Dalian dialect

Dalian dialect (Chinese: 大连话, Pinyin: dalian hua, Romaji: Dairen-ben) is a dialect of Mandarin Chinese spoken on the Liaodong Peninsula, including the city of Dalian and parts of Dandong and Yingkou. Dalian dialect shares many similarities with the Qingdao dialect spoken on Shandong Peninsula (Jiaodong Peninsula) across Bohai Strait; hence the name Jiao Liao Mandarin (胶辽官话). Dalian dialect is notable among Chinese dialects for loanwords from Japanese and Russian, reflecting its history of foreign occupation.^[1]

Notable words in the Dalian dialect include 飆 ("foolish") and 熊 ("to cheat or deceive").

Voice

Comparing with Mandarin on pronunciation

The syllables that Mandarin hasn't

• biǎng (This Chinese character is not made out yet.) -【Prefix】often used in a derogatory term, to emphasize the role of mood
• piǎ (This Chinese character is not made out yet.) -【Verb】to ridicule sb

Erizational vowels

• "瓦兒" and "碗兒" are different; "歌兒" and "根兒" are different, vowel of "根兒" is a kind of retroflex mid-central vowel.
• i of "zi, ci, si" is an apical vowel. After erizing, i turns into er, such as "事兒"ser4.
• The rule of i, u, ü combining with the erizational vowels is the same as the rule of those combining with the basic vowels, so the tabulation of this part is omitted.

Tones

In Dalianian,

• When Tone No.1 meets another Tone No.1 or Tone No.4 meets Tone No.1, usually the previous tone turns to Tone No.5 and the next tone doesn't change, like “家家戶戶”jia'r5-jia'r1-hur6-hur4, “駕崩”jia5-beng1.^[2]
• When Tone No.1 meets Tone No.4, usually the previous tone doesn't change and the next tone turns to Tone No.6, like “蟋蟀”xi1-suai6 or xi3-suar, “稀碎”xi1-sei6.
• When Tone No.4 meets another Tone No.4, usually the previous tone turns to Tone No.5 and the next tone turns to Tone No.6, like “畢恭畢敬”bi5-gongr1-bi5-jingr6, “客客氣氣”ke'r4-ke'r-qi5-qi6.^[3]
• Tone No.5 and Tone No.6 are not basic tones, but modulations.

Writing system

Logograms

Syllabaries

There are 15 vowels (3 nasal vowels), 15 consonants (1 zero consonant "h"), no affricates ("gh", "kx", "dz", "ts", "bv", "pf") and no entering tone in Dalian dialect. From the first open vowels "a" to the last close vowels "m", there are 366 syllabaries (183 uppercase and 183 lowercase).

Mandarin: ji, qi, xi = Dalianian: d-ii, t-ii, s-ii

Mandarin: zhi,chi,shi,ri,zi,ci,si = Dalianian: d-i,t-i,s-i,z-i

There are no differences between voiced and voiceless consonants in Mandarin and Dalianian, but there is distinction between aspirated and unaspirated consonants in them.

Mandarin and Dalianian: g[g] = g[k], d[d] = d[t], b[b] = b[p]

Mandarin and Dalianian: k[g^h] = k[k^h], t[d^h] = t[t^h], p[b^h] = p[p^h]

New tablation of syllabaries

Old tablation of syllabaries

• ai = a + i (吖_乙), ei = e + i (厄_乙), uai = u + ai (五_吖乙), ui = u + ei (五_厄乙), ie = i + ê (乙_欸),
  ao = a + u (吖_五), ou = e + u (厄_五), iao = i + au (乙_吖五), iu = i + eu (乙_厄五), üe = ü + oe (于_月),
  an = a + n (吖_嗯), en = e + n (厄_嗯), in = i + n (乙_嗯), un = u + n (五_嗯), ün = ü + n (于_嗯),
  ang = a + ng (吖_兀), eng = e + ng (厄_兀), ing = i + ng (乙_兀), ong = u + ng (五_兀), iong = ü + ng (于_兀).

Vocabulary

Grammar

According to the predicate structure analysis method of the British linguists Ricci, the Dalian dialect is the same as English and Mandarin - the sentence is generally composed of S+V+O, that is subject + predicate + object of the order, but there are special circumstances, such as the older generation of Dalian people will say "Jiǎ zóu ba! Jiǎ zóu ba! (家走吧!家走吧!)" instead of "Húi jiā ba! Húi jiā ba! (回家吧!回家吧!)". At this time, the sentence is not S+V+O, but S+O+V, that is, subject + object + predicate.

• jiā means "home".
• zǒu means "go".
• húi means "go back to".
• ba means a kind of mood which means "to persuade" or "to urge".

Others

Classification

Dalianian belongs to Da-Xiu Area of Yan Chinese, and there are 2 Subareas in Da-Xiu Area.

• The dialect of Zhongshan District, Xigang District, Shahekou District, Ganjingzi District, Lüshunkou District and Wafangdian City of Dalian belongs to Da-Wa Subarea;
• The dialect of Jinzhou District, Pulandian District, Zhuanghe City and Changhai County of Dalian belongs to Chang-Zhuang Subarea.

Distribution

• Peninsulas: Shandong Peninsula, Liaodong Peninsula.
• Borders: Yalu River, Ussuri River.

Bopomofo

• Consonants: ㄅㄆㄇㄈㄪ, ㄉㄊㄋㄌ, ㄍㄎㄫㄏ, ㄐㄑㄬㄒ, ㄓㄔㄕㄖ, ㄗㄘㄙㄭ.
• Vowels: ㄚㄛㄜㄝ, ㄞㄟㄠㄡ, ㄢㄣㄤㄥㆲ, ㄦㄧㄨㄩ.

References

Sub-provincial City of Dalian
Districts	Xigang Zhongshan Shahekou Ganjingzi Lüshunkou Jinzhou Jinzhou New Area*
County-level cities	Wafangdian Pulandian Zhuanghe
Counties	Changhai
Landmarks
Culture & demographics	Language
Education
Transport	Dalian Metro Dalian Zhoushuizi International Airport Changhai Airport
^* Not a formal subdivision