Aug 11, 2024
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“鬼门开了出鬼怪，姑娘出来点灯，掉进河里回不来。”中元节｜赶场七月半，鬼乱窜，天黑不要到处乱跑噢～四川话里，赶场就是赶集的意思。常听老人讲：过去的人们赶集或去别处做生意，通常会天不亮就出门，太阳下山了才回家。正逢中元节，我们便以此来讲诉故事。整个故事的配音由是四川话和客家话（成都
“鬼门开了出鬼怪，姑娘出来点灯，掉进河里回不来。” 中元节｜赶场 七月半，鬼乱窜，天黑不要到处乱跑噢～ "The gate of hell opens and ghosts appear. The girl comes out to light a lamp. She falls into the river and cannot return." Hungry Ghost Festival (Zhongyuan Jie) | Rushing to the market On 15th of the 7th Month, there would be ghost gushing everywhere, so don’t run around when it’s dark~
A short horror film about two ladies going to a market.
Dialects are not just a form of communication but convey cultures, identity and family ties, proponents say. But with fewer Chinese Singaporeans speaking these languages, is there value in learning them?
For years, Brandon Seah had a nagging thought at the back of his mind – to learn Teochew properly one day.
He had picked up simple phrases from his grandmother when he was young. But like most of his generation, the use of predominantly English and Mandarin in school and at home meant that he never quite mastered his dialect, as much as he wanted to.
“It’s the first language of your grandparents but because it’s not yours, it becomes hard to have proper conversations with your own grandparents or even within the family. If you think about it, it’s actually quite strange.
“We think it’s ‘normal’ because we all grew up with this experience but if you go to other countries or communities, it’s not,” said the 36-year-old.
“So for the longest time, I told myself that someday I will learn it properly.”
But as work took him overseas, there was never really a right opportunity for formal lessons.
There was also a lack of suitable learning materials for Teochew, such as a standard textbook. Any written guides available were mostly in Mandarin, for native speakers in China who already have a certain level of proficiency.
Other beginner materials focused on essential vocabulary and phrases and did not provide guidance on forming longer sentences. Various romanisation systems were used, making it difficult to learn pronunciation, Mr Seah said.
Around 2018, the Singaporean realised that if he wanted to learn his dialect, he just had to “get started”.
He began searching for learning materials online, including academic papers, in his free time. He also found audiovisual recordings from the National Archives of Singapore, which he described as useful and a tad nostalgic as “they sounded exactly like (his) grandparents”.
“I was transcribing short excerpts from these online recordings, finding all the grammatical structures and learning from there,” he recalled.
“After some time, I realised I had a lot of notes written up for myself. Why not tidy it up and share it with other people? By then, COVID-19 happened, and it became a bit of a ‘lockdown project’.”
Learning guides for other dialects, such as Cantonese, taught him how to categorise his notes according to topics such as numbers, terms of address and different pronouns. In May 2020, nearly two years after embarking on his dialect journey, Mr Seah launched the Learn Teochew website.
“I wouldn’t say I’m very eloquent in Teochew now. I’m just a very motivated learner,” Mr Seah said with a laugh.
He is not alone. There has been “steady” interest in learning dialects in recent years, with some young Singaporeans taking steps to preserve and promote these Chinese languages for reasons such as family and reconnecting with their heritage, said academics, language schools and clan associations that CNA spoke to for this article.
Still, the reality is that the speaking of Chinese dialects in Singapore is on the decline.
Only 8.7 per cent of residents aged five and above used dialects as the most common language at home in 2020, a drop of 5.6 percentage points from 2010, based on the latest population census.
More households now use English as the most common language – at 48.3 per cent in 2020, versus 32.3 per cent in 2010.
Even among those who spoke a second language at home, only 7.2 per cent spoke Chinese dialects.
This waning use of dialects will likely continue.
Chinese families are losing their linguistic diversity, and with it, the threads linking them to the past.
Complaints regarding trends in transliterating the names of the 姑苏蓝氏 from Modao Zushi
Something that has been bothering me recently is the fact that from what I’ve seen Modao Zushi fandom consistently transliterates the names of the 蓝s according to their Mandarin pronunciation. Like, I know they’re from a Mandarin story, but they’re supposed to be from Jiangnan, so they’re most likely Wuyue - it seems to me that, at least when not quoting characters who are talking in Mandarin, it would make more sense to transliterate their names as Northern Wu.
Dialects
So guys I am working on a series that breaks down some of the dialects of Chinese, like the differences and so on. Comparing them and all. If you guys have any specific dialects you want me to research(yes I will do the work so you all don't have to) let me know. I am game for whatever. I will do any, well known and not so well known.
What’s the Difference Between Mandarin and Cantonese? Are They Both “Chinese”?
When talking about language, people often instantly assume that when you say “Chinese” you mean “Mandarin.” This is because “Mandarin Chinese” is the standard language of China, the world’s #1 spoken language (in terms of native speakers), and the most common language to learn right now for foreign learners of Chinese. However, “Chinese” doesn’t necessarily only mean “Mandarin.” The word “Chinese” collects all 200+ spoken languages in China and in Chinese communities abroad. Saying “Chinese” is a bit like saying “animals”, with all the 200+ dialects being the different species of animals, a more specific answer.
After Mandarin Chinese, the most useful and commonly-spoken dialect of Chinese is Cantonese, spoken in southern China’s Guangdong Province(referred to as Canton in the old days), Hong Kong, Macau and in many Chinatowns throughout the world. Cantonese is a completely different spoken language than Mandarin, and uses nine tones instead of just four, as Mandarin does! Although the past few decades has seen a huge rise in Mandarin Chinese learners, decades ago, due to film and Chinese abroad, Cantonese used to be the more popular language internationally a generation ago.
普通话 (Pǔtōnghuà) = Mandarin
粤语 (Yuèyǔ) = Cantonese
Examples:
Wǒ néng jiǎng biāozhǔn de pǔtōnghuà hé yuèyǔ. 我 能 讲 标 准 的 普 通 话 和 粤 语。 I can speak standard Mandarin and Cantonese.
Tā suīrán shì guǎngdōng rén, què kěyǐ shuō liúlì de pǔtōnghuà. 他 虽然 是 广 东 人， 却 可以 说 流利的 普 通 话。 Although he is Cantonese, he can speak fluent Mandarin.
So, anyway, what are the main differences between Mandarin and Cantonese? Here are four main differences:
1. 地区 (Dìqū) Region
Mandarin is now the official language of mainland China, even in regions where...
...for the FULL LESSON on “Mandarin vs. Cantonese”, you can READ ALONG WITH US HERE!
Modern Chinese Dialects
Linguists generally recognize seven major Chinese dialect areas in China, namely Northern dialect, Wu dialect, Xiang dialect, Gan dialect, Hakka, Min dialect and Cantonese.
North dialect is the foundation of modern Chinese national common dialect, with Beijing dialect as its representative. Also, the Northern dialect is the basic language of the modem Han Nationality. Thus, it is the most widely distributed dialect with speakers accounting for 73% of Han people.
Wu dialect is represented by early Suzhou speech, and now using in Shanghai and Suzhou areas. Its speakers account for 7.2% of Han people.
Xiang dialect is using in Changsha speech and also distributed throughout Hunan Province. Its speakers account for 3.2% of Han people.
The representative of Gan dialect is Nanchang dialect. The Chinese mainly use Gan dialect in Jiangxi area, with its speakers accounting for 3.3% of Han people.
Chinese people mainly speak Hakka dialect in the four areas. They are Guang Dong, Jiang Xi, Fu Jian and the southeast parts of Guang Xi province. It’s speakers accounting for 3.6% of Han people.
Min Chinese dialect consists of Min Nan dialect and Min Bei dialect. Chinese people are primarily using Min Chinese dialect across six provinces. Including Fu Jian province, Hai Nan province, and Guang Dong province. They also speak Min dialect in Lei Zhou peninsula and the south parts of Zhe Jiang province, with its speakers account for 5.7% of Han people.
Yue dialect’s another name is Cantonese and represented by Guangzhou speech, with its speakers accounting for 4% of Han people.