Zhejiang 2

Listen to Zhejiang 2, an 18-year-old man from Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 18

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 28/06/1992

PLACE OF BIRTH: Huzhou, Zhejiang Province

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Han Chinese

OCCUPATION: student

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

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

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

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

He had some native English-speaking teachers at school, and these will have had some influence. However, despite being an English major, his overall exposure to native English speakers has been slim, and his accent is strong. There is no discernible influence from other Western sources such as Hollywood movies or the music industry. Given the linguistic diversity in Zhejiang, most young people today begin to learn Putonghua at an early age, and this will also have had some influence on his speech pattern and pronunciation.

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:

I like to – to talk about my hometown. My hometown is (ah) Huzhou in Zhejiang Province, and (ah) just like other cities in modern China because the old citi – old buildings has become less and less, so I can’t say my hometown is a beautiful city because it’s just like (ah) the other citi – modern city in China (ah), the tall blocks and many new buildings, but (ah) it was stylist not stylish, yea. And (ah) but it was built for (ah) once, I don’t think it was built for now (ahm, ah) the river has become dirty, and (ah) and the smoke and (ah) the cars (ah) charge on the (ah) on the road, so I don’t like it. Yea, let’s finish, so that’s all, that’s my hometown.

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 Huzhou dialect. A reading in Putonghua (Mandarin) can be heard on theHebei1 sample. To get a flavor of the difference between the Wu dialects, this reading should be compared with the southern Wenzhouhua in the Zhejiang 1 sample.

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

孔子: 论语 – Kǒng zǐ : lún yǔ – Kong zi : lun yu – Confucius: Lun Yu

學而第一 – xué ér dì yī – xué ér di – 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 :- zì yè; yuè ér sí zī, fè yì yè 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:- yù páng zí yì fāng lái, fè 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: nín fè zī ér fè yìn, fè yì jīn 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 zeng dì èr – 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:- zì yè; sī sāi bà, yè yì yǐ bì zī, yè: sī wú a

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:- zì yú mén xiáo. Zī yè: jīn zī xiáo zè. Sí wài néng yàng. zì yú qì mù. Jie néng yù yàng fè jìng. Wú yì 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 :- zì yè; sí qí sū yì. Guāi qí sù yù cá qi sù āi. Níng yī sōu zāi? Níng yī sōu 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

An eastern coastal province of the People’s Republic of China, Zhejiang has borders with Jiangsu province and Shanghai Municipality to the north, Anhui Province to the northwest,Jiangxi Province to the west, and Fujian Province to the south. Its seaboard is along the East China Sea. Zhejiang, which means crooked river, was the old name of the Qiantang River, which flows through the provincial capital,Hangzhou.

Untouched by the early stages of Chinese civilization during the Xia (2070 – 1600 BCE) and Shang (1600 – 1046 BCE) dynasties, it was populated by the Yue peoples from the south. By the time of the Spring and Autumn Period (722 – 476 BCE), a state of Yue had been established in northern Zhejiang. This was strongly influenced by the Chinese civilization to the north, and by 473 BCE had become strong enough to destroy the powerful state of Wu further north in Jiangsu. Yue was in turn conquered by the state of Chu further west, and was assimilated into the unified China established by the Qin Dynasty (221 – 206 BCE).

The old state of Yue remained a frontier area throughout the Qin and Han (206 BCE – 220 CE) dynasties. To the south, the original Yue peoples retained their own political and social structures. Following the collapse of the Han dynasty, warlords from Zhejiang were instrumental in establishing the Kingdom of Wu, one of the Three Kingdoms in the period of that name (220 – 265).

From the fourth century onward, there were many upheavals, including invasions by nomadic peoples from the north. Northern China was overrun and, as a result, massive numbers of refugees arrived from the north and poured into South China, which hosted the refugee Eastern Jin Dynasty (3137 – 420) and Southern dynasties (420 – 589). This had the effect of accelerating the sinicization of South China, including Zhejiang.

Unity was restored under by the Sui Dynasty (581 – 618), which built the Grand Canal, which linked Hangzhou to the North China Plain. This canal, which is still a busy waterway today, provided Zhejiang with a vital link to the centers of Chinese civilization.

During the golden age of the Tang Dynasty (618 – 907), Zhejiang was part of the Jiangnandong Circuit, and many references to its prosperity appear in the records. Following the disintegration of the Tang Dynasty, and another, brief, fragmentation into the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (907 – 960), Zhejiang formed most of the territory of the regional kingdom of Wuyue.

Unity was finally restored under the Song Dynasty (960 – 1279), and it was at this time that the prosperity of South China began to overtake North China. After the conquest of the north by the Jurchen people (ancestors of the Manchu) in 1127, the modern provincial capital, Hangzhou, was the capital of the Han Chinese Southern Song Dynasty, which held on to South China. Renowned for its prosperity and beauty, it may have been the largest city in the world at the time. Ever since this period, and still today, north Zhejiang and south Jiangsu, especially Suzhou, have been synonymous with luxury and opulence in Chinese culture. This is encapsulated in the much quoted saying: In heaven paradise, on earth Hangzhou and Suzhou.

The arrival of the short-lived Yuan dynasty (1271 – 1368), founded by Kublai Khan, restored political influence to the north (and Beijing). The Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644) established the province of Zhejiang, and its borders have changed very little since that period.

Like south Jiangsu, Zhejiang is a linguist’s paradise. The province is very mountainous and has therefore fostered the development of many individual localized cultures. Linguistically, the inhabitants of Zhejiang, like neighboring southern Jiangsu, speak Wu, one of the older branches of the Chinese language. However, the Wu dialects are very diverse, especially in the south, where one valley may speak a dialect completely unintelligible to another valley a few kilometers away. In addition, non-Wu dialects are spoken along the borders; Mandarin and Huizhou dialects are spoken on the western border with Anhui, while Min dialects are spoken on the southern border with Fujian.

The sample’s hometown of Huzhou is at the northern end of Zhejiang, on the shores of Lake Tai, the third largest freshwater lake in China (area 2,250 square km). During the Wu Kingdom, it was known as Wuxing and acquired its present name during the Sui Dynasty (581 – 618). It is known as the City of Silk and is one of the Four Capital-cities of Silk in China.

The Huzhou dialect, Huzhouhua, which can be heard on the audio sample, belongs to the Su-Jia-Hu (Suzhou-Jiaxing-Huzhou) subgroup Taihu Wu dialect group. Specifically, it is one of two dialects in the Tiaoxi branch, the other being Southeast Guangde dialect in neighbouring Anhui. A sister branch of the Su-Jia-Hu subgroup includes the dialects spoken in Suzhou, Wuxi and Jiaxing.

This is a nice, strong accent with few of the usual Chinese problems with minimal pairs, although the problem with multiple /s/ sounds in possessives and plurals is evident, in “goose’s,” for example.

COMMENTARY BY: Bill McCann

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

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