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

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.

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.

As usual you can also get these through Twitter by following @ AnnalsofWu. Until next week.

#xingqihu

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

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

　电话
　[di22ɦo44]
　telephone

　手机
　[sɤ33ʨi44]
　mobile phone

　电脑
　[di22nɔ44]
　computer

And an earlier entry that never made it past Twitter, a phrase for when communication breaks down:

　侬讲啥？
　noŋ gaŋ sa?
　What did you say?

As usual you can receive these phrases as well as updates of the site via Twitter by following @AnnalsofWu.

#shanghaisat

绿茶 – loʔ¹¹ zo²³, green tea

红茶 – ɦoŋ²² zo⁴⁴, black tea

茶叶 – zo²² ɦiɪʔ, tea leaf

奶茶 – nɑ²² zo⁴⁴, milk tea or bubble tea

Note:
The letter ɦ is darker and, well, raspier, than the standard English h sound. O is like it’s name in English. ʔ marks a stopping of the air like you’re holding your breath for just an instant. The standard lowercase i is like “ee” and the ɪ is like the vowel in the word “if” or “sit”. Finally the ɑ is like when you have to say “aaah” at the doctor’s office. It’s further back in you mouth than the a in “bar”.

As usual you can find these as well as tweets by following @AnnalsofWu on Twitter, assuming you can get over the GFW.

Today’s phrases:
English: Happy to meet you.
普通话：很高兴见到你
上海话：老开心碰到侬
Pronunciation: lao kai xin bang dao nong

English: What is your reason for coming to Shanghai?
普通话：您到上海来的目的是什么？
上海话：侬到上海来做啥？
Pronunciation: nong dao sang hai lai zu sa

The older ones seem to have been lost in the ether, however I do still have the first which comes from an earlier post on this blog.

English: Have you eaten?
普通话：你吃饭了没有？
上海话：侬饭吃过了吗？
Pronunciation: nong ve chi gu la va
IPA:noŋ¹³ vɛ¹³ tɕ’iɪʔ⁵ ku³⁴ lɑʔ² vəʔ²

The tweets were originally under the hashtag #shsat but since that’s an acronym otherwise in use on Twitter, future tweets with be under #shsaturday. You can receive these tweets by following @annalsofwu. I promise not to tweet about my latest mundane life details if you do.

At LanguageLog, Victor Mair has a post up (A Potpourri of Materials on Shanghainese) which, among other things, has a great quote from a mother who is raising her daughter to understand and hopefully speak Shanghainese. I particularly like this part:

“I think the hardest part now for promoting Shanghainese is to let people understand that promoting a dialect is different from saying it (together with its culture and people) is superior than other dialects (and people and local cultures). Shanghainese and Shanghai people had such a bad reputation in the past (for which we only have ourselves to blame) that it is very difficult for people to distinguish these two separate issues.”

There’s also an interesting note on topolectal high school examination questions appearing here in China and a link to this site to inflate my ego just slightly.

Through a recent post on ChinaSmack I came across M and MX, a site with bilingual Chinese/English comics and, surprise surprise, Shanghainese podcasts. Click here for all the recordings. Check it out.

Then, prolific twitterer David Feng posted a link to a slightly odd cartoon in Shanghainese called 黑猫警长, Sergeant Black Cat. While not my typical form of evening entertainment, it’s good to see Wu in such form.

Finally, eChinaCities.com has a short article on Shanghainese called Nóng Hô! that includes a few common phrases and some great photos.

Thanks to Victor Mair and LanguageLog for the mention.