Jiangsu 31

Listen to Jiangsu 31, a 20-year-old woman from Xishan Island, Suzhou, Jiangsu 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): 14/05/1990

PLACE OF BIRTH: Xishan Dao, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province

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:

The subject had a number of foreign teachers in her high school, which was in Suzhou City on the mainland.

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): 14/05/2010

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

My hometown is the Xishan Island in Suzhou, and it is an island in the Taihu Lake, which is very beautiful, uh, and, ah, it is the biggest island among all the islands in the – in this lake. Ah, it attracts many, many people from other places to, ah, to enjoy its beautiful scenery. Ah, it has many – many mountains and you can see a vast [vista] of the Taihu lake scenery. Among all the mountains in this island, ah, the tallest, the tallest mountain is the Piaomiao Mountain. Ah, although it was not very much high as the Mount Huang [Huangshan, in Anhui, the most famous mountain range in China] I, I like it very much. I have – I have climbed it, ah, several times, but each time I enjoy different sceneries, and in different seasons we can see different, ah, things. [The subject now goes on to read abstracts from the Analects of Confucius in her own Xishanhua 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): 14/07/2013

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 (Pingyin); C = Dialect (Pingyin); 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 :-    zi ya: wo r shi xie zhi fe yi yue hau

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:-     yu bang zi yue fang lei fe yi luo jau

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:    ning fe zhi r fe yun fe yi jun zi hau

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 ya: shi sai ba yi ye yi bi zhe, ya si fu ya.

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 yu men xiao zi ya jin zhi xiao zhe si wei nen yan zhi yu que mu ji nen yu yan fe jin au yi bi hau

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 ya: shi ji sau yi guo ji sau yu zu ji sau e nin ye so zei nin ye so zei.

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 fairly strong accent but with some evidence of accent reduction, and many of the usual characteristics found in the English of Chinese speakers have been eliminated.

Xishan dialect is a subdialect of Suzhouhua and, therefore, a member of the Wu family. However, the island was a popular resort of refugees fleeing the various dynastic wars, and many people from the north of China found sanctuary here. The result was that some of the characteristics of the northern dialects were incorporated into the local speech with the effect that Xishanhua has a slightly harsher sound than the other Wu dialects in the region. The variations in the subdialects of Suzhouhua can be heard clearly by comparing the dialect reading this sample with those in the Jiangsu 15 (Dongshan), Jiangsu 17 (Jinchang), Jiangsu 18 (Pingjiang), and Jiangsu 32 (Canlang) samples, all of which have pinyin transliterations of the dialects.

The subject’s hometown is Jinting, on Xishan island in Lake Tai (Tài Hú), the third largest freshwater lake in China with an area of 2,250 km² (869 square miles) and an average depth of 2 metres. Xishan is the largest island on China’s freshwater lakes and is dominated by Mount Piaomiao, the highest of the 72 mountains scattered across Tài Hú’s 90 islands. The tea grown on the slopes of Piaomiao is one of the famous teas in China. The ancient village of Ming Yue Wan lies on the south side of the island and is now a protected heritage site. The last king of the Wu Kingdom, Wú Wáng Fūchāi, who reigned 495–473 BCE, visited the village to view the full moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival around 490 BCE. He was accompanied by Xi Shi (西施), one of the four beauties of ancient China and, who with another beauty, Zheng Dan, had been gifted to him by Fan Li, a minister to King Guojian of Yue. Enchanted by their beauty and kindness, Fūchāi built Guanwa Palace (Palace of Beautiful Women) in an imperial park on the slope of Lingyan Hill, in Suzhou.

The island was relatively cut off from the mainland until 1996 when the 4.3 km (2.68 mile) Tài Hú Bridge opened. Since then, it has been developed as a major tourist attraction, and a second bridge is to be constructed to cope with the increased motor traffic.

COMMENTARY BY: Bill McCann

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 14/07/2013

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