Dialect Characters and Dialectal Use of Standard Characters
Some of the major dialects, such as Cantonese, Wu and Min, have created
characters that are only comprehensible to speakers of those dialects. At the same time, these dialects also have
liberally borrowed standard characters and put them to new uses unimaginable
and incomprehensible to speakers of other dialects.
The need for dialectal characters and the dialectal use of standard
characters is dictated by the existence of dialect specific vocabulary. In addition to a core vocabulary that is
shared by all dialects, there are also words that are specific to dialects which
the standard language does not have characters for.
Although dialectal characters and dialectal use of characters are
never encouraged and do not enjoy high prestige, the principle behind their
creation and use is entirely reasonable and consistent with the ways Chinese
characters have evolved. We are in fact
seeing in action the use of the Rebus principle and the formation of
semantic-phonetic compounds.
The Rebus principle is in full swing
in the following dialectal use of standard characters:
Cantonese:
|
Cantonese Words |
Meaning In English |
Meaning of characters |
Mandarin Words |
|
而家 |
Now |
But-home |
现在 |
|
同埋 |
And |
Same-bury |
和 |
|
边个 |
Who |
Side-measure |
哪位 |
|
边道 |
Where |
Side-path |
哪儿 |
|
听日 |
Tomorrow |
Listen-day |
明天 |
|
头先 |
just now |
Head-first |
刚才 |
|
呢的 |
These |
Particle-particle |
这些 |
|
古仔 |
Story |
Ancient-son |
故事 |
|
点解 |
Why |
Point-resolve |
为什么 |
|
俾 |
Give |
slave |
给 |
|
郁 |
Move |
lush |
动 |
|
企 |
Stand |
enterprise |
站 |
|
仲 |
Still |
mid |
还 |
|
紧 |
-ing
|
tight |
着 |
Shanghai:
|
Shanghai Words |
Mandarin and English |
|
侬 |
你 you |
|
伊 |
她/他 he/she |
|
接棍 |
利害 tough |
|
交归 |
非常 very |
|
伐 |
不 not |
|
白相 |
玩 play |
Southern Min:
|
South.Min Words |
Mandarin and English |
|
阮 |
我(们) I/we
|
|
暗 |
晚
late |
|
郎 |
人
person |
|
呷 |
吃
eat |
|
叨位 |
哪儿
where |
|
的括 |
得意
complacent |
The standard
characters are only used for their sounds and their meanings are totally
irrelevant.
In addition to these phonetic loans,
these dialects have also created their own characters. While a few are based on meanings, most are
phonetically-based.
One interesting character is the
Cantonese creation for not have冇.
It is the character for ‘have’ 有without the two horizontal strokes
inside the月. It is very much an ideograph, an indicative
character conveying the idea of not having in a most direct way.
Interesting as the character for
‘not have’ is, most created characters are quite utilitarian without much
creativity involved. They are even less
interesting than the standard semantic-phonetic characters, whose semantic
radical is still culturally significant, if not all that significant
linguistically. For example, in
Cantonese, most created characters’ semantic component is just the mouth
radical 口,
used to explicitly tell us that the character is used for its sound alone and
that the original meaning is irrelevant:
哋、嗰、喺、呷、啫、啲、咁、噉、嘢、
吓、唔、嘅、唨、咗、嚟、啱、喇、喐
For an in-depth discussion (in Chinese) of the use of dialectal characters in Taiwan Min, please see: http://plaza16.mbn.or.jp/~sunliong/lunwen15.htm
For samples of writings in Cantonese,
Southern Min and Shanghai, please check out the following:
Cantonese:
唔准郁!打劫!全部举手!男既泊左边,女既泊右边,
变态既企中间,话紧你啊,仲诈呆睇手机!
Southern
Min:
大加咯来法表在。卡没一噎表个空空。吼啷俅啷们 l k k 啦!
Shanghai:
1。曾经有一只闷子停勒我格膝馒头高头,我“啪”的一声挡的依佛会动,
但依趁我邦侬发消息格辰光拍拍翅膀逃特勒,如果再把我看到依,我一定
要那依挡煞特。
2。落雨咯,打烊咯,小八辣子开会咯,大头娃娃跳舞咯。
3。侬实在老接棍各,吾交归陪服侬!
4。侬只老句三!屈死!!
5。两个矮男人互相嘲讽,甲说:“侬算高煞了,一伐当心就走到床底下去了。”
乙不甘示弱:“哦哟,算侬高,侬坐了上街沿高头两只脚还好荡法荡法。”