Zhejiang 1

Listen to Zhejiang 1, a 20-year-old woman from Wenzhou, Zhejiang 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): 05/05/1990

PLACE OF BIRTH: Wenzhou, Zhejiang 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 began to learn English at the age of 12,and came to live in Suzhou, Jiangsu, 18 months before the date of the recording.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

She had some native English-speaking teachers at school who had some influence. Since coming to university less than two years ago, she also had to learn Putonghua, and this has also had some effect on her pronunciation. She is an English major.

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): 28/04/2010

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

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

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

(ah) I come from Wenzhou; it’s (ah, ehm) it’s a very – small town, (ah) but it’s very rich. A lot of people think Wenzhounese is very smart because Wenzhounese (ah – ah) – China Jews (ehm) because they think Wenzhounese are all around the world, and (ah) they began this business (ah) with (ah) nothing. But a lot of Wenzhounese will be very rich. (ehm) I don’t know why, maybe because Wenzhounese (ah) are very brave and (ah) they – they will try a lot of things to (ah) earn money. And Wenzhou (ah – ah) the saying of Wenzhou is very near to Japanese. (ah) If you never – if you don’t know (ah) Jap – Japanese, you will think we are talking about Japanese. That’s all.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Bill McCann

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 28/04/2010

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 Wenzhou dialect. (She did not supply a pinyin transliteration.) A reading in Putonghua (Mandarin) can be heard on the Jiangsu 7 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 – Huo er di yie – 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 :-

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:-

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:

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 – Wei zeng di ni – 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:-

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:-

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 :-

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 nicely strong accent with traces of the /l/, /r/, /n/ minimal-pair substitutions. Also very noticeable is the pronunciation of the final -ed in verb past tenses as in “managed,” and it is also added to “bathe.” Elsewhere, listen out for how the subject replaces the /aɪ/ vowel sound with the /ɪ/ sound, as in “wiped.” This is a characteristic one occasionally hears in China.

COMMENTARY BY: Bill McCann

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): 28/04/2010

The archive provides:

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