Saturday, October 4, 2008

Shenyang Mandarin

Shenyang Mandarin is a variant of Northeastern Mandarin used by people in Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning province and the largest city in Northeast China. It is very close to the official dialect but has some very distinctive words that the official language doesn't have. In the main, the Shenyang Dialect is very similar to the other Northeastern Dialects. Some people prefer to think of it as a strong accent rather than a different dialect. Because of its similarity to Standard Mandarin, pinyin can be used to represent the pronunciation.

However as schools in Shenyang teach Standard Mandarin, usage of the local language is dwindling. Many now see it as a sign of bad education and something to look down upon.

The most distinctive part of the Shenyang Dialect is the different pitch of the first tone. It is lower in pitch than Standard Mandarin and would be positioned at 2, rather than 5, on this chart. As a result it can sound a little like the third tone.

Like Beijing Dialect, the Shenyang Dialect also uses a lot of erhua .

Some of the words in Shenyang Dialect come from other languages like Manchurian. One example is the word 旮旯兒 , meaning corner.

Examples of words in the Northeastern Dialect :

Quzhou dialect

Quzhou Dialect is a dialect of the cluster of the Sinitic linguistic family, spoken in Quzhou.

As part of the southern branch of Wu, Quzhouhua is mutually unintelligible with those of the northern Wu branch such as Suzhouhua and . But it is not particularly close to other southern Wu dialects like Wenzhouhua and Manjiang.

Qingdao dialect

Qingdao dialect is the local dialect of the city of Qingdao, in China's Shandong Province.

Often characterized as requiring a "fat tongue", the Qingdao dialect often adds a "th" sound to 's "sh", "x", and "s". It also obliterates many Mandarin tones.

The basic, though not at all universal rule for converting Putonghua to the Qingdao dialect in the pinyin system is that a Mandarin 1 tone will become a Qingdao 3, 2 becomes a 4, 3 becomes 1 and 4 remains four. Qingdao dialect's 1 tone also has a drawl to it.

There are other, somewhat random phonetic changes from Mandarin to the Qingdao dialect. It is probably most helpful for foreigners to know these:

*"gá ?la" , the excellent local spicy clam dish, known in Mandarin as "gé ?li"

*"hā pì jiū" , drink beer

*"bài dào ?dao" , meaning "no need to say more", but better understood to mean "shut up". Literally translated as "don't blather on".

Nearly all Qingdao natives can understand Mandarin, but they will often respond in the Qingdao dialect without realizing they are doing so. The Qingdao dialect is not necessarily standardized throughout Qingdao. Different neighbourhoods, from Zhanshan to Xinjiazhuang to Maidao, will have their own variations.

Northeastern Mandarin

Northeastern Mandarin or Northeast China Dialect is a variety of , known as ''Dongbeihua'' , literally "Northeast Speech/Language," or ''Dongbeiguanhua'' in Mandarin. Northeastern Mandarin is very similar to the Beijing dialect, upon which Standard Mandarin Chinese is based.

Geographical spread

The dialect is spoken by people in the Northeastern part of Mainland China; areas like Liaoning , Jilin, and Heilongjiang provinces. With over 100 million people living in the Northeastern part of China, the Northeastern Mandarin-speaking population is quite large. Like other Mandarin dialects, differences between Northeastern Mandarin and other forms arise from the wide geographical distribution and cultural diversity of northern China.


Northeastern Mandarin can be subdivided into regional sub-dialects named for major cities where there might be slight differences.

*Changchun dialect
*Harbin dialect
*Qiqihar dialect
*Shenyang dialect

Linguistic information

Usually, speakers of Northeastern Mandarin describe the variant that they are speaking as distinct from Standard Mandarin. However, linguists classify Northeastern Mandarin as a form of Mandarin Chinese in a broader sense. While the difference between Northeastern Mandarin and Beijing dialect are not so significant phonologically, Northeastern Mandarin contains many colloquialisms not found in Standard Mandarin.

Cultural and regional identity

Although not considered a language in academic circles, Mandarin variants like Northeastern Mandarin often contribute to a strong regional identity. Chinese speakers can usually recognize a Northeasterner by his or her accent .

Origins of the dialect

Northeastern Mandarin evolved from Han immigrants mainly from Shandong and Hebei provinces who settled Manchuria in the late 19th and early 20th centuries but it also retains elements from native Tungusic languages, and and there are enough differences to give the dialect its own distinctive characteristics.

Luoyang dialect

The Luoyang Dialect is a dialect of Zhongyuan Mandarin spoken in Luoyang and nearby parts of . Although it served as the prestige dialect of Chinese from the Warring States Period into the Ming Dynasty, it differs greatly from modern Standard Mandarin, which is based instead on the Beijing dialect.





*The Middle Chinese entering tone has a different distribution in the Luoyang Dialect than in Standard Mandarin.
*Tone contours are different from those in Standard Mandarin.
*The retroflex and alveolar fricatives are found in different distributions: retroflex fricatives are often fronted to alveolar fricatives.
*The distinction between and , lost in Standard Mandarin, is maintained.
*The retroflex series is less retroflexed than in Standard Mandarin and slightly more forward.
*The alveolo-palatal series is slightly more backward than in Standard Mandarin.
*Final and in Standard Mandarin are often reared to . For example, 学 is , and 角 is .
*Final in Standard Mandarin is pronounced as or in certain environments.
*Standard Mandarin final nasalizes the preceding vowel in the Luoyang Dialect.
*The -儿 suffix represents .

Kunming dialect

The Kunming dialect of is spoken by the inhabitants of Kunming and the surrounding areas of Yunnan province in Southwest China. The dialect is basically similar to Standard Mandarin, the major differences being the unique pronunciation of certain sounds and the development of unique phrases and terms. As with all dialects of Chinese, speakers of the Kunming dialect read standard Chinese characters, though the pronunciation of words can, in some cases, be markedly different. For example the Chinese word 什么 is pronounced ''nǎn-yàng'' in vernacular Kunming dialect. In some cases entirely unique phrases are used, which may or may not have equivalent written characters. To say "I don't know" in Standard Mandarin is 不知道 but in Kunming dialect is the completely different phrase ''rèn bù dé''. Another example would be ''hai-zi'' meaning shoes in the Kunming dialect, whereas in Standard Mandarin ''hai-zi'' means child and ''xie zi'' is the phrase for shoes.

Jilu Mandarin

Jilu Mandarin is a spoken in the provinces of Hebei and Shandong. Despite these areas being quite near Beijing, Jilu sounds quite different from Beijing dialect, which is the basis for Standard Mandarin, the standard Chinese spoken language.

Regional variations

*Baoding dialect 保定話
*Jinan dialect 濟南話
*Shijiazhuang dialect 石家莊話
*Tianjin dialect 天津話