Bird Language -- 鳥語

[Ian_Lee]

After browsing thru many northerners' blogs, I find out that they have a tendancy to tease Cantonese as 鳥語 -- Bird Language.

粵語 is not 鳥語. Those who speak it are human beings, not birds.

[shibo77]

Of course it isn't, it is a pejorative insult for any language considered hard to understand (given up on trying to understand) by the speaker. Most of the time I only hear it in relation to English or Japanese, 考鸟语六级, 说鸟语的狗日本。。。 Mostly just for humour or venting, nothing to get worked up about. It comes from the phrase “禽声鸟语，虫声蟋语” originally.

-Shibo

[HashiriKata]

I agree with shibo77 that it's nothing to get worked up about and we shouldn't make an issue out of it. In the UK, if anything we don't understand, we call it "Dutch" (or even "Double Dutch" ! ) but I don't think Dutch people would get worked up about this. Rather, I guess Dutch people must feel quite pleased about themselves because they understand what English speakers are saying whereas the majority of English speakers would be completely ignorant about Dutch.

[skylee]

Look at it this way - it is not impossible that the term came from 鳥語花香, meaning it is pleasant to listen to.

[grimacekid]

The phase 鸟语 itself does not contain any tone of insult at all. It is commonly used when we hear a language that we can't understand, it is quite a funny phase.

When I was in college shared a dorm with 6 girls, we all came from different cities of Guangdong and each of us had our own dialect. But some dialect are very easy to understand like Hunan dialect and Sichuan dialect, but Chaozhou or Hakka dialect sounds completely like a foreign languages. When the girl from Chaozhou speaking in the phone with her parent, she laughed and laughed but we didn't understand what was that about, we teased her that she was speaking 鸟语 just for making fun.

[Xiao Kui]

Look at it this way - it is not impossible that the term came from 鳥語花香, meaning it is pleasant to listen to.

Entirely impossible. Personally, I love the way it sounds (honestly, waiting to "finish" learning Mandarin so I can devote some quality time to learning it), but every discussion I've had with other non-Cantonese speakers, I'm clearly in the minority.

[studentyoung]

粵語 is not 鳥語. Those who speak it are human beings, not birds.

Some northerners call 粤语 as “鸟语” doesn’t mean “Bird Language”. In fact, it means Cantonese is too hard to understand, especially for northerners.

这个如同“鸟语”一般的专栏，该要写上句号了。广州话，九个声、六个调，虽有“古汉语化石”的雅称，初到广州的内地人闻之却有如听“鸟语”。我把自己豁出去，试图借粤语口头禅去感知粤人的文化密码，“点睇”？

http://cache.baidu.com/c?word=%C8%C4%3B%D4%AD%C9%FA%2C%C4%F1%D3%EF%BB%A8%CF%E3&url=http%3A//gzdaily%2Edayoo%2Ecom/html/2007%2D02/28/content%5F23149326%2Ehtm&p=9e3bd65385cc42ed08e2977b4651&user=baidu

Look at it this way - it is not impossible that the term came from 鳥語花香, meaning it is pleasant to listen to.

Yes, you just said it. “鸟语花香” is considered as a mark of 广州. One of Guangzhou’s nick names is 花城 “Flower City”, so it is called “花香”. “鸟语”, i.e. 粤语, is hard to understand, but indeed pleasant to listen to

“鸟语花香”说不尽，说了今日待明日。文化是一种自觉，讲究一种自在，品味一种自然。读者朋友，当你已经爱上“鸟语花香”，已经觉得与这种文化密不可分，那么，恭喜你，你已经是一个广州人了！

http://cache.baidu.com/c?word=%C8%C4%3B%D4%AD%C9%FA%2C%C4%F1%D3%EF%BB%A8%CF%E3&url=http%3A//gzdaily%2Edayoo%2Ecom/html/2007%2D02/28/content%5F23149326%2Ehtm&p=9e3bd65385cc42ed08e2977b4651&user=baidu

Thanks!

[Ian_Lee]

The term "Bird language" may be first referred to the Wu languages -- Shanghaiese, Suzhouhua,...etc that have sharper tones which sounded like bird chirping in the ears of northerners.

But now after the Wu languages gradually vanished from public usage, Cantonese gets this label.

[Yang Rui]

Some of the responses here remind me of the old "is the term Laowai insulting?" debate. Some people have implied "niaoyu" is almost a kind of compliment, showing how complicated the other language is, just as some people argue that the "lao" in "laowai" shows respect. It seems that it ultimately comes down to the way the speaker uses the word - some people will use it as an insult to try and belittle or dehumanise, or make fun of another group. Other people will use the words but not mean any insult by them - and it's usually obvious to the listener what is being implied

[roddy]

So what do Cantonese speakers 'tease' Mandarin as?

[pazu]

Roddy, I can't think of any specific derogatory word that Cantonese speakers use to describe Mandarin. But I do have an impression that people who dislike Cantonese most, are from the NE... or just my observation. (sh)

[skylee]

So what do Cantonese speakers 'tease' Mandarin as?

I can't think of any terms other than 國語, 普通話, and 官話 (官話 is hardly used).

[pazu]

What would you say if you want to refer to Sichuanese for Kunminghua in a derogatory way? I can't think of any either.

[studentyoung]

So what do Cantonese speakers 'tease' Mandarin as?

Cantonese speakers call “普通话” as “煲冬瓜”.What’s more, since some Cantonese called northerners as “捞头”, so northerners’ language is called “捞话”.

Thanks!

[Quest]

“煲冬瓜” is usually a tease on the person's inability to speak mandarin, not on mandarin itself. 捞话 is like "chinkish/chinkese" a derived term that inherited the properties and meanings of 捞.

In Mandarin: 什么鸟~ is similar to "the hell", "the heck".

[gato]

http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/4b41c10f010005yz

鸟（diao）论

[Koneko]

So what do Cantonese speakers 'tease' Mandarin as?

撇京腔。

K.

[skylee]

撇京腔。

I wonder if this is Cantonese. I don't think I have heard it before.

[Koneko]

It's normally used by non-Beijing speakers, I assumed HK was part of it.

Apparently, it's not the case...

Just like I though HK was still part of the Commonwealth.

K.

[studentyoung]

In Mandarin: 什么鸟~ is similar to "the hell", "the heck".

Look at it this way - it is not impossible that the term came from 鳥語花香, meaning it is pleasant to listen to.

Luckily, Skylee has said it, so I don’t need to express the point again. I think there is some kind of place called “Red-light District” in Western society. Can we say that we Chinese people should not use red lanterns to express festive atmosphere?

Thanks!