I admit it, I’m a bit of a language nerd. One of my friends and a previous colleague of mine often sends me language memes and I get quite passionate in teaching my A-Level English Language class. In that specific sixth form class, as part of the course I’m teaching, we’ve often discussed in depth about the significant role that language plays in shaping our own cultural identities.
我承认，我有点语言书呆子。 我的一个朋友和我以前的同事经常给我发语言模因，我对教A级英语课充满热情。 在那个特定的六年级课程中，作为我教授的课程的一部分，我们经常深入讨论语言在塑造我们自己的文化认同方面发挥的重要作用。
My language, my dialect even, is not merely a means of communication; it is the essence of who I am and where I come from. It serves as a cultural marker that distinguishes me from others and connects me to my community and heritage. The places where we grow up and live clearly contribute to the way we speak, whether we are from the Yorkshire Dales, the Deep South of America or even Beijing.
我的语言，甚至我的方言，不仅仅是一种交流手段；它是我是谁以及我来自哪里的本质。 它作为一个文化标志，将我与他人区分开来，并将我与我的社区和遗产联系起来。 无论我们来自约克郡山谷、美国南部甚至北京，我们成长和生活的地方显然都影响了我们说话的方式。
For many people, this is where the discussion of accent begins and ends; we tend to sound like where we are from. Aside from this influence of geography, our speech is initially influenced primarily by our parents or caregivers, although this soon switches to our peers in childhood. Moving around a lot as a child, my own mother probably recognised this switch where the accent at home was different from the accent of the local area.
对许多人来说，这是关于口音的讨论的起点和终点；我们往往听起来像我们来自哪里。 除了地理的影响外，我们的演讲最初主要受到父母或照顾者的影响，尽管这很快就转向了我们童年的同龄人。 小时候经常四处走动，我自己的母亲可能认出了这个开关，家里的口音与当地的口音不同。
Even into adulthood, this influence of geography and peers still influences the way we speak. I’m not ashamed to admit it, that when I attempt to speak Chinese (I used to naively think I was speaking Mandarin) I have adopted a slight Sichuanese twang; the result of 7 years living in Chengdu and a clan of spicy in-laws.
即使到了成年，地理和同龄人的这种影响仍然影响着我们说话的方式。 我不羞于承认，当我试图说中文时（我曾经天真地认为我在说普通话），我采用了一点四川口音；这是在成都生活了7年和一个辛辣姻亲家族的结果。
China has 129 officially recognised dialects . When you walk through the bustling streets of a diverse city such as Chengdu, the melodic sounds of different languages and dialects fill your ears. Mandarin, Sichuanese, Chengduhua, Tibetan; each serves as a cultural marker that distinguishes and celebrates the unique identities of its speakers. Could Nanjing be the same? I set out to stop, listen and attempt to speak to Nanjing locals to find out if Nanjing has a rich linguistic tapestry and far this shapes cultural identities.
中国有129种官方认可的方言。 当你走在像成都这样多元化城市的繁华街道上时，不同语言和方言的旋律声充满了你的耳朵。 普通话、四川话、成都话、藏语；每一种都是区分和庆祝其使用者独特身份的文化标志。 南京会一样吗？ 我開始停下來，傾聽並嘗試與南京當地人交談，以瞭解南京是否有豐富的語言掛毯，以及這是否塑造了文化認同。
Early missionaries from the US to China learned Nankinese as the official language. During the Edo period (1603 – 1868) in Japan, Nankinese was taught as standard Chinese and, in fact, was considered “standard” Chinese all the way up until the Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1911), when the Yongzheng Emperor changed the official language to the Beijing variant
早期从美国到中国的传教士将南金语作为官方语言。 在日本江户时代（1603-1868），南金语被当作标准汉语教授，事实上，一直被认为是“标准”汉语，直到清朝（1644-1911），雍正皇帝将官方语言改为北京变体
Even further back into history, when China was split between the Northern and Southern dynasties (420 – 589), Nanjing was revered as a bastion of Han culture in contrast to the “barbarian” northern tribes, and the language was considered the purest of China’s dialects. During the Sui (581 – 618), Tang (618 – 907), and Song (960 – 1279) dynasties, official texts on correct pronunciation and language use all took Nankinese as the model. The Nanjing dialect has been revered for a very long time, preceding even the English of Shakespeare’s time, so it should be implied that the Nanjing dialect has some clout.
更进一步的历史，当中国被北方和南方朝（420-589）分开时，南京被视为汉文化的堡垒，与“野蛮”的北方部落形成对比，这种语言被认为是中国最纯粹的方言。 在隋朝（581-618）、唐朝（618-907）和宋朝（960-1279）时期，关于正确发音和语言使用的官方文本都以南金语为蓝本。 南京方言长期以来一直受到崇敬，甚至早于莎士比亚时代的英语，所以应该暗示南京方言有一些影响力。
My initial hypothesis to stop, listen and speak to Nanjing locals came out flat. I hadn’t really noticed any differences in the way people spoke. Maybe I was listening in the wrong areas of the city? Maybe my ears weren’t as attuned to the local dialect as I’d hoped they would be?
我最初的假设是停下来，倾听和与南京当地人交谈，结果平淡無奇。 我真的没有注意到人们说话的方式有什么不同。 也许我在城市里听错了地方？ 也许我的耳朵没有像我希望的那样适应当地方言？
I lamented to my some of my sixth form students between lessons one day, and one of them told me to listen a little bit more carefully, as I should be noticing a specific but an apparent difference in pronunication. They explained that a common element of the Nanjing dialect was that the “n” and “l” sounds were often mixed when people spoke.
有一天，我在课间向我的一些六年级学生哀叹，其中一个学生告诉我要更仔细地听，因为我应该注意到发音上有一个具体但明显的差异。 他们解释说，南京方言的一个共同因素是，人们说话时，“n”和“l”的音经常混在一起。
For example, I should hear people pronouncing “Nanjing” as “lan jin”. My ears weren’t as attuned that much is true, I hadn’t made that initial connection but something did click, not so much a Damscus moment, but more like the pieces of a challenging jigsaw puzzle slowing coming together. In my residential community, I’d often overheard young children calling after their grandmothers (奶奶; nai nai) as “lai lai”.
例如，我应该听到人们把“南京”说成“兰津”。 我的耳朵没有那么大的调整，我没有建立最初的联系，但有些东西确实点击了，与其说是Damscus的时刻，而更像是一个具有挑战性的拼图的碎片慢慢走到一起。 在我的住宅社区，我经常无意中听到小孩子呼唤他们的祖母（奶奶；nai nai）为“lai lai”。
From then on, this apparently quite common element of in the Nanjing dialect, the dropping of the nasal “ng” sound; [ŋ] for anyone interest in phonology. Picking up my packages after work in the evening, I heard it. On the Metro, I heard it again. It almost became a daily occurrence; the overhearing of this specific pronunciation; “lan jin” began floating around in my ears.
从那时起，这显然是南京方言中非常常见的元素，鼻音“ng”的下降；[ŋ]对于任何对语音学感兴趣的人来说。 晚上下班后取包裹，我听到了。 在地铁上，我又听到了。 它几乎成了日常现象；无意中听到这种特定的发音；“lan jin”开始在我耳边飘来飘去。
Eavesdropping on conversations out and about (I make no apologies; I was conducting a linguistic experiment in my nosy mind), elements such as the the dropping of the nasal “ng” and the mixing of the “n” and “l” became common. At first, I noticed it in the older generations of Nanjing and presumed that this was because standard Mandarin has become the norm throughout the younger generations. But I heard it more and more with younger generations walking past me in shopping malls or waiting in Starbucks as people around spoke to their friends.
窃听外面的谈话（我没有道歉；我在多管闲事的头脑中进行语言实验），鼻音“ng”的掉落和“n”和“l”的混合等元素变得普遍。 起初，我在南京的老一辈人身上注意到了这一点，并推测这是因为标准普通话已经成为年轻一代的常态。 但我越来越多地听到，年轻一代在商场里从我身边走过，或者在星巴克等待，周围的人和他们的朋友聊天。
In fact, within those same conversations I noticed another linguistic element; code switching. This is the process of adjusting the way we speak according to the context around us (such as the well-known phenomenon of “phone voice”). For example, purely hypothetic here, when your mum goes from shouting at you because of the messy state of your bedroom to using her posh phone voice to answer her phone, all in a matter of seconds.
事实上，在这些相同的对话中，我注意到了另一个语言元素；代码切换。 这是根据我们周围的环境（例如众所周知的“电话语音”现象）调整我们说话方式的过程。 例如，这里纯粹是假设，当你的妈妈从因为你卧室的凌乱状态而对你大喊大叫到用她高傲的电话声音接听电话时，这一切都在几秒钟内。
Code shifting, or style shifting which is a whole other linguistic debate that I’ll save you from here, is a way of projecting subtly different identities depending on where we are, who we are with, what we are trying to achieve, and the extent to which we want either to fit in or to distance ourselves from particular people, groups, or situations.
代码转移或风格转移是另一场语言辩论，我会从这里拯救你，是一种投射微妙不同身份的方式，这取决于我们在哪里，我们和谁在一起，我们试图实现什么，以及我们希望适应或与特定的人、群体或情况保持距离的程度。
The code-switching I often overheard when out-and-about was people jumping between Nanjing dialect and Mandarin to communicate to their respective friends; Mandarin on the phone, Nankinese to their friends in Starbucks. It was fascinating to listen to.
我外出时经常听到的密码切换是人们在南京方言和普通话之间跳来跳去，与各自的朋友交流；在电话里用普通话，在星巴克用南京语与朋友交流。 听起来很吸引人。
The ayi in my lift bemoaned that her grandkids, while they could understand it, couldn’t speak Nanjing dialect. This reflected what one of my previous students had previously mentioned before, that their local dialect, in fact any trace of dialect, had been quickly stomped out during their formative years in kindergarten.
我电梯里的ayi暣恿，她的孙子们虽然能听懂，但不会说南京方言。 这反映了我以前的一位学生之前提到的，即他们的地方方言，事实上，任何方言的痕迹，在他们在幼儿园的形成期就被迅速踩踏了。
I pressed her more (anxious to gather as much information before we reached our respective floors) about her emotional attachment to the dialect. Her replies indicated a sense of linguistic pride in her dialect, saying, “I’ve lived in Nanjing all of my life, of course I speak 南京话. I enjoy speaking to other grandparents in the square or supermarket […] I speak to my son and my grandkids in the Nanjing dialect”. She seemed to be a proud Nanjinger through and through, and her dialect reflected that, further commenting, “I understand Mandarin, but I don’t use it”, before the lift doors closed behind her.
关于她对方言的情感依恋，我向她施压（急于在我们到达各自的楼层之前收集尽可能多的信息）。 她的回答表明了她的方言有一种语言上的自豪感，她说：“我一生都住在南京，我当然会说南京话。 我喜欢在广场或超市和其他祖父母聊天[…]我用南京方言和我的兒子和孙子孫女聊天。」 她似乎是一个骄傲的南京人，她的方言反映了这一点，在电梯门在她身后关上之前，她进一步评论说：“我懂普通话，但我不用它”。
I rushed back to my apartment to note down what she said and pondered more on her words. Did her language use in her daily interactions fosters a sense of belonging and solidarity among the Nanjing dialect speakers? Her tone suggested so, I’ll have to ask her further when I see her again in the lift.
我冲回我的公寓，记下她说的话，并多思考她的话。 她在日常互动中使用的语言是否培养了南京方言使用者的归属感和团结感？ 她的语气暗示了，当我在电梯里再次见到她时，我必须进一步询问她。
While my linguistic experiment was rudimentary, it gave me a lot of food for thought. Language and identity seem to go hand-in-hand. Whether it’s the Nanjing dialect or watching my wife slip straight back into using the Sichuan dialect with ease almost as soon as we stepped off the plane this Chinese New Year, dialect and accents are an integral part of our identity.
虽然我的语言实验很初步，但它给了我很多思考的食粮。 语言和身份似乎齐头并进。 无论是南京方言，还是看着我妻子在这个中国新年一下飞机就轻松地回到四川方言，方言和口音都是我们身份的组成部分。
We do have some control over our dialect; code swifting is a prime example of that. I often lament that I lost my Yorkshire accent as a kid as we moved away from where I grew up, but I experience slipping back into the local way of speaking when I speak with friends and family from the area, or even when I speak to them on the phone.
我們確實可以控制自己的方言；快速程式就是這方面的一個典型例子。 我经常感叹，当我们搬离我长大的地方时，我小时候失去了约克郡的口音，但当我与该地区的朋友和家人交谈时，甚至当我与他们通电话时，我经历了回到当地的说话方式。
This may seem to happen unintentionally, but the fact that I am are aware of it happening suggests some degree of intent. And why shouldn’t there be? After all, it is an entirely natural way to demonstrate that we belong to, or associate with, a particular group of people. More than this, it is a way of subtly, or not so subtly, reasserting our geographic or regional identity.
这似乎是无意中发生的，但我知道它正在发生的事实表明了一定程度的意图。 为什么不应该有呢？ 毕竟，这表明我们属于或与特定群体交往是一种完全自然的方式。 不仅如此，它是一种巧妙地或不那么巧妙地重申我们的地理或区域身份的方式。
For many people, where they come from is a big part of who they are; the ayi in the lift exemplified this. For some, being from Dublin, or Chongqing, or even Birmingham is a matter of fierce personal pride. Others feel a more passive sense of belonging to or identifying with particular geographical groupings. But however active or passive the link between an individual and a particular place, it does exist, and can be demonstrated by the way we speak.
对许多人来说，他们来自哪里是他们身份的重要组成部分；电梯里的ayi就是一个例子。 对一些人来说，来自都柏林、重庆甚至伯明翰是一个强烈的个人自豪感。 其他人感到更被動的归属感或认同特定的地理群体。 但无论个人与特定地点之间的联系是主动的还是被动的，它确实存在，并且可以通过我们说话的方式来证明。
It is important to see the Nanjing dialect, or any local dialect, as a symbol of cultural heritage and identity. Regional linguistic diversity needs to be celebrated, regional dialects such as Nanjing’s, and I would encourage everyone to engage with and appreciate the richness of linguistic diversity in their own communities and beyond.
重要的是将南京方言或任何当地方言视为文化遗产和身份的象征。 区域语言多样性需要庆祝，像南京这样的区域方言，我会鼓励每个人参与并欣赏他们自己社区内外丰富的语言多样性。
Stop and listen once in a while, you might learn something. Or in the words of Ferris Bueller himself; “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it”. If you’re feeling literary, listen to wise words of Hemingway himself; “When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen”.
偶尔停下来听一听，你可能会学到一些东西。 或者用Ferris Bueller本人的话来说；“生活过得很快。 如果你不偶尔停下来四处看看，你可能会错过它。” 如果你觉得有文学性，请听海明威本人的智慧之言；“当人们说话时，要完全倾听。 大多数人从不听。”