Chinese dialects
- Joined: Sep 8th, 2008
- Posts: 347
Are there any good websites out there with audio samples of the various Chinese dialects???
Came across a few sites, but not too impressive.
Or are my web surfing skills to blame?
Anyone know of a university or city library with dialect recordings?
Thanks.
The search continues...
davidpeng
Re: Chinese dialects
What dialects are you looking for? Cantonese, Shanghai, Dongbei? Or do you mean Chinese minority languages? These languages are not Chinese dialects but are actually distinct languages. They are not mutually intelligible.
"I am the punishment of God...If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.”
-CHINGIS KHAN(to the Persians)
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taoqibao
Re: Chinese dialects
Yes like Wu, Min, Gan, Yue and also recordings of the mandarin spoken in Shanxi, shaanxi or shandong... not the minority languages.
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lodgerly
Re: Chinese dialects
I'm very interested in learning dialects. But my method is to talk with people who are originally from those places.
Sometimes when I saw some websites teaching dialects, I tried to read and remember, but it's even too hard for me. I guess I can never learn to speak sth without listening and practicing.
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taoqibao
Re: Chinese dialects
Yes ideally you'd get a mish mash of these dialect speakers in one place, then the party could begin.
I guess I could start hanging out at the train station, buy folks some beers and press the record button!
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isabela0528
Re: Chinese dialects
No universities have dialect course. Even for local Chinese, i don't think how much they know. It is not easy to learn Chinese dialect. You need to chose one which you are interested in. The best way is living in that city as long as you can. As time goes by, you will learn a lot. I found most cities speak mandarin to instead of their own dialect.
Good luck!
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lodgerly
Re: Chinese dialects
LMAO.
Yeah, well, I didn't buy anything nor give empty bottles to those folks at the train station to learn Tianjin dialect.
1/4 People in Beijing are not natives. You still have your chances.
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taoqibao
Re: Chinese dialects
Thanks Isabela.
I don't exactly want to learn how to speak the dialects - way too lazy for that - though that would be cool too.
I'm more interested in learning how to recognize which parts of China folks are from by the way they speak.
Recent train trip was chatting with a young fella who spoke southern accented mandarin, but turns out he's from Dalian!
Tianjin dialect, now there's one dialect I CAN recognize!
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YSbj
Re: Chinese dialects
I go to China' South from time to time (some fabrics in Shenzhen), and never used Putonghua to talk to people there, only English. But I was always curious what are these guys talking about in my presence, when they use cantonese
So I bought a small Collins' phrasebook with CD (couldn't find anything better),but I think it will not help... This dialect sounds completely like Vietnamese to my ear 
Also, I used to communicate with people from Heilongjiang pretty often, and now I can tell them from others, and also have learned some funny expressions..
Isabela and lodgerly are right: listening to native speakers - is the best way...
YSbj
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davidpeng
Re: Chinese dialects
I know exactly what you mean. I have been studying Mandarin for a few years. Where I live in the US there are large populations of both Vietnamese and Hong Kong Chinese and I had a hell of a hard time learning to distinguish between the two.
My girlfriend speaks Dong bei hua. Most of the Mandarin that I know is self taught and often picked up by watching mainland movies. It's all been Beijing dialect. When we first met I had a hard time understanding her. She soon realized I was having problems with her dongbei dialect and switched to speaking to me with more of a Beijing accent. Her father however has a very thick Dongbei accent and I still have trouble understanding him specially after a few shots of bai jiu.
"I am the punishment of God...If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.”
-CHINGIS KHAN(to the Persians)
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choudofu
Re: Chinese dialects
Glossika has a few recordings, mostly just individual syllables, unfortunately. But there's other interesting, dialect-related information on pages within this site.
http://www.glossika.com/en/dict/phon/index.php
On a less scholarly note, there's a decent collection of dialect recordings on YouTube. Just search for "Chinese dialects". Here's a guy who claims to be speaking 1-10 in 3 dialects.
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Skipinbj
Re: Chinese dialects
Tibetan is an interesting dialect.
I love China! 一切反动派都是纸北京猫!!!
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taoqibao
Re: Chinese dialects
It was fun watching a creepy looking guy say 1-10 (what was 0:38 - 0:41?) in three Chinese dialects!
YSbj mentions that Cantonese sounds Vietnamese.
I'm not sure. I used to live in the Bay Area, and there was Vietnamese programming on local telly. To my ears it sounds more like Thai or Lao.
Skip, you mean the various Tibetan dialects right? Of course you know Tibetan is a language, like Mongolian and Uighur!
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gooldenwending
Re: Chinese dialects
Yeah, I think Vietnamese is pretty distinct from Cantonese. I lived for a few weeks in a dorm that was all vietnamese students. after listening to it a lot it's pretty easy to distinguish.
while i'm sure tibetan counts as its own language (much like we should count cantonese and various other chinese "dialects" as other languages as well), at least it's in the same family of language as chinese--sino-tibetan.
mongolian and uighur aren't related to Chinese at all as far as i know (and i'm definitely no expert).
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lodgerly
Re: Chinese dialects
.....that guy is creepy. And I don't know what's so special by counting 1-10 in different dialects.
Tibetan is not a dialect.
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choudofu
Re: Chinese dialects
Nothing special at all. But it needn't be special to be posted on youtube.
I agree, counting 1-10 isn't very useful. If only someone would post, "Please, may I have some choudoufu?" in a few dialects....
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davidpeng
Re: Chinese dialects
I spent a year helping Lao families in California and I actually can speak a little bit. Lao and Vietnamese aren't even close to being similar. Lao and Thai however are practically the same language. All Lao people can understand Thai. Most Thai don't want to admit that they understand Lao but they do. The languages are 70% mutually intelligible.
I agree with the other people who say that you have to spend time around people to be able to recognize their dialect. It's not something that can be easily learned from a book or University study.
"I am the punishment of God...If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.”
-CHINGIS KHAN(to the Persians)
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taoqibao
Re: Chinese dialects
Yes a lot of Lao in California, apparently there's a large Hmong community in Stockton who are originally from Laos. Of course the Hmong speak Hmong, which is related to the language the Miao speak in China (many live in Guizhou).
I have a Lao friend here in Beijing, another one from Thailand, and they don't seem to have trouble understanding each other.
The curse word 'ma xi meh meng' appears to be the same!
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shellyuan
Re: Chinese dialects
Which dialect are you trying to find? I searched the internet and found this site maybe good for you, which offers various Chinese language for you, like Cantonese, shanghai and minnan. The site also offers mp3 to download. Also, if you try to find Mandarin Chinese, you'd better go to Hello!Mandarin to find more information about Chinese language and culture.
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davidpeng
Re: Chinese dialects
You may find this hard to believe but I am fluent in the Hmong language. Not too many non Hmong people who speak it. My ex-wife is Hmong and my children from that marriage are hmong. I have been speaking Hmong since I was 19. I learned hmong working with the hmong in central cailifornia. Knowing how to speak hmong fluently has helped me to learn chinese quickly (at least spoken Chinese). The Hmong in Laos are indeed part of the Miao that moved from China to Laos in the mid 1800s. The hmong in Laos speak mostly white and green hmong dialects. The Miao speak a dialect that has alot more chinese influence.
"I am the punishment of God...If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.”
-CHINGIS KHAN(to the Persians)
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mh
Re: Chinese dialects
I think in Beijing city more than half of people under 40 are not from Beijing. There are a lot of choices to practice chinese dialect with them. Actually native Beijing people have their own dialect which is similay but still different from "standard" mandarin Chinese (Pu Tong Hua)
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taoqibao
Re: Chinese dialects
Thanks shellyuan. www.520hai.com is a pretty good site. I better search for similar sites over at baidu.
David, thanks for sharing. very interesting.
I lived for a few years in Humboldt, and there's actually a Hmong community in Eureka of all places!
mh: who knows how many lao beijing people are around anymore. Many from the hutong are now living in high rises spread all over.
Still enjoy listening to beijing hua spoken by the old geezers!!!
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Skipinbj
Re: Chinese dialects
Tibet WAS, IS and ALWAYS WILL BE PART OF CHINA!!!!!!!! AAAAAAARGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH! TRAITOR!!!!!!!!
I love China! 一切反动派都是纸北京猫!!!
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Skipinbj
Re: Chinese dialects
What do you mean? You're saying they don't speak Chinese? So they're not Chinese?? Huh??? What are they then??? Independant? You some kind of seperatist or something? Huh? huh? The Dally Lammy is a liar!!!! An ugly man!!!!
I love China! 一切反动派都是纸北京猫!!!
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taoqibao
Re: Chinese dialects
Come on Skippy, please kindly remove your head from your arse and smell the fine Beijing air!
Take a deep breath (that's about half a pack, by the way).
Now go on and take your silly political rants elsewhere!
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lodgerly
Re: Chinese dialects
Agreed. That was really lame.
LOL, brilliant idea! But Choudoufu is not available everywhere. I love Nanjing Choudoufu, the one near Confucius Temple. All I need to know is how to say "Please, may I have some choudoufu?" in Nanjing dialect.
You know what, actually, there are lots of funny songs on youku in different dialects. So far from I know, the good ones are " 霞飞路87号” in Shanghaiese by 黑棒乐队， "喝馄饨“ in Nanjing dialect by D-EVIL， ”东北人都是活雷锋“ in Dongbei dialect by 雪村,"双截棍”'s Tianjin dialect edition.... They are good examples, if you want to learn the dialects.
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choudofu
Re: Chinese dialects
You mean by Confucius Temple in Nanjing, right? I'll have to give it a try next time I'm in that area.
Thanks for the tip. I like the 2nd one you mentioned, ”东北人都是活雷锋“. Maybe I can make that into my ringtone....
Songs have never worked well for me as a vehicle to learn any language. I know some people swear by them, but I usually can't even understand what they're saying in my native English, let alone a foreign tongue. For years I thought Hall & Oates were singing "Rabbit eyes, they're watching you..." -- still remember the shock when I realized it was actually "private eyes." I think I'd better stick to spoken word for my language studies.
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Skipinbj
Re: Chinese dialects
Stupid foreigner thinks they know everything about China. I bet you caqn't even find Tibet on a map? Do you know that Tibet is really part of China? Bet you didn't! Where does your Western b.s. media leave you know!
I love China! 一切反动派都是纸北京猫!!!
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lodgerly
Re: Chinese dialects
Yes, by Confucius Temple in Nanjing, I forgot everything, the scene, the Confucius stuff..in that area, but only that Choudoufu place...yummy yummy!
喝馄饨 is the second song, but they both are great and really funny if you can get the lyrics.
Anyone watched Crazy Stone? The ring tone in that movie is also a song in Shandong dialect...sth like 老狼请吃鸡...And another Shandong song called 我赚钱了, hilarious as hell.
For those songs that my super player can't find the lyrics, I will just ignore them...Or sing with " ummmhmmmm.....babababa..lallaalla...dadadada" when I hear some familiar tunes.
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taoqibao
Re: Chinese dialects
Hi Skippy. It's been a while. What's wrong, is your head lodged TOO deep up your a**? Is this why you're still talking BS?
Come on Skippy, you can do it, just give it a nice pull. Still won't budge, not even an inch? Come on, jiayou jiayou jiayou....
Skippy, I don't recall getting geopolitical at all (it's not my thing). Wasn't I writing about languages and dialects (seriously, is the goushi affecting your vision?).
Western media? Actually I'm a sucker for the nightly CCTV news where the robots speak the truth.
Now back to your cave in Yanan!
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Bothen Yang
Re: Chinese dialects
As a local student in Wuhan,i never find the Chinese dialects are so interesting and i'm waiting for your beer .
i'm coming.
Come on!
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