"Putonghua takes Beijing pronunciation as the basic pronunciation, northern dialect as the basic dialect, and modern vernacular writings as the grammatical norm." This is the standard definition of Mandarin. Baidu’s explanation of "Putonghua" includes a special item — — Luanping County, Chengde City, Hebei Province, is the place where standard putonghua sounds are collected. So why Luanping? What’s so special about this small county separated from Beijing by a mountain?
△ "Hometown of Putonghua" Stone Carving
Walking into Luanping, a big stone carving stands out, saying "the hometown of Putonghua". Being in Luanping is like being among the announcers, from the elderly to the children, everyone speaks Mandarin with clear pronunciation and mellow voice.Luanping dialect is considered to be "closer to Putonghua than Beijing dialect" because there are no language habits such as retroflex, saving words and ending sounds.Someone joked: "Learning Mandarin, originally learning Luanping dialect!"
Experts enter the village to collect pronunciation for formulating common language norms
Bai Fengran, 77, still remembers something that happened 63 years ago. In the spring of 1953, Luanping No.4 Complete Primary School just started school. At the age of 14, he was called to the office to read the text to two experts. In the process of listening, the two experts have been recording in the notebook, and some places have asked him to pause and reread a word. "After reading, they asked me if I usually talk like this at home? I nodded. " Bai Fengran recalled.
△ Data Map: The National Language Committee came to Luanping to collect sample sounds.
Luanping always talks like this. Like Bai Fengran, three students of other grades in the same school read several articles in front of experts. Now, the four young students who read the article that year are old, and together with three other villagers who have talked with experts, they are honored as the "phonetic seven old" of Luanping.
Of course, they couldn’t know that the two strangers were language experts sent by the Special Affairs Bureau of the Central People’s Government at that time, and they were conducting a phonetic inspection for formulating the common language standard in China.
Clear pronunciation and mellow voice, directly defining Luanping dialect as a national standard
As the saying goes, it is an arduous project to make people from all over the world talk freely. After the founding of New China, it is necessary to establish a standardized universal language system and promote it to the whole country. However, according to which standard to form the final specification, it is difficult to adjust.
△ Data Map/vision china
As a national norm, Putonghua needs smooth syllable mouth, concise tone, easy to distinguish, even moderate speech speed, coherent airflow and sufficient charm, which is suitable for broadcasting, speech and daily communication. Judging from the standard of Putonghua,Luanping’s pronunciation is accurate and clear, with clear pronunciation and clear pronunciation, and its intonation is "harder" than that of Beijing dialect at that time, which is direct and clear, especially without the pronunciation habits of retroflex, word saving and ending in Beijing Hutong, and it is easy to learn and popularize.A Mexican student once praised that learning "Luanping sound" saves the tongue than "Beijing sound"! In this context, Luanping became one of the places where Mandarin speech was collected in the early 1950s.
△ Foreign students learn Chinese.
This smell formed over 600 years has finally become a standard sound.
In fact, the deep historical origin between Luanping and Putonghua can be traced back to the Ming Dynasty more than 600 years ago. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the population of the Central Plains dropped sharply due to continuous campaigns. As a result, the mountainous area in northern Hebei, which was located in the mountainous area and was relatively unaffected by the war, became an important base for population migration at that time.
During the Yongle period, Zhu Di, the emperor of Ming Dynasty, moved the capital to Beijing, and ordered all the residents and troops outside Gubeikou to withdraw to the Great Wall, forming a no-man’s land on a large scale outside the Great Wall, and Luanping was in the southernmost part of this no-man’s land. This situation was not changed until the early Qing Dynasty when immigrants from around Beijing reclaimed land from Luanping again.
△ Data Map: Jinshanling Great Wall, Chengde, Hebei/vision china
"What exactly was the dialect of Luanping before the Ming Dynasty? Now there is no way to verify it. In the Ming Dynasty, the historical fault of Luanping for more than 200 years, like tape degaussing, ‘ Wash ’ After losing the original dialect, Luanping became a blank tape waiting for recording. " Wang Guoping, vice chairman of Luanping CPPCC, said.
The official language of the Ming Dynasty was Nanjing Mandarin, and the capital was moved to Beijing during the Yongle period, and the Nanjing dialect that followed became the basis of Beijing pronunciation at that time. After Manchu entered Beijing, they actively studied Chinese culture, especially language and culture, and the Beijing dialect they taught gradually became the new Beijing Mandarin popularized in Qing Dynasty. This period happened to be the peak period when Manchu flag people opened fields and built villages in Luanping.
△ Data Map: After Zhu Di moved to Beijing,
Wang Guoping believed that Zhuangtian had close contacts with Beijing and was greatly influenced by Beijing Mandarin at that time. Since Luanping is like a blank tape, a large number of immigrants from various sources do not have strong dialects, and what is common is the Beijing Mandarin popularized in the Qing Dynasty.It can be said that Luanping was the pioneer of the promotion of Beijing Mandarin in the Qing Dynasty, and the widely influential Beijing Mandarin eventually became the predecessor of Putonghua.
As long as Luanping people have at least a second standard of Putonghua.
Since 2012, the state has started the construction of the audio database of language resources, in which Hebei participated. Therefore, in 2013, after a lapse of 60 years, Bai Fengran once again participated in the voice collection work. At that time, 74-year-old Bai Fengran recorded four or five hours a day in an underground recording studio, but he didn’t complain at all. He said, "I am very satisfied with doing this to promote Putonghua and promote Luanping culture."
Tang Yunhang, dean of Hebei Tourism Vocational College, became attached to Luanping as a national Putonghua tester. About 20 years ago, as an examiner, he took a Putonghua test in Chengde. When he reported the test results to the provincial Putonghua Test Center, he was questioned that the standard was too loose because there were too many people above Grade Two. "I dare say that in any corner of Luanping, as long as he is a Luanping person, his Putonghua level is at least second-class A!"
△ Data Map/vision china
"Putonghua Experience Zone" is the name awarded to Luanping by the State Language Committee. "What is a cultural brand? Mandarin is the cultural brand of Luanping. " Cai Fuhao, secretary of the Luanping County Party Committee of Hebei Province, said, "We look forward to the future. Everyone knows that the place to learn Mandarin and learn standard Chinese pronunciation is Luanping, Hebei Province."