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This week we’re covering some phrases and vocabulary for discussing the weather. It’s useful common small talk that you could practice on your neighbours or colleagues on a regular basis without really driving them insane with your regular questioning.
今朝天气哪能？
ʨiɲ ʦɔ tʰi ʨʰi na nəŋ
What is today’s weather like?
今朝几度？
ʨiŋ ʦɔ ʨi du
What’s the temperature today?
今朝 － today [ʨiŋ ʦɔ], pinyin: jing co
天气 － weather [tʰi˥˥ ʨʰi˨˩]
冷 － cold [lã˨˩]
热 － hot [ɲiɪʔ˨˩]
闷 － stuffy [məŋ]
云 － coud [ɦyn˨˧]
雨 － rain [ɦy˨˧]
雷 － lightning [lɛ˨˧]
雾 － fog [ɦu˨˧]
So to say “Today is hot and stuffy”, it’s
今朝又闷又热。
ʨiŋ ʦɔ ɦiɤ məŋ ɦiɤ ɲiɪʔ
Until next week.
#xingqihu
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Shanghainese Saturday is now Shanghai Friday. It was something I’d thought about before and has been suggested by a couple people, mostly for the sake of the rhyme with 星期五. Actually it works better for me that way as well since more often than not my Saturdays aren’t spent at the computer.
The idioms seemed to go over well last week so we’re doing it again. These are all more or less restricted to Wu with the exception of the first one which is equally common in Mandarin.
in55 ɦiã33 kuɑ33 ʨʰi21
to be cryptic, enigmatic
吃格子饭 / 吃格子飯
ʨʰiɪʔ44 kɑ33 tsɿ55 vɛ21
to be imprisoned
红颜绿色 / 紅顏綠色
ɦoŋ22 ŋɛ55 loʔ33 səʔ21
multi-coloured, the same as Mandarin 五颜六色 / 五顏六色.
酒醉糊涂 / 酒醉糊塗
ʨiɤ33 tsø55 ɦu33 du21
drink to the point of belligerence
The last one has an example to go with it, also Shanghainese. Roll over the underlined characters for explanations on individual characters or pairs that differ from Mandarin usage.
| 伊 | 常庄 | 酒醉糊涂 | 乱 | 骂 | 人。 | |
| ɦi | zã tsã | ʨiɤ tsø ɦu du | lø | mo | ɲɪɲ |
As usual you can also get these through Twitter by following @ AnnalsofWu. Until next week.
#xingqihu
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The following are phrases/idioms you’ll find in both Mandarin and Wu. The superscript numbers indicate tone curves, while the superscript h marks aspiration, the puff of air that distinguishes between Mandarin 读/讀 and 图/圖.
ʨʰiɪʔ22 lɔ22 mi55 vɛ21
̩to be unemployed
去世界杯
ʨʰi44 sɿ55 kɑ33 pɛ21
go to the restroom
天長日久
tʰi55 zã33 ɲiɪʔ33 ʨiɤ21
a very long time
The restroom one is obviously not coming to us from Middle Chinese. First one to work out the explanation gets a gold red star.
You can also receive these through Twitter every Saturday by following @AnnalsofWu.
#shsaturday
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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.
