Hebei 1

Listen to Hebei 1, a 21-year-old man from Cangzhou, Renqiu, Hebei Province, China. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

Both as a courtesy and to comply with copyright law, please remember to credit IDEA for direct or indirect use of samples.  IDEA is a free resource; please consider supporting us.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 21

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 19/01/1990

PLACE OF BIRTH: Cangzhou, Renqiu, Hebei Province

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Han Chinese

OCCUPATION: student

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

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

Subject had been living in Suzhou, Jiangsu, for six months prior to the recording.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

There have been very few direct influences; he lived at home, on a farm, until coming to university in Suzhou six months ago. He began to learn English at the age of 14 but did not have any native English-speaking teachers at school. During his time at university, he also 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): 06/04/2011

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

(Uhm) I’m Messi. I’m from Hebei Province. I’m an active boy. (uhm) I was from the countryside – but I’mmm [pause] I think I’m strong heart. (uhm) I started to learn English at 14 years old. (uhm) I have two sisters. One is nine years older than me, the other is – is seven years older than me. (uhm) I think my – I love my hometown I love my [pause] relatives. (uhm)

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 his own Ji-Lu Mandarin dialect. Jilu has a different accent and some lexical differences from the standard Beijing Mandarin (Putonghua); for this, see the two pinyin versions of the readings. The accent is distinctive of the northern Mandarin group, and a comparison with the reading in the Jiangsu Seven sample illustrates the distinguishing features quite nicely; notice, for example, the rolled /r/ in the northern dialect. The main difference lies in the tone of the 不 (bu) and 而 (er) characters.

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 :-  zǐ yuē: xué ĕr shí xí zhī, bŭ yì yuè hū.

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:-  yǒu péng zì yuǎn fāng lái, bŭ yì lè hū.

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:  rén bŭ zhī ĕr bŭ yùn, bŭ yì jūn zi hū.

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

D: 2-2:-  The Master said: In the Book of Odes there are three hundred poems, but they may be summarized 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:-  zǐ yóu wèn xiào. zǐ yuē: jīn zhī xiào zhě, shì wèi néng yǎng. zhì wū quǎn mǎ, jiē néng yǒu yǎng; bŭ jìng, hé yǐ bié hū.

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

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

Héběi is the province in north China that surrounds the municipalities of Beijing and Tianjin. The name means “North of the Yellow (river).” Its alternative name in Yānzhào, derived from the states of Yan and Zhao that comprised this territory during the Warring States Period of early Chinese history. It was in the plains of Héběi that Peking Man (a Homo erectus group) flourished around 200,000 to 700,000 years ago. Chinese Neolithic findings at the prehistoric Beifudi site date back to 7000 and 8000 BCE.

After the Warring States Period,Chinawas unified by the Qin Dynasty in 221 BCE and under the Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE) Héběi consisted of two provinces, Youzhou and Jizhou. Following the end of the Han Dynasty and the period of the Three Kingdoms, Héběi came under the rule of the Kingdom of Wei. Being strategically placed at the northern frontier of China, Héběi changed hands many times during the long period of upheavals during the 5th and 6th centuries.

Stability came with the Tang Dynasty (618-907) when the province was first designated as Héběi. During the Song Dynasty (960-1127), it again changed hands many times and was ceded to the Jurchen Jin Dynasty when the Southern Song abandoned north China in 1127. Although the Mongol Yuan Dynasty (1271- 1368) established by Kublai Khan divided China into provinces, Héběi was not designated as a province. The succeeding Ming Dynasty ruled it directly from the imperial capital,Beijing. This arrangement was not ended until 1928.

The sample’s hometown is Cangzhou, historically known in China for its wushu – or martial arts – and acrobatics (specifically, the Wu Qiao school). The city is also famous for its 40-ton sculpture, the Iron Lion of Cangzhou. This, the largest cast-iron sculpture in the world, was cast in 953 during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. The lion has given its name to a locally brewed beer and is a symbol of the city.

The dominant language of Cangzhou is a variety of the northeastern Ji-Lu Mandarin. There are some similarities with both the Tianjin and the Baoding dialects Mandarin, but all three are considered distinct groups. Cangzhou-area topolects are partially mutually intelligible with standard Mandarin.

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 very common failure to pronounce the possessive /s/ after another s-like sound can be heard in “goose’s” and an interesting feature is the pronunciation of the final “e” in “rare.” This has not been heard in the speakers of the Wu dialects but is beginning to crop up in these northern dialect regions.

COMMENTARY BY: Bill McCann

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

The archive provides:

• Recordings of accent/dialect speakers from the region you select.
• Text of the speakers’ biographical details.
• Scholarly commentary and analysis in some cases.
• In most cases, an orthographic transcription of the speakers’ unscripted speech.  In a small number of cases, you will also find a narrow phonetic transcription of the sample (see Phonetic Transcriptions for a complete list).  The recordings average four minutes in length and feature both the reading of one of two standard passages, and some unscripted speech. The two passages are Comma Gets a Cure (currently our standard passage) and The Rainbow Passage (used in our earliest recordings).

 

For instructional materials or coaching in the accents and dialects represented here, please go to Other Dialect Services.