Author: Xu Juan Illustrator: Sun Aibin
"Cubs, just eat!"
A sudden call came from the quiet alley of Changsha, drifting with the wind, gently twirling our heartstrings.
The sound is not harsh, but it is intimate enough to make people yearn.
This is the charm of dialects, the eternal charm that is deeply imprinted in everyone's heart.
I have always wanted to write an article for the Hunan dialect, but many Changsha dialects do not know how to express them in words, and their sensitivity to language is not enough, so they are stranded.
Until I became a teacher, I found that many children could speak Mandarin, english, but no longer spoke Changsha dialect, they felt very sorry, so they wrote down their feelings to commemorate.
For as long as I can remember, I've been speaking Changsha dialect.
In my impression, people in the streets and alleys meet each other, usually with a big smiley face, and then ask each other: "Where is the gram?" ”
It is said that Changsha people have their own special tone of voice, and there is a jumping tone at the end of the word, with a touch of ease and playfulness, flying to the sky high.
When I was a child, walking in the community, I had to politely shout: "Oh, oh, oh", and then the old people would laugh and respond, dragging a long tail: "Oh, sister, really sensible." ”
Grandma and grandma can't speak Mandarin, in the countryside, a day's communication may be a few neighbors nearby, everyone is speaking the purest rural tone, simple greetings.
Since the 1980s, the state has begun to promote Mandarin, and my parents' generation may have slowly begun to contact this kind of dialect of the north. Mom and Dad also don't speak Mandarin, and at home, we have been communicating in Changsha dialect.
In our generation, from the first grade onwards, the teachers taught and spoke Mandarin on a daily basis.
I don't know if I first learned Mandarin when I was a child, or if I was proficient in Changsha dialect first, as if I was soaked in two different cans of honey, and naturally I knew that my mouth was also sweeter, and I could often get the snacks of neighbors to eat.
My friends around me are basically "Changsha dialect" and "Mandarin" can communicate freely and alternately, so there is a scene where we are talking on the phone, speaking Mandarin and becoming Changsha dialect, and then talking and talking, and then changing to plastic Mandarin.
Only later did we react, what did we just say? Then laugh together.
When I was in high school, our history teacher was knowledgeable, mature and stable, but Mandarin was not so good, we often went to class, we were confused by what he said, a sentence mixed with three or two Ningxiang words, we tried to hold back a smile, but still by the teacher to see it.
Teacher Li showed a shy expression, and quickly converted the dialect just spoken into awkward Mandarin, and our history class representative was more familiar with the teacher, and unceremoniously quipped: "Teacher Li, how did you pass the Mandarin test?" ”
The history teacher was embarrassed again, and smiled and said, "Just forgive me, we have such a standard of Mandarin as you young people!" ”
Our political teacher Yan Da is about to retire, and we are his closed disciples.
When the love reached the depths, he unconsciously used Changsha dialect to speak the news, waving between the fangs, confident and passionate, at that time, I very much wanted to give Hunan TV advice to read the news in Hunan dialect, when attacking some injustices, the dialect is really quite powerful.
During recess or during the holidays, the students also secretly imitated the teachers to speak, learned one by one, captured the essence of each teacher, and laughed together so that they could not stand up straight.
Many years after graduation, a lot of knowledge has been forgotten, but whenever I think of the "'zhun' (armament) force" and the political teacher's inadvertent "goods 'bei' (coin) system", I have a deep miss of the reading time.
Maybe the older generation of teachers could not fully popularize Mandarin in that year, but our new generation of teachers could not escape the barrier of Mandarin.
I took the Mandarin test twice, and the first time I took it was full of confidence, and when I was in high school, I was one of the members of the radio station, thinking about how I could casually take the second place. But to be on the safe side, I bought a book to practice Mandarin and practiced in my dorm every day.
Entering the examination room, the quiet soundproof room is only me, I methodically say those words and words, occasionally a few words do not know whether there is a "g" behind the pinyin, the heartbeat is abrupt, or comfort myself that it is okay, just a few. After reading the article and speaking freely, I thought that this was stable, and it was all the content I had prepared.
After a period of checking the results, I actually got the second division!
I couldn't figure it out, I thought I was pretty good at it!
My roommate asked me to repeat the free speech session, and after I finished speaking, she smiled: "Do you know that you came out when you talked about Changsha?" ”
I really didn't realize it at the time, I recorded the sound again before I realized, I could only smile bitterly, this Hunan tone went deep into the bone marrow.
Later, when I was preparing for the exam, I also paid attention to the intonation of voice from my ordinary life, and my roommate often listened to it funny: "What are you doing?" (Upscaled)
I said in a flat tone with a serious face: "Don't do anything, please speak Mandarin with me." ”
Writing a lot of mispronounced words in a notebook, I went crazy for a while.
Later to the exam, it was not a separate room, I was nervous, while saying my own words, all the voices of other candidates were next to my ears, I forced myself to calm down, or afraid of myself "out of tune", confused after the exam, thinking that this time I was estimated to hang up again, I heard that others took the Mandarin exam five or six times, and I couldn't help but sigh that I was only afraid of having to fight again, and I didn't expect That Mandarin had become my own obstacle!
Fortunately, the final result was the second place, I was confused and happy, and finally passed!
Went to the snack shop and bought a large bag of snacks to share with the roommate: "Hurry up, please snack." ”
"Why don't you speak Mandarin?" My roommate smiled and asked me.
Stuffing a slice of dried mango into my mouth, I smiled and said, "It's still comfortable to speak Hunan dialect." ”
My sister also encountered similar difficulties, but she was l and n could not be distinguished, and to amuse her, all it took was a tongue twister of "Niu Lang Nian Nian Liu Niang".
We marked every l and n in the sixty articles we were preparing for, and read them every day, and I was often amused by her "milk", "fluency", "Bruno" and "Bruno", and she always helplessly dropped the book: "Oops! We in Shaoyang read it like this. ”
Wiping away tears, we conquered word by word, and later she finally took the second place.
My sister bought me snacks to eat again: "Finally, I don't have to struggle with l and n anymore." ”
We looked at each other and smiled, and the battle of wits and courage between Hunan people and Mandarin finally came to an end temporarily.
I have always felt that Changde dialect is very gentle, perhaps when college classmates occasionally talk to their families on the phone, inadvertently revealed a childish tone, let me feel really soft and sticky, very good.
Xiangtan's aunt, after she talks to her son, usually smiles and asks me if I can understand? I laughed and said, "I just know you're talking, but I don't understand a word." ”
The high school table is a Xiangxi person, they speak Longshan dialect is also very interesting, I heard her and her sister chatting between classes, will also learn two sentences with her, laughed and said, and immediately forgot, different languages are really very learned.
Even some of our dialects in Changsha County, every time the adults talk about something in the New Year, I can't understand it, and I asked: "Mom, are you in Hong Kong?" ”
"Changsha dialect, sometimes the old man Port Drop guy we can't figure out, more Mo Gang you, I forget a lot."
At this time, I was always a little unconvinced, I always thought that I was changsha dialect level ten, but I did not expect that I might not have half the skill.
Hunan is a large dialect province, the language is mixed and varied, ten miles of different sounds, and may even cross a mountain, are two different dialects. However, they also influence and integrate with each other, which together constitute a xiangyin full of charm.
When we first entered the university and introduced ourselves, we could always add three or two dialects to let the students guess where they came from, and by the way, they could find two fellow villagers!
If there are really classmates in the same place, their eyes will light up, and the conversations after that will often use dialects, not intentionally, just tacit understanding.
Listening to the students who went to the north to study, if they heard the familiar plastic Mandarin and the familiar Hunan township sound somewhere, they felt very surprised and comforted, and felt that they suddenly had friends and had another kind of strength.
Dialects condense the spiritual connotation of a party's water and soil and spread the essence of local culture.
Dialects are created by ancestors and passed down and carried forward from generation to generation, and finally form a distinctive cultural symbol. They are also another business card of ours, and people who speak the same dialect as you may have been to the same place as you, may have eaten the same food as you, and will involuntarily close the distance between each other, have more topics, and have a different warmth in other places.
Before there was a dubbing program all the rage, there were also some dubbing software on the mobile phone, I recorded a Cartoon of Changsha dialect dubbing when I was idle, which attracted the unanimous praise of friends, some friends forwarded it, or filled in their hometown dialect, beat everyone to laugh.
The circle of friends that night is the world where the charm of dialects blooms.
Changsha dialect sometimes does not translate Mandarin word by word, but it can often add its own charm.
"These few thin men play gray and straight", while explaining the play, they also show the naughtiness of the children.
A sentence "We are just domineering and impatient", the characteristics of Hunan people's perseverance and ability to endure hardships are also revealed.
Saying that the mistake is "Kuang Scoop", a little pride is "Hisser", praising people is "not able to get down", in the morning is "all the way to the powder", at night is "walking gram is not clucking", in the interesting tone of the rise and fall, we experience the most real sour, sweet and bitter salty of life, and add a handful of peppers to it, and we have to make this day more prosperous and colorful.
In 2017, I went to some places to travel, and when I was playing in Hangzhou's West Lake, tourists heard a few of our classmates talking and said that you are Hunan people, right? The Hunan accent really can't be hidden, as long as the mouth is open, it is a very recognizable regional feature.
In Xi'an, my friend and I sat on the bus chatting, and the aunt next to us asked if we were from Changsha and talked like we sang. It turned out that Hunan dialect was singing in everyone's ears, and we chatted happily and warmly welcomed our aunt to Come to Hunan as a guest.
In Chengdu on the train, when we excitedly talked about the journey, the neighbor asked us if we were Hunan people, we sighed again, our accent is too obvious, others can not hear where it is, even if we probably guess the north do not know which province, only Hunan dialect, people will know when they hear it.
Since then, I have also understood that when we leave our hometown, in addition to being ourselves, our first identity is Hunan people, and our appearance may not be distinguishable, but xiangyin xiangyu has long been deeply imprinted in our bones, and will be expressed without reservation.
When my sister was not yet married, she took her brother-in-law from Jiangxi to her hometown. At the dinner table, a circle of Hunan people surrounded their brother-in-law, trying to speak plastic Mandarin and warmly entertaining.
I still can't hide my emotions, I burst out laughing, the family really tried their best to let the brother-in-law understand their own meaning, although the brother-in-law's confused eyes still betrayed the fact that he did not understand, but everyone's positive enthusiasm, together with the delicious meal, still deeply touched him.
Growing up to my teenage years old, I never heard my relatives speak Mandarin in my hometown, and my parents were also, occasionally unable to express themselves, so they were accompanied by a little body movement, funny and serious.
Now the brother-in-law can also understand most of the Changsha dialect, and the people in the hometown are also trying to speak Mandarin with the progress of the times. But most of the time, I still speak my own dialect, as if this is the most comfortable state.
"The township tone has not changed and the sideburns have declined", after the vicissitudes of wind and rain, the only thing that has not changed is the township tone. The wanderer who has been away from home for many years, the moment he returns to his hometown, he hears the long-lost hometown sound and feels the nostalgia of day and night, how excited he will be in his heart.
If there is no dialect, there will be no Changsha people, Changde people, Zhuzhou people, everywhere seems to be the same, always feel that something is missing in the heart.
If the dialect disappears, there seems to be a gap in the love of the hometown, and life will lose its original color.
I wanted the language not to be a single, but to be composed of multiple lively notes.
I want every Chinese to speak the dialect and tell their children and grandchildren about the wonders of the dialect.
I hope that the nursery rhymes that Grandpa hums, children can still sing.
I want to walk down the street and hear the pure dialect and smile knowingly.
I hope that the dialect can exist in people's mouths and hearts forever, and I hope that the splendid picture created by the dialect can always hang in the middle of the land of my hometown.
Hometown is the destination of the body and mind, and dialect is the note of hometown. By protecting the tongues, our hearts are no longer wandering.
Many children now no longer speak in tongues. But one day I heard a girl say to me, "Teacher, are you trying to help me pull the button?" ”
Bright eyes, sweet tone, a pure Changsha dialect, I looked at her in surprise, a bright smile: "Good, cub, you wait for me, come." ”
About the author: Xu Juan, a freshman author who has always loved reading and life.
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