Jiangsu 11

Listen to Jiangsu 11, a 19-year-old woman from Hailing, Taizhou, Jiangsu Province, 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): 19/11/1990

PLACE OF BIRTH: Hailing, Taizhou, Jiangsu Province

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Han Chinese

OCCUPATION: student

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

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

Subject came to live in Suzhou, Jiangsu, 18 months before the date of the recording.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

Influence are slight. The subject began to learn English at the age of 12 and only left her native district when she came to university in Suzhou in 2008, where she is an English major student. The main influences on her accent will have been the foreign teachers she had at school and the Chinese teachers at both school and university. The need to speak Putonghua at university will also have had a slight influence. There is no evidence of an effect from American movies or television shows in her accent.

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): 23/04/2010

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 everyone, (ah) I’m Lucky (ah); I’m from Taizhou, Jiangsu Province. It was – it is in the north of Jiangsu Province, and (ah) it sees [pause] the birth of nav – the navy in 1949. And my family is an extended family, which include – which includes eight people (ah); and I love my family very much. I began to study English [pause] when I was 12 years old in grade five in primary – primary school, and since then [pause] I have – I have had great interest in English, and I want to continue study it and master it. Thank you.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Bill McCann

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 23/04/2010

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 Taizhou dialect. A reading in Putonghua (Mandarin) can be heard on the China 15 sample.

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 ér shí xí zhī, bú yì yùe 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 laí, bú 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 bú yùn, bú yì jūn zǐ 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 baǐ, yì yán yǐ bì zhī, yuē：sī wú yé.

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 yú quǎn mǎ, jiē néng yǒu yǎng; bú 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 qú 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

The subject was raised in the Hailing district of Taizhou, Jiangsu. Situated on the north bank of the Yangtze, Taizhou, a prefecture-level city, borders Nantong to the east, Yancheng to the north and Yangzhou to the west.

It has a long history. It was called “Haiyang” in the Spring and Autumn Period (722-476 BCE), and “Hailing” during the Western Han Dynasty (206 BCE – AD 09). It enjoyed equal status with Jinling (Nanjing) and Guangling (Yangzhou), Lanling (Changzhou) during the Eastern Jin Dynasty (AD 317-420). The name “Taizhou,” which means “peaceful country and lucky citizens,” was adapted during the Southern Tang Dynasty (937-975). During the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), it was at the center of the salt trade and, like Yangzhou, was the home of many wealthy salt merchants.

As its name suggests, the Hailing district, the subject’s hometown, is one of the oldest parts of the city. The local dialect, Taizhouhua, is spoken here and in the Gaogang District, also one of the oldest areas of Taizhou. It is also spoken in the Xinghua and Jiangyan cities, both of which date from the Western Han Dynasties (206 BCE – AD 09).

Traditionally a farming area, in modern times Taizhou has been dubbed “China’s medical city,” as dozens of major international and domestic pharmaceutical, biomedical, biochemical and bio-tech corporations are located here. It has pioneered stem-cell research in China. The current President of China, Hu Jintao, was born and educated in Taizhou.

Taizhouhua (not to be confused with the Wu language spoken in Taizhou, Zhenjiang, in south Jiangsu) is similar to the Yangzhou Dialect and is moderately understandable by an outsider, as it doesn’t differ very much from modern standard Mandarin. The Yangzhou Dialect is considered to be the representative dialect of the Jiang-huai dialect group within the Mandarin language family, and is thought by linguists to be very close to the official Mandarin (based on Nanjing dialect) spoken during the Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty.

Many of the common minimal-pair characteristics found in the other subjects from Jiangsu are not present here, presumably because of a conscious effort to eliminate them at the instigation of her teachers. However, the /l/ and /n/ minimal-pair issue is evident in places, especially in “name” in the English text. Duke is also read as “duck,” and the /ʒ/ of measure is replaced with /s/.

COMMENTARY BY: Bill McCann

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 23/04/2010

The archive provides:

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