Heilongjiang 3

Listen to Heilongjiang 3, a 20-year-old man from Haerbin, Heilongjiang 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): 20/01/1991

PLACE OF BIRTH: Haerbin, Heilongjiang

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Han Chinese

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: university

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

Subject is a student at the Suzhou University of Science & Technology and has lived has lived in Suzhou, Jiangsu, for 18 months.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The subject will have had to learn Putonghua, but other than that there have been no influences on his speech. He is a science student and has had no exposure to native English speakers.

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): 27/04/2011

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

My Hometown is Haerbin, the capital of Heilongjiang. Is a beautiful city which has a temperate monsoon cli- climate with four different seasons, especially winter, so you are lucky to be here in winter, as the capital is a world-class point of abilities and culture, Songhua Jiang River going through it. People call it the ice city, but the cold never cools the local people’s enthusiasm for enjoying the [unclear] season and all kinds of winter activities. Harbin is best known for the appealing winter landscapes. Every year it will hold the ice and snow festival. There you can find red, yellow, blue, green, orange lights together to light the dark night. How should I say, I love this city which born my mother and take care of her.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Bill McCann

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 17/11/2012

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY:

The subject now goes on to read the following abstracts from the Analects of Confucius in his own Dongbei (Northwestern) dialect of Mandarin.  This dialect is spoken in the northeast of China (known as Manchuria in the West), except the Liaodong Peninsula. It is closely related to Standard Mandarin (Putonghua) with generally little variation in lexicon; there are very few tonal changes. The accent is distinctive of the northern Mandarin group and a comparison with the reading in the Hebei One (pure Putonghua) sample illustrates the distinguishing features quite nicely.

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 ér shí xí zhī, bù 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, bù 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 bù zhī ér bù yùn, bù 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, yī 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 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:-   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.

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?

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

Noticeable characteristics, which can be heard on the recordings, include the usual Chinese problems with [s] and [sh], and [z] and [zh] pairs. There are also some examples of the /θ/- /s/  and /ʒ/- /s/ and the  /v/ and /w/minimal pair transpositions. There are also occasional transpositions of the /u:/and /ʊ/ minimal pair. The influence of his dialect is strong throughout. Listen out especially for the pronunciation of “enthusiasm” and “‘abilities” in the unscripted speech. Also, here we find some examples of the substitution of the phonetic /aI/ for “ai” in words such as “daily” and “fair.” This seems to be quite common, amongst students at least, in China.

Hēilóngjiāng is located in the northeastern part of China and borders Russia to the north and east. It contains China’s most northern and most eastern points. The name of the Province literally means “Black Dragon River,” which is the Chinese name for the Amur, the river marking the border between the China and Russia. There are more than 1,900 rivers in Hēilóngjiāng, and this has allowed the creation of an extensive system of waterway transportation.
The area was isolated in ancient times and there are few historical records. It was occupied by the Buyeo, Mohe and Khitan and other peoples whose names are Mongolian or Manchu. It was here that the Jurchen Jin Dynasty (1115-1235) which ruled most of North China arose in Hēilóngjiāng. It finally became an administrative area in 1683, during the Kangxi era of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, from the northwestern part of the Jilin province.

In 1858 and 1860, the Qing government was forced to give up all land beyond the Amur and Ussuri Rivers to the Russian Empire. This cut China off from the Sea of Japan and gave Hēilóngjiāng its present northern borders. The Qing government then began to encourage Han Chinese migration into Manchuria, so that by the early twentieth century, the Han Chinese had become the dominant ethnic group in the region.

Harbin is a Manchu word meaning “a place for drying fishing nets” and the city has bitterly cold winters. Its old name is Pokai. Known as the “Ice City,” it is well known for its beautiful ice sculptures in winter. Human settlement in the Harbin area dates from at least 2200 BC (late Stone Age)

COMMENTARY BY: Bill McCann

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 17/11/2012

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