Short Scene 18: Sichuan Accent

[StChris]

Sichuan accent

爱情公寓, Ep. 9, 23:28 - 25:41

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTE0OTk3MzE2.html

I'm studying in Harbin, so am fortunate enough to be surrounded by pretty standard 普通话, but as most Chinese don't speak with such a standard accent I think it's important to expose youself to a variety of different dialects as your level moves up from the intermediate level. From this secene, the Sichuan accent sounds really melodic and beautiful, but that impression might be biased by the beautiful creature producing the sounds. Apart from some technical car-related vocab, there's nothing too difficult here. There are two simple words which are new to me though, and which I assume are part of the Sichuan dialect 咋 and 晓得.

旋转        xuan2zhuan3        revolve, rotate
钮        niu3            button
电路        dian4lu4        circuit (electric)
故障        gu4zhang4        hitch, breakdown
目测        mu4ce4            to guage, visual assesment
咋        za3            how
晓得        xiao3de        to know (我当然晓得）
液压        ye4ya1            hydraulic pressure
流量        liu2liang4        rate of flow
导致        dao3zhi4        lead to, bring about
电流        dian4liu2        electric current
程序        cheng2xu4        procedure, sequence
暂停        zan4ting2        to suspend
从而        cong2er2        thus, thereby
冷却        leng3que4        become or make cool
出风口        chu1feng1kou3        air vent (exhuast?)
一口气        yi1kou3qi4        in one breath, in one fell swoop
脉搏        mai4bo2        pulse
碰巧        peng4qiao3        by chance, by coincidence
 

[roddy]

Thanks for the excuse to watch this scene again!

 

Vent is right for 出风口 - exhaust is 排气管, I think. 

[renzhe]

咋 and 晓得 are not unique to Sichuan.

晓得 is very typical for Sichuan. Ba Jin used it a lot in his Torrents trilogy, which takes place there.

[gato]

晓得 is native to the Wu dialects like Shanghainese, as well.

[Kamille]

And it's frequently heard even in Taiwan. Quite widely used so.

[Steingletscher]

They don't sound like they are from Chengdu, so maybe they're Chongqingers. But still, something sounds a little off about their pronunciation.

[renzhe]

At least one of them is totally faking it. Lü Ziqiao (the male character) is supposedly from Sichuan, but the actor playing him isn't.

Not sure about the lass, sounded quite real to me.

[StChris]

I got the feeling that Lü Ziqiao was taking the mickey a little bit.

 

If anyone has any other good examples of the Sichuan or other accents please post a link here. Maybe we can get a little coolection going.

[Steingletscher]

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDkxMTE0MDI4.html

I've posted this before on another thread, but here is some local rap. There is a video of a foreigner who grew up in Chengdu speaking 非常地地道道四川话 on youtube, which since for some reason it keeps getting taken down on the Chinese video sites (though probably because they say some extremely dirty locals words in it, but I'm not sure).