Northeastern topolect expressions, part 2
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Following up on Diana Shuheng Zhang's notes on forty Northeasternisms (11/12/25), Yizhi Geng gives us another helping. While Diana's collection is based mainly on Dalian city, Yizhi's comes from Changchun.
"mǎ húlu 马葫芦": "manhole" (lit., "horse gourd / calabash / cucurbit"), where "mǎ húlu gài 马葫芦盖" refers to "manhole-cover". According to older generations, this word came from Japanese, "manhōru マンホール", which was created during Japanese occupation. It seems to be interesting how this word came from English, to Japanese, and finally to Northeastern topolect dōngběi huà 东北话 we used in Changchun.
"dà huí / xiǎo huí 大回 / 小回": "turn left / turn right" (lit., "big retreat / small retreat". It is said to also come from Japanese, but I cannot relate it to any Japanese expression I know.
"dēngxiào 登校": (when summer / winter break ends.) "back to school". During my primary and middle school, I used to believe that this is a common word in Chinese that was frequently used by schools. However, when I went to university and met students from other provinces of China, I found that the correct word in Chinese is "fǎnxiào 返校": "return to school". I still feel confused why this word is only used in schools in Changchun, but not every school in Changchun.
"dāndāng qū 担当区": the specific area that a team is responsible for cleaning or maintaining in schools or factories. This is another example that I used to believe is universal but actually only used in Changchun. It is always used together with "dēngxiào 登校" when students are required to return to school and assigned to clean a specific area of snow on the playground during the winter break.
All above words were considered by locals as "xiéhé yǔ 协和语" (lit., "concordant language"), which represents a group of words that were directly borrowed from Japanese during a special period in history. Everyone says they were borrowed from Japanese, but most of them cannot refer each of the expressions exactly with a particular word from Japanese. I think some of them seem obvious if you know a little bit of Japanese, but others were not that direct to figure out.
The Japanese twists to these words are especially surprising and entertaining.
Selected readings
- "Northeastern topolect expressions" (11/12/25) — with references
- "Russian Loans in Northeast and Northwest Mandarin: The Power of Script to Influence Pronunciation" (1/23/11)
- "ISTORMI IDRAINI" (2/16/25)
- "Recent Japanese loanwords in Chinese" (7/22/13)
Chris Button said,
December 20, 2025 @ 7:04 pm
It seems like an evolution of "wide/gentle turn" vs "tight/sharp turn".
Since cars in China drive on the right (unlike on the left in Japan), that would work well for a left turn that crosses an oncoming traffic lane vs a right turn that does not.
languagehat said,
December 21, 2025 @ 11:58 am
The Japanese twists to these words are especially surprising and entertaining.
Where can we learn about these twists? "I think some of them seem obvious if you know a little bit of Japanese, but others were not that direct to figure out" doesn't help those of us who don't know Japanese.