Language Log

« previous post | next post »

Here is a photograph of a paper placemat Tong Wang found in a restaurant serving Beijing dishes that is named "Sea Bowl Restaurant" (Hǎiwǎn jū 海碗居):

Printed on the placemat are numerous Pekingese colloquialisms that are mostly unintelligible to people who are not natives of the city.  With help from her friends in Beijing, Yijie Zhang figured all of them out and provides these simple translations:

quánxū quányǐr 全須全尾 healthy; safe and sound ("wěi 尾" is pronounced as yǐ and with an er sound)

bàngchuí 棒槌 idiot; people who think in a straightforward way

xià tàor 下套兒 trap; frame up someone

yī bēngzi 一繃子 a while, i.e., " yīhuǐr 一會兒"

dǐ'er diào 底兒掉 completely; thoroughly

Hǎde mén 哈德門, i.e., Chóngwén mén 崇文門, "Gate of Respectful Civility" ("hā 哈" is pronounced as hǎ, and  dé  德 is pronounced in a light tone)

yōuzhe diǎnr 悠著點兒  be careful; slow down

dòu yáqiānzi 逗牙籤子  be kidding; make a joke

máli'er 麻利兒  hurry up; doing something quickly

ná dàdǐng 拿大頂  handstand

fàxiǎo'ér 發小兒  good friend since childhood

júqì 局器 be generous and loyal to friends (or "júqì 局氣"); close friends

māozhe 貓著 stay; curl one's body [VHM:  I like this one — "act cattish"]

diǎnmǎo 點卯 present; show up

yìngchǎng 應場 attend certain event; behave accordingly in specific occasions

dōu quānzi 兜圈子 talk about other things before reaching one's real point [VHM:  beat around the bush]

dǎguà 打卦 practice divination ("打" is the stressed syllable rather than "卦")

mài cōng 賣蔥 play dumb [VHM:  lit., "sell onions", but perhaps the cōng 蔥 {onions} is standing for cōng 聪 {bright; clever; smart}, with the meaning inverted, which is common in Pekingese colloquial, for which see below]

niānrhuài 蔫兒壞 crafty and insidious; to describe people who do bad things but pretend to be nice

jiānguǒr 尖果兒 beautiful girls

diānrle 顛兒了 go away; run [VHM:  scram; skedaddle]

lāle kuà 拉了胯 surrender; admit one's weakness

ménr qīng 門兒清 completely know

yànmehǔ 燕麼虎 bat (the animal)

jiàntiān 見天 everyday; for the whole day; always

chě xiánpiān 扯閒篇 chat without talking about anything important

liào tiāozi 撂挑子 quit; stop doing one's job / assignment

hēi'er lóuzhe 嘿兒嘍著 give a kid a piggyback

bǎbùzhù biān 把不住邊 bragging a lot; saying things unreliable

zhóu 軸 stubborn

dàná 大拿 master / expert of a profession

niàn yāngr 念央兒 talk aloud on purpose (in order to indicate one's intention)

liàn jiāzǐ 練家子 people who practice wǔshù 武術 [VHM:  martial arts]

zhàle miào 炸了廟 extremely surprised / excited / angry [VHM:  blow up the temple]

tàocí 套磁 cotton up to someone

liù wānr 遛彎兒 go for a walk

yǎnlì jiànr 眼力見兒 the ability to notice something subtle and act accordingly

liàogāo'er dǎ yuǎnr 撂高兒打遠兒 look far into the distance

shuǎi piàn tānghuà 甩片湯話 say things unhelpful and meaningless

yūncài 暈菜 confused; dizzy

tián bù suōsuō de 甜不唆唆的 tasting sweet (but not too sweet "hōu 齁" [snore {loudly}; thirsty from salty food; very; extremely])

dǎ piāo'er 打漂兒 (unemployed people) hang around

Particularly, I found "duō xīnxiān ne 多新鮮呢" most interesting and tricky to translate among all these expressions, because "多" here basically means "NOT AT ALL" and "多新鮮呢" thus means "of course / it is too obvious to say / this is rather common". And this meaning largely relies on the tone in which people say it!

[VHM:  I have added the Pinyin Romanizations]

Yijie's final comment reminds me of the inverse meaning of déxíng 德行  ("virtuous conduct; moral honesty / behavior") when spoken by snarky Beijingers.  Depending on how they say it, déxíng 德行 can mean quite the opposite, viz., "disgusting; shameful"!
See:

• "Pekingese put-downs" (11/7/13)

Here are translations into English of selected items on the placemat by Brendan O'Kane that convey a sense of the register and tone of the Pekingese expressions:

全須全尾 (quán xū quán yǐr): “in mint condition” (of people; I remember hearing that this was originally used of fighting crickets, though who knows how reliable that is)
棒槌 (bàngchui): “schmuck; chump”
下套兒 (xià tàor): “to lay a trap” (is this really specific to Beijing?)
一繃子 (yi bēngzi): “yonks”
etc.

Some of these don’t really strike me as being particular to Beijinghua —  門兒清 ménr qīng (“perfectly clear about sth.”), 貓著 māozhe (“low-key chilling”) and 遛彎兒 liù wānr (“to perambulate”) are common enough, I’d say. Then again, who knows; I’ve met young Beijing natives who didn’t know the term 顛兒了 diānr le (“to skedaddle”).

Below are photographs Chenfeng Wang took in "Sea Bowl Restaurant" (Hǎiwǎn jū 海碗居) when she was in Beijing. It seems that, despite its name, "Sea Bowl Restaurant" (Hǎiwǎn jū 海碗居) is not a place for seafood, but is famous for traditional Beijing dishes, such as zhájiàng miàn 炸酱面 ("fried soybean sauce noodles with minced meat").  The "hǎiwǎn 海碗" in the name refers to a "big bowl" or "extra-large bowl" (cf. "海量", lit., "sea capacity" [a large number; massive; magnanimity; used to describe a person who has a great capacity for liquor).
Here are pictures of some of the dishes they serve:

That should leave you drooling!

Reading

• "Pekingese put-downs " (11/7/13)
• "Pushing Pekingese" (11/10/13)
• "Surprising Transformations of a Beijing Street Name" (1/29/11)
• "OMG moments induced by allegro forms in Pekingese " (1/26/12)
• "Kiss kiss / BER: Chinese photoshop victim " (7/22/14)
• "Sayable but not writable " (9/12/13) (see particularly the last few comments)
• "Pekingese vs. Putonghua" (3/15/15)

[Thanks to Xiuyuan Mi, Changxin Li, Jiayi Li, and Joel Martinsen]

October 13, 2018 @ 4:10 pm · Filed by Victor Mair under Language and food, Topolects, Vernacular

Permalink