Guangxi 4

Listen to Guangxi 4, a 19-year-old woman from Beihai, Guangxi, China. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 19

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 07/11/1994

PLACE OF BIRTH: Chongkou, Lianzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (but raised in Beihai)

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Han Chinese

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: university

AREAS OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS: N/A

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH: N/A

The text used in our recordings of scripted speech can be found by clicking here.

RECORDED BY: Bill McCann

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 12/11/2013

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

Hello, I come from Beihai. Now, I’ll introduce two touristic places to you. They give me a deep impression. The first I want to say is the silver beach. The silver beach is well known as the first beach of Beihai. The most suitable season to visit is summer. In summer, there are many activities: boating, swimming, beach volleyball, sunbathe, enjoying the sea wind. But, of course, boating and swimming are very dangerous. Besides, you can see the beautiful scenery: sunrise and sunset. If, fortunately, you can pick some amazing seashells. The next is Underwater World. It is very interesting. It just like a museum. You can see varieties of fish, any sea living things swim in the water through glasses.
[The subject now goes on to read abstracts from the Analects of Confucius in her own Lianzhouhua dialect. (See the detailed commentary below.) She has also provided a pinyin transliteration. A reading in Putonghua (Mandarin) can be heard on the Hebei 1 sample.]

TRANSCRIBED BY: Bill McCann

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 20/11/2013

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

SHORT READINGS FROM THE ANALECTS OF CONFUCIUS

KEY: A = Mandarin (Simplified); B = Mandarin (Pinyin); C = Dialect (Pinyin); D = English.

孔子: 论语 – Kǒng zǐ : lún yǔ – Kon zi: len yu – Confucius: Lun Yu

 

學而第一 – xué ér dì yī – Xué ér dì yī – Chapter One

A: 1-1:-       子曰: 學而時習之、不亦說乎。

B: yī-yī :-    zǐ yuē: xué ér shí xí zhī, bù yì yuè hū.

C: yī-yī :-    ji yue / hæ _ri shi qa zha / mou yi rui fu.

D: 1-1:-       The Master said: Is it not pleasure to learn, and practice what is learned time and again?

A: 1-2:-       有朋自遠方來、不亦樂乎。

B: yī-èr:-     yǒu péng zì yuǎn fāng lái, bù yì lè hū.

C: yī-èr:-     you pong zi yun fang lui /mou yi læ fu.

D: 1-2:-       Is it not happiness to have friends coming from distant places?

A: 1-3:-       人不知而不慍、不亦君子乎。

B: yī-sān:    rén bù zhī ér bù yùn, bù yì jūn zi hū.

C: yī-sān:    ren  mou zi ri mou wen /mou yi guang zi fu .

D: 1-3:-       Is it not virtue for a man to feel no discomposure when others take no note of him?

為政第二 – wéi zhèng dì èr – wéi zhèng dì ér – Chapter two

A: 2-2:-       子曰：「詩三百，一言以蔽之，曰：『思無邪』。

B: èr-èr:-     zǐ yuē: shī sān bǎi, yī yán yǐ bì zhī , yuē: sī wú xié.

C: èr-èr:-     zi yue :  shi san bie ,_a yan yi pi zhi, yue :si mou

D: 2-2:-       The Master said: In the Book of Odes there are three hundred poems, but they may be summarised in a single sentence: Think no evil.

A: 2-7:-       子游問孝。子曰：今之孝者，是謂能養。至於犬馬，皆能有養；不敬,    何 以別乎。

B: èr-qī:-     zǐ yóu wèn xiào. zǐ yuē: jīn zhī xiào zhě, shì wèi néng yǎng. zhì wū quǎn mǎ, jiē néng yǒu yǎng; bù jìng, hé yǐ bié hū.

C: : èr-qī:-   zi rao men hao zi yue :ge zhi hao ze_,shi wei næng_ ren.qi yun kun ma,jie nang you ren_;mou jing__,ho yi  bie fu.

D: 2-7:-       Zi You asked what filial piety was. The Master said: Nowadays, providing support for one’s parents is considered filial piety. But dogs and horses can also do this. If there is no respect, what is the difference?

A: 2-10:-     子曰：「視其所以，觀其所由，察其所安。人焉叟哉？人焉叟哉？

B: èr-shí :- zǐ yuē: shì qí suǒ yǐ , guān qí suǒ yóu, chá qí suǒ ān. rén yān sǒu zāi? rén yān sǒu zāi?

C: èr-shí :- zi yue :shi ki suo yi , gun ki suo you ,ca ki suo un ,ren yin sou zai ?

D: 2-10:-     The Master said: Watch what a man does. Find out his motives. See how he takes his ease. How then can the man hide his true self? How can the man hide his true self?

COMMENTARY

This is a good, strong accent that displays a number of characteristics that seem to be common to the speakers of English from Guangxi. Listen for the dropped final /t/ and /d/ phones and the pronunciation of “ar” as in “rare.” Also, the /T/ phone is occasionally sounded as /s/.

The subject’s dialect is Lianzhou hua. It is a sub-dialect of Shaozhou Tuhua, an unclassified Chinese language spoken in the border region of Guangdong, Hunan, and Guangxi. It is mutually unintelligible with Hunan hua, Cantonese, or Mandarin. It originated as the language of nüshu, the “women’s script” of Jiangyong County in Yongzhou, Hunan. Some scholars consider it an extension of the Pinghua language of Guangxi. (See the Commentary for the Guangxi 1 sample.) However, others argue that its foundation lies in the in the North and South Song dynasties (960-1279) Middle Gan, mixed with Hakka, Cantonese, and South-western Mandarin. It is also thought that there may be a significant non-Chinese influence such as Yao, and it may even have started out as Sinicized Yao. Unfortunately, Tuhua is retreating before Cantonese, Hakka, and, of course, Putonghua, and is increasingly found only in rural dialect islands.

For a summary of the historical background of Guangxi, see the Guangxi 1 sample.

The subject’s hometown is Chongkou village in Lianzhou, Hepu county, which borders Lianjiang (Guangdong) to the southeast, Bobai County to the northeast, the Gulf of Tonkin to the south, Qinzhou to the west, and Pubei County to the north. In ancient times, Hepu was one of the political, economic, and cultural centers of the Lingnan region. As a major trading center during the Ming (368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, it saw many waves of immigrants from Guangdong and Guangzhou, who brought the Hakka and Cantonese dialects with them.

Today it is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Beihai. The name of the city means “north of the sea” in Chinese, signifying its status as a seaport on the north shore of the Gulf of Tonkin, which is historically important as a port of international trade for Guangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan. After the 1876 Sino-British Treaty of Yantai, eight Western nations (the UK, US, Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Italy, Portugal, and Belgium) set up embassies, hospitals, churches, schools, and maritime customs in Beihai. Fifteen of these Western buildings still survive today. The major vernacular languages of Beihai include several Cantonese dialects and Hakka. Putonghua (Mandarin) is becoming increasingly prevalent as a result of part of the Chinese government’s general promotion of the “Common Language.”

COMMENTARY BY: Bill McCann

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 20/11/2013

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