Language Log

« previous post | next post »

So asked Michael Rank in the comments section to this post:

"Triple topolectal reprimand" (5/29/16)

That's a very good question.

It's a common expression among Wuhan speakers, a pet phrase for men and women alike, almost as though it were a sort of mantra or dharani.  If you ask them what it means, they will probably tell you that they themselves don't know, in which case you might get the impression that it's a modal or expletive without specific semantic content.

In actuality, gè bānmǎ 个斑马 (superficially "a zebra") is short for gè bānmǎ rì dī 个斑马日滴 (superficially "a zebra day drop"), which you will also often hear in Wuhan.  As soon as you see / hear that rì 日 (looking like an innocent "day"), you know that you're in the territory of the most foul imprecations that can be uttered in Sinitic.

We must probe more deeply!

First of all, we have to split up gè bānmǎ 个 斑马 into gè bān mǎ 个 斑 马, where bān 斑 does not mean "striped" (like a zebra), but rather is the nasalization of the pretransitive particle bǎ 把.  Next, we have to realize that mǎ 马 ("horse") is standing in for mā 妈 ("mother").  Hence, putting it all together, we have gè bǎ mā 个把妈.  Now we know for sure we are on dangerous ground, for when Chinese are arguing and start talking about the other person's mother, the trouble is getting very deep.

Note that the Wuhan pet phrase gè bānmǎ 个斑马 gè bǎnmǎ ("a zebra") can also be written in characters as 个板马 ("a plank horse").  This is further evidence that gè bānmǎ 个斑马 has nothing to do with zebras, but is simply a phonetic transcription of gè bǎ mā 个把妈 (measure word [m.w.] + pretransitive marker of the accusative + "[your] mother").  I honestly don't know the exact function of the m.w. gè 个 here, but suspect that it might (in some circumstances) be self-referential.  On the other hand, it perhaps more likely implies that "[you are] a motherf*cker").  It all depends on whom we think the implied subject is, the curser or the person who is being cursed.

Next, we have to add in that seemingly innocent, little "day" word — rì 日.  Uh-oh!  In the expression gè bānmǎ rì dī 个斑马日滴, it really means what it does in the extremely vulgar curse, gǒurì 狗日.  That looks like it means "dog days", but really signifies "dog f*ck" (the term for "dog days" in Chinese is sānfú [tiān] 三伏[天], where sānfú 三伏 refers to the three hottest months of summer).  An expanded form of gǒurì 狗日 is gǒurìde 狗日的 ("dogf*cker").

Now you're probably wondering how poor, little rì 日 ("day") came to mean "f*ck".  In truth, it is standing in for rù 入 ("enter") (cf. the unspeakably vulgar character cào 肏 (graphically = rù + ròu 入 + 肉 ["enter + flesh"]).

rì 日 ("day")

Middle Sinitic reconstructions:

Zhengzhang Shangfang	Bernard Karlgren	Li Rong	Pan Wuyun	Edwin Pulleyblank	Wang Li	Shao Rongfen
/ȵiɪt̚/	/ȵʑi̯ĕt̚/	/ȵiĕt̚/	/ȵit̚/	/ȵit̚/	/ȵʑĭĕt̚/	/ȵʑjet̚/

Topolectal pronunciations:

• Wuhan: /ɯ²¹³/
• Cantonese (Jyutping): jat⁶
• Hakka (Pha̍k-fa-sṳ): ngit
• Min Dong (BUC): nĭk
• Min Nan

  (Hokkien, POJ): ji̍t / li̍t

—–

rù 入 ("enter")

Middle Sinitic reconstructions:

Zhengzhang Shangfang	Bernard Karlgren	Li Rong	Pan Wuyun	Edwin Pulleyblank	Wang Li	Shao Rongfen
/ȵiɪp̚/	/ȵʑi̯əp̚/	/ȵiəp̚/	/ȵip̚/	/ȵip̚/	/ȵʑĭĕp̚/	/ȵʑjep̚/

Topolectal pronunciations:

• Wuhan /y²¹³/
• Cantonese (Jyutping): jap⁶
• Hakka (Pha̍k-fa-sṳ): ngi̍p
• Min Dong (BUC): ĭk
• Min Nan

  (Hokkien, POJ): ji̍p / li̍p

  (Teochew, Peng'im): rib⁸

All right, that takes care of all the elements in gè bānmǎ rì dī 个斑马日滴 except for dī 滴 ("drop") at the end.  This part is rather easy, since it's just standing in for the ubiquitous nominalizer 的.  Usually this is pronounced "de", but many people pronounce it "dì", which was its original (before bleaching) pronunciation when it meant "target".  Indeed, for the first decade or so while I was learning Mandarin, following some of my teachers and various instructional materials, I pronounced 的 in all of its usages as "dì", not "de".  Occasionally that habit of decades ago still comes back to me.

The denizens of Wuhan have a reputation for being rude and foul-mouthed.  I'm sure that there must be plenty of polite, elegant, well-spoken individuals in Wuhan, but people from other parts of China — even where swearing is prevalent — are often stunned by the ubiquitousness and creativity of Wuhan profanity.

In comparison to the raw language discussed in this post, the "25 literary Yo Mama jokes" that I just read (on Book Riot, 5/27//16) are incredibly tame.

[Thanks to Wiktionary and this Chinese website]

http://bbs.tianya.cn/post-free-1430169-1.shtml

May 29, 2016 @ 7:51 pm · Filed by Victor Mair under Swear words, Topolects

Permalink