俺们那旮都是东北人

johnb
 August 28, 2007, 04:10 AM posted in General Discussion

I am, thanks to my wife and my initial China experiences, a 东北人 at heart, and enjoy the areas dialects far more than anything in the south (sorry Shanghainese). For those interested, here's a quick primer in 东北话:

  • 俺 (an3) I, me (equivalent of 我). Can be combined with 们 to make 俺们, which means the same thing as 我们 (and appears in the title of this post).
  • 啥 (sha2) what (equivalent of 什么). i.e., 这个词有啥意思？
  • 甚 (shen4) what (equivalent of 什么). Like 啥, but it seems to be of more limited regional use (maybe just in 辽宁省? I'm not sure...).
  • 咋 (za3) how (equivalent of 怎么). Can be used pretty much anywhere that 怎么 is, i.e., 工作过得咋样？
  • 婆姨 (po2yi2) wife
  • 汉子 (han4zi) husband
  • 娘 (niang2) mother
  • 爹 (die1) father

There are of course hundreds, maybe thousands, of examples like this, but these are a good starter, particularly 啥 and 咋, which for many people in the northeast totally replace 什么 and 怎么. Since northeastern dialects are commonly heard on mainland TV shows, it can be helpful in listening to those, as well. 

For more terrific 东北话, check out 俺们那旮都是活雷锋, a hilarious song/Flash video (the subtitles on this particular one are in traditional Chinese, but the animation is great). 

Profile picture
johnb
 August 28, 2007, 09:15 AM

test

Profile picture
Kyle
 August 28, 2007, 10:08 AM

Great stuff. I wasn't even aware there were characters for some of these sounds. 啥 and 咋 are two "words" that I just picked up from hearing them so often. I wasn't aware they were particular to the 东北 region. Learn something new every day.

Profile picture
centerland
 August 28, 2007, 12:18 PM

娘 (niang2) mother 爹 (die1) father these two words were used national wide before 1912

Profile picture
johnb
 August 29, 2007, 01:53 AM

It seems like a lot of these words were used, or are used, more widely than just the northeast, but they are really common in speech there. I'm no expert, but as they're not part of "standard" Chinese they get overlooked by a lot of educational material, despite their very regular occurence in speech.

Profile picture
Kyle
 August 29, 2007, 02:35 AM

It's pretty common for the "I can speak a little" foreigners here in Harbin to learn the dialect as opposed to the "standard" Mandarin pronunciation. This is probably because they just learn from their students / via imitation as opposed to formal studying. Under these circumstances they tend to use 啥 and 咋 instead of their standardized counterparts.