| There is no -ng ending in Shanghainese. the -n ending is nasalized like in French, but not vocalized into -ng as in Mandarin or Cantonese. It's wrong to spell Shanghai as Zanghei; not a throat produced -ng sound (it's a nasal n instead). Zanhei is much more accurate. Shanghainese has no pinyin ch/sh/zh sounds (as in the zh in Zhongguo) either. So when spelled chi below, the Shanghainese pronounciation is close to pinyin qi and not to pinyin chi (likewise pinyin x-> sh). And no pinyin -an, -ao, -uan, -ian, -iao sounds (again, no -ng either). However, Shanghainese has v and z (English z, as in zebra); Mandarin does not have the English z. because of this pinyin z is spelled as tz below; and pinyin c is spelled ts. two "to be" verbs: zi (to be) and lei / lahei (to be, existence). lahei used always at the end of sentence. leira = was/were. negation is va (for to be verbs) or mach (for to have verbs), similar to Mandarin. Subject-Object-Verb examples: We are eating the chocolate. [We-SUBJ][Chocolate-OBJECT][To Eat-VERB1][Am being-VERB2] ala chokalei chie lahei. He is writing the letter. [He-SUBJ][Letter-OBJECT][To write-VERB1][Am being-VERB2] yi shin sha lahei. We were really tired from work yesterday. [We-SUBJ][Yesterday-TIME][Work-OBJECT][Did-VERB(past)][Exhausted-MODIFIER(past, flavored)] ala zachnich sanwoch tzura chierissattara. zachnich = yesterday sanwoch = work tzura = did (to do: simple past) chierissattara = so exhausted (flavored, past). We had SO much fun playing soccer over the weekend. ala tzoumach tzochjou bisshandarei keishinsattara. tzoumach = weekend tzochjou = soccer bisshandarei = playing (-darei form must be followed by modifier), bisshanra (played) would have also been acceptable. although -darei form further flavors the verb (but must be followed by a modifier to the verb). keishinsattara = happy/fun/excited (past, flavored form) We played soccer over the weekend. ala tzoumach tzochjou bisshanra. (bisshangura = we had played also acceptable). -ra / -gura form do not need modifier, -darei form must need modifier (-darei form is also tense-neutral, so tense is obtained either from modifier or other parts of sentence). You ate my food. [You-SUBJECT]nei[My Food-OBJ][Ate-VERB] non nei u-a vei chittara. I haven't been there. [I][There][have not][Gone] u emida mach chigu. (-ch ending, such as mach, or double consonant indicates syllable before is a short vowel. Don't pronounce -ch endings as "ch", it's silent indicating abrupt halt and expiration of air). l = has not twirl. r = has slight twirl (like in Japanese and Korean); both r/l sound close to l for English and Mandarin speakers. So as you can see. It's quite different from Mandarin and Cantonese. Also, urban Shanghainese is spoken very quickly and clear. |
Mandarin or Shanghaiese?