Dalian Dialect / 大连话

[davoosh]

Hello all, after spending a year in Dalian I thought I would share some information on this dialect (based on personal experience, what people have told me, and things I have read) because I am especially interested in dialectology and linguistics as a whole, so it could be useful for those planning on studying Chinese in Dalian or going there for any other reasons.

Firstly, Dalian is widely held as a place where standard Mandarin is spoken. Although it is true that the Mandarin of Dalian is a lot closer to the standard than other places (such as those in the south), 'true' Dalianhua is actually considerably different from standard Mandarin, so much so, that two native Dalianhua speakers conversing would prove difficult to understand for those who are not familiar with the dialect. Having said this, most people in Dalian can speak very standard Mandarin, although it might be slightly accented, it will bring no trouble to understanding.

Dalianhua is usually considered a member of 'North Eastern Mandarin' which is true to a point, although a lot Dalianhua features are actually closer to Shandonghua.

Tonal Differences

This is a major difference (in my opinion) which seperates Dalianhua from Mandarin (and other northern varieties).

Basically the 1st tone (平声）or level tone is not a level tone in Dalianhua. If you are familiar with tonal notation, the Mandarin tone value is /55/, in Dalianhua it is often closer to /53/ or /534/. In practical terms, this means it sounds closer the 4th tone (falling tone), but not exactly the same. It also causes some interesting tone sandhi which I have noticed.

If you have the tone combination 3 + 1, the Dalianhua equivalent is '2 + 1', in this case Dalianhua's 1st tone acts as a 3rd tone, and is pronounced close to such in this combination.

我家 wo2 jia3

委托 wei2 tuo3

In the case of 1 + 1 combination, the 1st syllable seems to have a low level tone, followed by a regular Dalianhua 1st tone. This can sound like a Putonghua '3rd tone + 4nd tone' combination.

天天 tian3 tian4

开车 kai3 che4

Some 1st tone words in Mandarin tend to be pronounced in 3rd tone (I'm not sure if this is a product of 入声 syllables, because most of the examples I found come from previous rusheng):

吃 ci3

八 ba3

This is only a rough guide, and shouldn't be taken as an absolute, but I think it's close enough.

Pronunciation Differences

Many Dalianhua speakers don't differentiate 'zh ch sh' with 'z c s' pronouncing all as 'z c s'.

中国 zong1 guo2

'ui' is often pronounced 'ei'.

对 dei4

'子' at the end of a word is pronounced like something similar to 'e' (呃）with a neutral tone. Sometimes it can sound closer to 'eng'.

孩子 hai2 e

儿化 is common

'ai' is pronounced closer to IPA /e/

打开 da2 keh4

Vocabulary Differences

I think this is probably the most difficult aspect of Dalianhua, as the pronunciation differences aren't that great. Dalianhua contains a lot of unique vocabulary, I'll list some of the more common words.

什么 = 啥 sha2 or 什么 pronounced 'sen4me' or sometimes 'hen4me'

我 = 俺 an3

你 = 喃 nan3

可爱 = 待人亲 pronounced 'dai1 yin2 qin1'

讨厌的 = 待人恨

非常 = 血 xie3

非常好， 非常漂亮 = 血干净 xie2 gan4 jing

太好了 = 绝了 jue2 le

傻 = 彪 biao1

别 = 败 bai4

烦 = 隔样 ge4 yang

受不了了 = 颗了 ker1 le

被打败了 = 开了

没有 is pronounced 'mei4 you3'

对象，同桌，隔壁的人，等 = 老对儿 lao3 deir4

别烦我了， 你这个傻子， 我受不了了 =

败隔样我了， 喃个彪子， 你让俺颗了

bai4 ge4yang wo3 le, nan3 ge biao1e, ni3 yang4 an2 ke4 le！

[Aaron MH]

My wife comes from Dandong, but one side of her family are originally from Dalian.

I want to share with you a funny phone call that has done the rounds on weibo about someone from Dalian calling roadside assistance. The person 'assisting' is obviously not from Dalian and gets very confused very quickly.

Enjoy: http://weibo.com/dushifu