ˧.˥.˨˩ ˧.˥.˨.˨˩ ˧.˥.˨.˨.˨˩
LH LH LHL LHLL LHLLL
˥ʔ ˧ʔ˦ ˧ʔ˥.˨˩ ˧ʔ˥.˨.˨˩ ˧ʔ˥.˨.˨.˨˩
 H LH LHL LHLL LHLLL
voiced ˩˩˧ ˨.˦ ˨.˥.˨˩ ˨.˥.˨.˨˩ ˨.˥.˨.˨.˨˩
LH LH LHL LHLL LHLLL
˨˧ʔ ˨ʔ˧˦ ˨ʔ˨.˧˦ ˨ʔ˨.˨.˧˦ ˨ʔ˨.˨.˨.˧˦
LH LH LLH LLLH LLLLH
Note: H = relative high pitch; L = relative low pitch.

These patterns are quite similar to Japanese pitch accent. Tone sandhi of polysyllabic compounds in the Shanghai dialect has attracted the interest of many scholars, who had previously given only careful consideration to the tone of the monosyllable while trying to describe the rules of tone sandhi for polysyllabic compounds.

[edit] Common words and phrases in Shanghainese

Note: Chinese characters for Shanghainese are not standardized and are provided for reference only. IPA transcription is for the Middle period of modern Shanghainese (中派上海话), pronunciation of those between 20 and 60 years old.

Translation IPA Chinese character
Shanghainese (language) [zɑ̃.ˈhe.ɦɛ.ɦʊ] 上海閒話 or 上海闲话
Shanghainese (people) [zɑ̃.ˈhe.ɲɪɲ] 上海人
I [ŋu] 我
we or I [ɐˑ.lɐʔ] 阿拉（我拉）
he/she [ɦi] 伊（其）
they [ɦi.la] 伊拉
you (sing.) [noŋ] 侬（儂）
you (plural) [na] 㑚
hello [noŋ hɔ] 侬好（儂好）
good-bye [ˈtse.ɦue] 再会（再會）
thank you [ʑ̻iaja noŋ]or[ʑ̻iaʑ̻ia noŋ] 谢谢侬（謝謝儂）
sorry [te.vəˑ.ʨʰi] 对勿起（對勿起）
but, however [dɛ.zɿ], [dɛ.zɿ.ni] 但是, 但是呢
please [ʨʰɪɲ] 请（請）
that one [ˈe.tsɐʔ], [i.tsɐʔ] 哎只, 伊只
there [ˈe.tɐʔ], [i.tɐʔ] 哎垯, 伊垯
over there [ˈe.mi.tɐʔ], [i.mi.tɐʔ] 哎面垯, 伊面垯
here [gəˑ.tɐʔ] 箇垯（搿垯）
to have [ɦiɤɯ.təʔ] 有得
to exist, here, present [lɐˑ.he] 辣嗨
now, current [ɦi.ze] 现在（現在）
what time is it? [ɦi.ze ʨi.ti 'tsoŋ] 现在几点钟？（現在幾點鐘?）
where [ɦa.ɺi.tɐʔ], [sa.di.fɑ̃] 何里耷（何裏耷）, 啥地方
what [sa ɦəʔ] 啥个,做啥
who [sa.ɲɪɲ] 啥人
why [ɦue.sa] 为啥（為啥）
when [sa.zəɲ.kuɑ̃] 啥辰光
how [na.nəɲ, na.nəɲ.ka] 哪能, 哪能介
how much? [ʨi.di] 几钿?几块洋钿?（幾鈿?幾塊銀頭?）
yes [ˈe] 哎
no [m̩], [vəˑ.zɿ], [m̩məʔ], [viɔ] 呒、弗是、呒没
telephone number [di.ɦʊ ɦɔ.dɤɯ] 电话号头（電話號頭）
home [oˑ.ɺi.ɕiã] 屋里向（屋裏向）
Come to our house and play. [tɔ ɐˑ.lɐʔ oˑ.ɺi.ɕiɑ̃ le bəˑ.ɕiã] 到阿拉屋里向来孛相（白相）！（到阿拉屋裏向來孛相!）
Where's the restroom? [da.sɤɯ.kɛ ɺəˑ.ɺɐʔ ɦa.ɺi.tɐʔ] 汏手间勒勒阿里耷?（汏手間勒勒阿裏耷?）
Have you eaten dinner? [ɦia.vɛ ʨʰɪˑ.ku.ləʔ va] 夜饭吃过了𠲎?（夜飯吃過了𠲎?）
I don't know [ŋɯ; vəˑ.ɕiɔ.təʔ] 我弗晓得.（我弗曉得.）
Do you speak English? [noŋ ˈɪn.vəɲ kãtəʔle va] 侬英文讲得来𠲎?
I love you [ŋɯ; e noŋ] 我爱侬！（我愛儂!）
I adore you [ŋɯ; e.mɯ noŋ] 我爱慕侬.（我愛慕儂!）
I like you a lot [ŋɯ; ɺɔ ˈhuø.ɕi noŋ ɦəʔ] 我老欢喜侬个！（我老歡喜儂個）
news [ɕɪɲ.vəɲ] 新闻（新聞）
dead [ɕi.tʰəˑ.ləʔ] 死脱了
alive [ɦuəˑ.lɐˑ.he] 活辣海（活着）
a lot [ˈʨiɔ.kue] 交关（邪气）
inside, within [ɺi.ɕiã] 里向
outside [ŋa.dɤɯ] 外頭

[edit] References

  • Lance Eccles, Shanghai dialect: an introduction to speaking the contemporary language. Dunwoody Press, 1993. ISBN 1-881265-11-0. 230 pp + cassette. (An introductory course in 29 units).

[edit] See also

[edit] External links