Protect dialects and local accents

Playing games with my three-and-a-half-year-old niece who has been in kindergarten for a year, chatting while playing.

Her dialect is mixed with Mandarin, and Mandarin is mixed with dialect. Speaking in Mandarin is not standard, and speaking in dialect is not very authentic. It always sounds a bit awkward.

I think of my little nephew, who could still speak dialects before he went to kindergarten. Since he went to kindergarten and then elementary school, he can communicate with his family in Mandarin when he gets home. He doesn’t use dialects and can’t speak dialects anymore. Sometimes I talk to my grandma and grandpa, and occasionally I have a polite conversation. The uneducated old man can't understand what he wants to express. Sometimes he misunderstands and makes a lot of jokes.

Moreover, many children and even adults around me have a similar situation. They are used to speaking Mandarin, and speaking dialects feels very unnatural.

Language is a communication tool. Since it is communication, you must convey your thoughts and make the listener understand. Our country is also a populous country with multiple ethnic groups, multiple languages, and multiple dialects. In order to enhance communication among various ethnic groups and regions, it is necessary to unify the language and avoid communication barriers. Therefore, in ancient times, official stipulations included Yayan and Mandarin. Today, we promote and popularize Mandarin.

Our country also issued the "Instructions on Promoting Mandarin" in 1956. In 1982, the "Constitution of the People's Republic of China" stipulated that "the state promotes Mandarin commonly used throughout the country", and the work of promoting Mandarin was officially It has been included in the legal status, and since 1998, the third week of September every year has been the National Putonghua Promotion Week, which is intended to promote Putonghua and promote the standardization of language and characters.

However, does promoting Mandarin require the elimination of dialects?

From a national level, the country is only vigorously promoting Mandarin and does not want dialects to disappear. After all, dialects are also a kind of culture. However, while vigorously promoting Mandarin, it has invisibly narrowed the scope of use of local languages ??and aggravated the disappearance of local languages. It's really not alarmist to say this.

My husband has a Zhuang classmate who was born and raised in Guangxi. However, he can only speak Mandarin and write Chinese characters. As for Zhuang, he can only understand simple language. Can't write at all.

I think, not only the Zhuang people, but also other ethnic groups with their own languages ??and characters may have this situation to some extent.

Once I attended a recitation class, the lecturer said: I visited a small village in the south of your city more than 20 years ago, and I thought the people there spoke really beautifully, like singing. After I started to study chanting, I went there to collect music and found that the speech of adults and children had changed. It was almost like Mandarin, and I could no longer find such a nice voice.

Nowadays, the school requires teachers and students to all use Mandarin, and the slogan clearly states that "Mandarin is the campus language." Especially during the Mandarin Promotion Week in September every year, superiors inspect and the following also pass various approvals. Carry out Mandarin-related activities in various forms and carry out Mandarin publicity vigorously. The children speak Mandarin from the moment they enter the school. All communication between teachers, students and classmates is in Mandarin. They spend most of their time in school during the day, so they use Mandarin most of the time.

In other places, employees in enterprises and units are required to speak Mandarin, and employees in various industries such as shopping malls and restaurants are required to speak Mandarin. Even roadside vendors use Mandarin as much as possible. Whenever we go out to communicate, strangers are accustomed to speaking Mandarin. It is no exaggeration to say that Mandarin is actually pervasive.

But what about dialects? Although there are still a large number of dialect speakers in the village, according to my own observations and those of people around me, even if many young people speak dialects, they are no longer pure and have become Mandarin-style dialects; and children, because of their influence After school education, dialects are mixed with Mandarin, or even dialects are not spoken but instead a less standard or standard Mandarin.

Moreover, because the number of people speaking Mandarin is increasing, some people have begun to think that dialects are ugly and are ashamed to speak them.

Once I went to visit a neighbor's house and happened to meet his daughter, who was working in the city, returning to her parents' home with her child. She uses dialect when chatting with us, but always uses Mandarin when communicating with her children.

I asked casually: Why don’t you use dialect? It’s not like the children can’t understand?

She replied, which surprised me: I don’t let my children speak old-fashioned dialect (dialect), it’s too ugly!

One time I was riding a bus and heard A girl chatting with Otome next to me.

Person A said: Last time I met a woman in a certain place. She was really beautiful. She had to have a decent appearance and a good figure. She showed a special temperament in her gestures and gestures. Unexpectedly, she opened her mouth and surprised me. , he actually said such an out-and-out cliché, and his image was completely ruined all of a sudden!

Now, it was my turn to be surprised.

Although Mandarin has straight words and beautiful cadences, dialects also have their own advantages of being playful, flexible and friendly. Sometimes words that cannot be expressed in Mandarin can be easily solved with dialects; some witticisms cannot be expressed without dialects. Moreover, Mandarin is still based on dialects. How come dialects have become synonymous with dirt and scum in the minds of some people?

Dialect is the carrier of our traditional culture. Whether it is slang tunes, ancient Chinese vocabulary, or ancient phonology, they are all closely related to dialects. Without dialects, these can only exist as lost cultures in Mandarin books and no longer have a living life.

In particular, as Chinese teachers, we are doing work related to language and writing, and we have the responsibility to inherit and protect traditional language and culture.

In the past, I also emphasized that students must communicate in Mandarin in class, but now, I allow them to answer in authentic dialects, although because of this, they have been criticized by colleagues in other units when teaching and researching in open classes. Criticism, but to respect them, I humbly accept suggestions in person, but in my heart, I am never ready to accept opinions. Because I am worried, not that they cannot speak Mandarin, but that the dialects we have spoken for many years will one day only be retained in audio and video materials. How sad it will be!

Yesterday, I saw a message on the Internet titled "Major National Policies of the State Council in 2017: Opinions on the Implementation of the Inheritance and Development Project of Excellent Traditional Chinese Culture". One of the paragraphs read "Vigorously promote and standardize the use of national Language and writing, protect and inherit dialect culture. Carry out work to protect the characteristic culture of ethnic minorities, strengthen the protection and dissemination of ethnic minority languages ??and classic documents, and do a good job in the translation and publication of ethnic minority classics and Han classics. ”

< p> I suddenly felt confident and supported.

Protect dialects and local accents.

We have a responsibility and a mission!