Guizhou 1

Listen to Guizhou 1, a 20-year-old woman from Zunyi, Guizhou Province, China. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 20

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 15/04/1991

PLACE OF BIRTH: Zunyi, Guizhou Province

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Han Chinese

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: At the time of the recording, subject was in her first year at university.

AREA(S) OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS:

The subject is an English major student and had been living in Suzhou for six months before the recording was made.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

These are few, as she had not been outside her own province before coming to university in Suzhou six months ago. She began to learn English at the age of 11 and had no foreign teachers at school. During her time at university in Suzhou, she has had very limited exposure to native English-speaking teachers.

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): 05/04/2011

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

(Hmmm) My name is Hu Yun Ting; I’m from Guizhou and – my – m-my hometown is built for – and (ah) it is far away (ah) from Su- Suzhou. And (ah, ah) I have a brother, and he study [laughs] in Anhui Province. And (ah – aaah) [pause] if you – if you visit Guizhou (ah) have enjoy yourself – ves.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Bill McCann

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 06/04/2011

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

The subject now goes on to read the following abstracts from the Analects of Confucius in her own Guizhouhua dialect (see commentary below). She did not provide a pinyin transliteration, but the differences between her dialect and Putonghua are mostly superficial. Particularly good readings in Putonghua (Mandarin) can be heard on the Hebei 1 and Jiangsu 7 samples.

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

孔子: 论语 – Kǒng zǐ : lún yǔ – Kon zi:leng 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 :-

D: 1-1:-  The Master said: Is it not pleasure to learn, and practise 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:-

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:

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:-

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:-

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 :-

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

Guìzhōu Province is located in the southwestern part of China and has borders with Sichuan, Hunan, Yunnan and Guanxi provinces and Chongqing Municipality. Its provincial capital city is Guiyang. The western part of the province forms part of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and is quite mountainous, but the eastern and southern parts are relatively flat. It is one of China’s poorest provinces and suffers serious environment problems, such as desertification and persistent water shortages.Guizhou is one of China’s most ethnically diverse provinces with more that 37 percent of the population made up of minority groups. As a result, about 55 percent of the province is designated as autonomous regions for the Yao, Miao, Ti and other groups.

During the Western Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 9 CE), Guìzhōu was home to the powerful and independent Yelang Kingdom, which also covered parts of Hunan, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. During the Tang dynasty (618-907 CE), there was some emigration of Chinese soldiers into Guizhou and who married local women. Their descendants are today known as the Lao Han jen (first Chinese) to distinguish them from the later Chinese migrations.

Heavy Chinese settlement came only during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) when it first achieved provincial status. Most of these new immigrants came from the neighboring provinces of Sichuan and Hunan. The aboriginal inhabitants of the area (known as the Miao people) rebelled a number of times against the Ming but were ruthlessly suppressed. It was little different during the Qin Dynasty, when many Chinese soldiers settled down in Guizhou, married Miao women and brought the children up as Miao.

The subject’s hometown is Zunyi, one of the most important cities of the province. It was here, during The Long March, that Mao Zedong was first elected to the leadership of the Communist Party of China.

The dialect spoken in Guizhou is the southwestern branch of Mandarin. Because the Han population is the result of the Ming and Qing migrations, the dialect is very similar to Northern Mandarin, with only minor regional differences in grammar and pronunciation.

Noticeable characteristics, which can be heard on the recordings, include the usual Chinese problems with [s] and [sh], [z] and [zh] pairs. There are also some examples of the /θ/- /s/ and /ʒ/- /s/ and the /v/ and /w/minimal pair transpositions. The subject was quite nervous throughout the recording session, and this will have affected much of her delivery.

COMMENTARY BY: Bill McCann

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 06/04/2011

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