A while back I mentioned the 上海话大词典 published by 上海辞书出版社, Shanghai Dictionary Publishing. What I didn’t mention was that they actually publish the same dictionary in two forms. The one mentioned earlier was the “cihai edition” 辞海版. The other is called the “pinyin input edition” 拼音输人版 which uses a sort of adapted pinyin in place of IPA. The entries are the same with only the Romanisation changed.
The other feature of the pinyin edition is the inclusion of an audio CD and dialogues at the back of the book. The following is the first dialogue. The transcription is the pinyin used in the book as well.
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张先生，侬早！
张先生，您早！
Shy23 xiao3lin5a1, nong23 hao34!
是小林啊，侬好！
是小林啊，您好！
Shang2yhu5fhak3ji1, ngu23 lao23 xiang3ni5nong3hhak1!
长远勿见，我老想念侬个！
好久不见，我常念着您呢！
Ngu23 hha23 shang2 shang4 xiang34 le23 mang2 mang5 nong1.
我也常常想来望望侬。
我也常想来看您。
Ngu23 jin5zao1 bhang2dao5nong1 jiao5gue1 ke5xin1.
我今朝碰到侬交关开心。
我今天碰上你很高兴。
Nong23 ghak1qiang3 sen5ti1 hao3fha4?
侬搿抢身体好啘？
你近来身体好吗？
Seng5ti1 me5hao1.
身体蛮好。
身体挺好的。
Nong23 zoe3jhin4 mang2fha4?
侬最近忙啘？
你最近忙不忙？
Hhe2hao4, fhak1da3 mang23. Nong2nak4?
还好，勿大忙。侬呢？
还可以，不太忙。你呢？
Ghak1qiang2li3 ngu23 lao23 mang2hhak4!
搿抢里我老忙个！
这一阵我很忙！
The book advertises 900 sentences. I believe it. Page after page of dialogues fill the back of the book.
Keep “shang2 yhu5 fhak3 ji1” [zã˨ ɦyø˥ vəʔ˧ ʨi˩] handy. It’s the equivalent of 好久不见 and almost as useful as “have you eaten?”
The majority of letters are the same as in pinyin for Mandarin. The extra h, as in “shang yhu fhak ji” marks voice. So p is [pʰ] and b is [p] as in Mandarin but then bh is [b]. Same for dh, gh, sh which is [z] (not to be confused with pinyin z), and fh which is [v].
Others are as follows:
xh = [ʑ]
hh = [ɦ]
yh = [ɦy] e.g. 雨, yhu, [ɦy˨˧]
ng = [ŋ]
Finals are the same as Mandarin pinyin with some exceptions. They are as follows:
-ang = [ɑ̃]
-e = [ɛ]
-ao = [ɔ]
-ou = [ɤ]
-oe = [ø]
Do you know of any good online Shanghainese resources or a way to acquire these books in the US? There’s a lot of podcasts and learning materials for Mandarin and even Cantonese, but next to nothing for Shanghainese. Not even a good dictionary.
Can you explain the details of the “adapted pinyin” for us who don’t have the book?
There really aren’t many, which is one of the reasons I set up this site. Hopefully down the road I’ll have more time to really contribute to the resources for learning.
http://www.mandmx.com has podcasts and I know there are some lessons floating around on Youtube somewhere but I can’t recall where.
I’d get online and see if you can find the following books to order.
Shanghai Dialect for Foreigners, ISBN 9787884220649
上海话大词典 (IPA), ISBN 9787532622481
上海话大词典 (pinyin, with CD & dialogues), ISBN 9787532626243
I’ll make sure to get a better list together in the next week or so including books and online resources.
Of course. There’s no proper chart and I hadn’t time to work one out when I initially posted.
I’m adding the explanantion to the post above.
Cool, thanks. Are the tone numbers before or after sandhi? I presume after.
after i’m pretty sure. if there’s anything you’d like me to check to see the pre-sandhi tones, let me know.