Gang gang gang gang gang

Although never studying it too diligently, I’ve always suspected that the syllable “gang” plays a prominent role in Shanghainese. Then I got this forward which proves it (see image at right). Don’t spend too much time trying to make sense of the Mandarin; it’s just a silly story about 江江, 杠杠, 傻傻, and 岗岗 calling each other dumb (傻). And yes, it’s pretty contrived. But the Shanghainese version is hilarious.

If you can read Chinese, you might be amused by the image (focusing on the latter half). But you’ll definitely want to hear the audio I had my Shanghainese wife record:

Ganggang.mp3 (1.1 MB)

Here are text transcripts (and keep in mind that the Shanghainese “transcript” doesn’t reflect any official way of representing Shanghainese in written form; it’s mostly just approximately phonetic characters chosen to exaggerate how ridiculous the Shanghainese sounds to non-speakers):

普通话版 (Mandarin version):

> 江江和杠杠说，傻傻刚才说岗岗说他竟然说他傻。

> 杠杠和江江说，江江你傻。

> 傻傻说岗岗傻，岗岗说傻傻傻。

> 岗岗傻傻都傻。

> 刚才傻傻还说你江江傻，岗岗也是这么说的。

> 江江说岗岗傻傻说什么？

> 他们说我傻？他们才傻。

上海话版 (Shanghainese version):

> 刚刚邦刚刚刚，刚刚刚刚刚刚刚刚一刚一刚一刚。

> 刚刚邦刚刚刚，刚刚侬刚。

> 刚刚刚刚刚刚，刚刚刚刚刚刚。

> 刚刚刚刚豆刚。

> 刚刚刚刚还刚侬刚刚刚，刚刚阿斯个能刚。

> 刚刚刚刚刚刚刚刚啥？

> 伊拉刚吾刚一刚？伊拉才刚。

Note: Both the Mandarin and Shanghainese texts have been edited slightly from the original image to correct for errors and inconsistencies (and in one case, to better reflect the audio version).