Learning Shanghainese

Another of my new linguistic escapades...

The Shanghainese dialect is a very interesting language. For a native Cantonese speaker who is accustomed to a rich array of consonant endings and a more 'musical' set of tones, learning this dialect can be quite disconcerting - both to the ears and the palatial muscles. All words can only end with a vowel, -ng or a glottal stop -q. But where it suffers in terms of a limited selection of endings, it more than makes up for it with a dazzling array of consonant beginnings, and its own unique array of tones - both long and short.

I now have in my collection, two out of the three books that form a set of learning texts for the Shanghainese dialect (the series is divided into "Basic", "Daily Use" and "Business"). All the books come with CD's, which I now play in my car to practise my listening skills - much to the disgruntlement of all those who have the misfortune of being my passengers over the next few weeks!

儂身體好伐? 倷飯吃過了伐? 謝謝儂! nung seng-thi hoa va? na ve chi ku le va? sha-sha nung! (How are you? Have you eaten yet? Thank you!)