The internet is down at my apartment again and so Shanghainese Saturday is late once more. This week’s theme is small talk.

　nong jiao sa ge ming si?
　侬叫啥搿名字？
　”What is your name?”
　MSM:　你叫什么名字？

　nong si sa di fang nin?
　侬是啥地方人？
　”Where are you from?”
　MSM:　你是什么地方人？

　nong zi le a li?
　侬住勒阿里？
　”Where do you live?”
　MSM:　你住在那里？

With these few phrases, the grammar almost perfectly mirrors that of the Standard Mandarin. 啥, pronounced “sa”, uniformly takes the place of 什么 in the Shanghai dialect of Wu^*.

#shsaturday
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* Though this is not the case in all Northern Wu dialects as has been discussed here before.