Shanghainese radio audio clip and transcript

Shanghainese radio, female speaker, plus music:

Download: http://www.wuyue.org/shanghairadio0622.wma

12 minutes, 5.7mb

Daacaa hau, cintsau Tsiemo ne, jeu chounen jeutiee toe, inwei Ghoodi ne ghoo zu siantshelei le, daezune, ei mme zieethi siaatshelei, ei mme zieethi sianhau tauti iau naana lei cån ji. Inwei cåncån leila tsenli Siantsu, tsenlile ghoo Houchi ha dou ia, tsen zu. Naanen jeute caahitou Mezu iau to, naanen jeute caahitou Mezu iau fån, naanen jeute caahitou Mezu iau tsencin Siantsu-lihian chi... [hen...] Jeu chounen Siaucougnian piciau moovae, iau taa ciaucuae Izan weichi, ertshie jeu zu Ghoothiee le, tshoele hauchoe iegnae lau... Ceme chouri vetaa weichi, tau Zånhei zonsin maa vela.. ge iau pa Paapaamaamaa tan Phicou ghe. [ai..] Pecou ne, gheihau, Siantsu ghaa vezu lau zon, soezoe zu iau iecaadeu tshen Tshootsu couchi, daezu incei ghei zu 'linte-don ghe. Tsepecou siansian leila Fici-caudeu zeci-ghe Tsondeu fijin, tsenghe zu 'mae sinchoughe. Vehiaute ghoole Fici weite pieezen saaghe Jantsu, jeuvejeu Cinlie tshechi besian ne? Tau Zånhei ghe Zencuan ghoopoethiee le, tsenghe vesian tshechi besian; vesian lånfi zenvou ie Fentson, daezu vehiaute Tsinzen chietesiau va. Ceme, ala siee lei thinthehie Injå, gnian ghoo zinzinchoe jeu saaghe Mezu cintsau chouri cån ghela...

[injå: Crystal Gale - A Long and Lasting Love]

[m...] Gephiee Ventsan ne zu cåncån leila Siaudau Siausie lihian zintau ghe, Piaudeu ne zieu ciau "多给男人一点遗憾", ghoo choele iehiaa, getså Vendi couci iau jinchi lau doughe Tsengni ghe, zetsilån zuze tsenghe genjantsu va, ala siee lei thinthinchoe, choechoeciau ge lihian jeute tauti tousau zu tsenchüeghe, ghaa jeute tousau zu siuriau ceitsen vetsenchüeghe ne? --Tou pa Noegnin ietiee Jihoe. Inwei teijiu Jihoe lei cån, ieze zei zu Noegnin Sin-lihian 一道凄美的风景线, jilaa daatousou vetonte tsensie, sinfonghe zieuzucån teve-tau ghe tsei zu tsoe phiaulian, tsoe 'meilighe, sechiule tsoncuae zu jeu Suri ghe, gnian ji sechiu non pi non sechiu ji iau tsoe Ieusu te tou. Viau pa Noegnin tei non Chueigieusin coedon, inwei oetsau Sinli Senzen Insou fensie, tån ji tei non jeute Chueigieucoe ghe Zencuån, thonzån jicin leila Zieerise-lihian cheisu baatshe non le.

Saa ciau Zenghoo ne? Tshin thin Noegnin zian non piauda Eiri.

Saa ciau Zoese ne? Tshin thin Noegnin tei nonghe Zenno.

Saa ciau Moncin ne? Tshin thin non zucaa thintau ziee lian-tsei Zencuån ghe Faerin.

Zetsilån ne, ghoo ghaa gnioeri siansin Noegnin zieu zian ghoo tsenghe gnioeri siansin Gontshaetsugni tsoetson weite zejee iejan ghe. 'Maeghe Gniugnin iesen tsusau iau saa ie-than. Daezu zucou saa lian-than ghotse izan ghene, zieu vezu Gniugnin le, zu Tsulou, Muzhu. Uaa...ge-ciu Ghaeghoo cånle jeutiee couven au...

Choe Noegnin tei nonghe Theidou iau choe ji taa non chi saaghe Difån.

Taa non chi caucie Vaetiee ne, ji sian non tsou jighe Zingnin.

Taa non chi choe jighe Gieusei ne, ji tsepecou sian 'nei non tån Gemener.

Taa non chi Tsieupaa ne, ji hiwån pån non fasen one-night-stand.

Taa non chi Loudithae ne, no, non tshoothe le, ji vezu 'nei non tån Laubou, ji zu lakei oezu non. ...Cintsau ala Jaavae AA tsu.

Noegnincaa huoehi non bin vedeipiau ji ei non.

Noegnincaa ei non bin vedeipiau ji weite thau non tsou Laubou.

Noegnincaa iau pån non ciehun, bin vedeipiau ji weite tei non hau Iepeitsu.

Noegnincaa iau tei non hau Iepeitsu, deipiau ji leila tshu Gnieupi.

Tsontsu, ietshieghe ietshie zieu cincin semin ie Tiee: Ji lau tsimoghe, ertshie lau vouliaughe.

Tån ieghe Noegnin jeu Ciwei pån non fasen Cuaehi er bin vegenjantsu tsou ghe Zencuån, bin vetsenmin ji zu Tsengnin-Cüntsu. Caabei siausin au! Ji lau jeu chounen jicin jeute Laubou, ertshie cen Laubou ghe cuaehi ei vetshoo.

Teijiu Noegnin ne, tshin viau 以身试法. Zucou non ei mme 修炼到刀枪不入, zieu siee tsoutau 沉默是金 没有武艺傍身, zieu tshieevae viau 行走江湖.

Zucou non pån nonghe Noebanjeu ghotse Laucon tan Dieeghoo a, Zoehou a, Seuci, bantau 占线, vetsie, vewei, cuaeci, vela vovouchiu ghe Zinchuån ne, woeziee mme pieriau chi tan digni-tså, inwei phouwaa gnincaa Huoelo Zencuan zezei zu vehaughe ietsån Zuthi; cuaezieeghe zu, gnian non zucaa ghaa lau mme Mieetsu ghe.

Noegnin ne zu genjantsu ghe ietson Donve: Gnaapiau zian Chonchüe, Bichi zian Congnieu, Jinwei ne zian 种马. Uaa, ge zezei zu tha couvenle ietiee. Choe Noegnin daatousou Zencuån zei weite tseugnae, cheisu iwei zu 白马王子, tau tsoegheu weite fajee gnioelei zu 白眼蛤蟆. 背叛是男人的血统，博爱是男人的宣言，自由是男人的口头禅，见异思迁是男人一贯的风尚. 贱是深植于他们骨髓的脱氧核糖核酸(DNA).

真的是这样子的吗? Ala siee lei thinthehie Injå tsei lei chauliu iehiaa getså Vendi la.

[injå: J. Lo - Waiting for Tonight]

Cintsau Tsiemo ne zieu tau geta le. Ala ei zu chidei mintsaughe Tsiemo lau.

Ghooooooo weite noulie siaatshe Hautonsi lei pa daacaa thin ghe, ghaa hiwån daacaa iedin iau cite lei thin au. Ceme cintsau zieu tau geta le, ala mintsau tseiwei le!

[injå: Tension - My Angel 恒星]

Thanks for the very nice & clear sounding sample, ala!

I understanding nothing spoken in the recording but I noticed the word "ala" repeated quite a few times. What does "ala" mean?

Incidentally, I've heard a Shanghai girl always pronouncing "pen2you3" for "peng2you3" （= 朋友）. Is this an isolated case or does Shanghainese have a tendency to replace the syllable-ending "ng" with "n" ?

Cheers,

What does "ala" mean?

It means "I" or "we".

I've heard a Shanghai girl always pronouncing "pen2you3" for "peng2you3" （= 朋友）. Is this an isolated case or does Shanghainese have a tendency to replace the syllable-ending "ng" with "n" ?

朋友 in Shanghainese sounds like "bang2you2" in Pinyin (without pronouncing the -ng), to be consistent with spelling used in first post, it's Banjeu.

Excerpt from above clip: Noebanjeu (boyfriend 男朋友). http://www.wuyue.org/noebanjeu.mp3 (8kb)

You are right, there is absolutely no -ng/-n distinction in the Wu dialects (the nasal final can be just represented by a single -n in Shanghainese romanizations). It is one of the most obvious accents Shanghainese people have when speaking Mandarin. Their 金 and 京 sounds the same; likewise 因 and 英, 森 and 声. We all had to memorize which characters had -ng, which had -n in school. Korean/Cantonese's -ng, -n and -m would be an even greater nightmare!

General trait for Wu dialects: extremely rich inventory of initial consonants (over 29), huge amounts of pure vowels (over 13), and almost no finals. Very much an open syllable language. The large number of consonants and vowels enable Shanghainese to limit the number of its homophones while also having very little tones (just 2 contrast). To the Mandarin speaker, there are 4 rhymes in Shanghainese that sound "just like u": 哑oo [ U], 污ou , 安oe [ø], 碗uoe [wø].

Thank you for replying, ala.

The non-distinction between "ng" and "n" is very interesting. It's almost seem to be a near-universal feature: in many languages I happen to know, although the official versions may distinguish "ng" and "n", the regional or social dialects often merge them. I don't know why but bear in mind the languages I'm talking about are as far away from one another as English, Shanghainese, Vietnamese, etc.

Cheers,

Shanghainese has the [ng] initial though. 五 is pronounced [ng], 外 is [nga], 那 is [na]

It's just that in Wu dialects, the rhymes and finals are highly truncated.

三 is sae [sE] (like German sä), used to be [sae~] 300 yrs ago

安 is oe [ø] (like German ö), used to be [oe~] 300 yrs ago

厌 is iee or [iI], used to be [iI~] 300 yrs ago

Thus there is no 残 zae / 上 zan conflict; no conflict of 算 soe / 宋 son.

But 神 zen, 成 zen merge; 新 sin, 性 sin merge.

I was trying to decode it: 大家好，今个节目呢由***，因为五点呢我就上车了，****就下车了，************** 因为刚刚来了整理箱子，and some more..........

but then gave up...

I was trying to decode it: 大家好，今个节目呢由***，因为五点呢我就上车了，****就下车了，************** 因为刚刚来了整理箱子，and some more..........

but then gave up...

Hehe, not quite right, it's actually really easy to decode I think, especially if you know both Mandarin and Cantonese already.

Here's the first paragraph:

大家好，今朝节目呢 有可能有点短，因为 话题呢 我是想出来了，但是呢 还呒没全体写出来，还呒没全体想好到底要哪哪来讲伊。因为刚刚勒勒整理箱子，整理了我火气哈大呀真是。哪能有得界兮多物事要笃，哪能有得界兮多物事要放，哪能有得界兮多物事要正经到箱子里向去！ 有可能小姑娘比较麻烦，要带交关衣裳回去，而且又是夏天了，穿了好看一眼咯。。。格么可以勿带回去，到上海重新买伐啦，搿要拔爸爸妈妈打屁股个。。。唉，不过呢，还好，箱子也勿是老重，虽然是要一家头乘车子过去，但是应该还是另得动个。 只不过想想勒勒飞机高头十几个种头飞行，真个是蛮辛苦个。 勿晓得下了飞机会得变成啥个样子，有勿有尽力出去白相呢？ 到上海个晨光下半天了，真个勿想出去白相；勿想浪费任何一分钟，但是勿晓得精神吃得消伐。 格么，阿拉先来听脱歇音乐，让我寻寻看有啥个物事今朝可以讲个啦。

maybe it's just the woman, but the language just seems very... pleasant. Like a softer form of Japanese.

Ala, you should dedicate a web-site for just learning Shanghainese for English speakers! Great job! Keep at it.

I understant that Shnghainese is not standardised and for some words there's no written equivalent (please confirm). How do you choose the characters that you use? Is the character text easily understood by Mandarin speakers?

There is a body of Wu literature during the Qing dynasty that serves as a good source of "precedent" for the selection of Chinese characters. For words outside this source, a Chinese character is chosen such that it would have not only the exact contemporary pronunciation but one that extend to history as having the same pronunciation. This takes scholars to do, and recently there has been a few dictionaries on Wu and Shanghainese published. As the bulk of modern vocabulary (high tech, social sciences, etc) are the same with Mandarin (and many same with Japanese and Korean as well), just altered pronunciations, Shanghainese text written conservatively can still be read by Mandarin speakers, but they will not have a clue on how to pronounce it.

Another way of writing Shanghainese is to go at it completely phonetically.. by that I mean using Hanyu Pinyin pronunciation of characters to approximate the Shanghainese pronunciation. This type of writing is more common on Shanghainese forums and chatrooms, and is very difficult to read for non-Shanghainese speakers.

English: Come watch us play cars tonight, we have many cars here that you can also play.

Mandarin: 今天晚上来看我们玩车，我们这里有很多辆车你也可以玩。

Shanghainese:

Conservative writing-- 今朝夜头来看看叫阿拉孛相车子，阿拉搿搭有得交关部车子侬也可以孛相相个。

Phonetic writing-- 今早亚豆来苦苦叫阿拉白相粗子，阿拉个大有得较贵部粗子农嗄苦以白相相俄。

Romanization-- Cintsau jaadeu lei choechoeciau ala besian tshootsu, ala geta jeute ciaucuae bou tshootsu non ghaa chouri besiansian ghe.

(c /k/, ch /k'/, j /j/, si /Si/, ci /tSi/, chi / tS'i/, au /O/, e /schwa/, eu /gamma/, ei /ej/, ae /E/, oe /ø/, oo /U/, ou /u/, u /devoiced/).

孛相 and 搿搭 are not words in Mandarin, either. Are you using these instead 白相 and 个大 because the they contain more rarely used characters and thus would be more readily recognized as non-Mandarin words?

孛相 was used as early as the Tang dynasty to mean "play" (a colloquial term).

搿搭 "geta" is chosen because the characters fit with Shanghainese phonology. For example the 搭 "ta" in "geta" (here) is the same pronunciation as 搭积木. Whereas, 大 "daa" (as in 大学) in Shanghainese is a totally different pronunciation from 搭 "ta".

白相 and 个大 are completely Mandarin approximations and random selections. Mandarin does not have long and short vowels: 大 and 搭 are same length, but in Shanghainese 大 is two times longer than 搭, and the former is a voiced consonant /d/, while the latter is voiceless unaspirated /t/.

Likewise:

啥saa 杀sa ; 惹zaa 石za; 矮aa 压a

沙soo 速so; 茶zoo 族zo; 哑oo 恶o