With my apologies to Beijing Sounds for posting on the same setting only shortly after it appeared there*, the following was recorded in a taxi sometime around 7 in the morning last week as I was on my way to the bus station. The windows of the taxi were open and half the conversation was through the radio so things get a bit messy at the end. I’ve taken out as much of the wind as I can without making the words any less clear than they already are. I’d also forgotten to grab my external microphone so I had to record it through the phone’s built-in mic which leaves much to be desired.

Finally, I have to say I’m mostly guessing on a lot of this. I felt more confident about what was happening when it was happening. Now, a few days later, it all seems much foggier. “A” is my driver and “B” is another driver in another car.

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A: ＿＿＿侬弗侬弗吃饭对吧。
(unclear syllables) You, you haven’t eaten, right?

B: 嗲？
What?

A: 阿現在＿＿侬弗吃饭对吧。
Uh you haven’t already eaten, right?

B: 喔。吃饭啦。
Oh. I ate.

A: 因为吃吃[米?]对吧。我＿＿弗吃＿＿。
(unclear, followed by something about how A hasn’t eaten yet)

That’s as far as I’m going to transcribe without a native speaker to help. Right around 00:15:45 you’ll hear 吾弗相信, 我不相信. At around 00:21:30 it moves solely to other cars for a while. I really wish I had been in the woman’s taxi just to hear her speak in person. The guy at 25 is classic too. Three cheers for personality. 00:39:00 sees the return of my driver.

The second voice answers lazily with 嗲, pronounced roughly as “dia” would be in pinyin. It’s the most Changzhou way of saying 什么 I’ve heard while in Shanghai you’re likely to get “zuo/jiu sa” for 做什么. Meawhile 做 tends to take the sound (and sometimes the 汉字) of 就 more often than not, at least in my neck of the woods. I’m not sure how far east 嗲 goes before being replaced with something else, but it’s alive and well at least this far west.

Suggestions or corrections or wild and largely unsubstantiated guesses on what else is being said are always welcome.

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* I left the date from when I started this post but only got around to publishing it on June 9.