儂 (Kangxi radical 9,人+13, 15 strokes,cangjie input人廿田女 (OTWV),four-corner2523₂,composition⿰亻農)

• 𧁓

• Kangxi Dictionary:page 118, character 25
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 1176
• Dae Jaweon: page 251, character 9
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 225, character 4
• Unihan data for U+5102

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声,OC*nuːŋ): semantic 亻 + phonetic 農(OC*nuːŋ).

“Person; I; me >suffix for pronouns” in southeastern varieties

Its senses of “person; human being” and “pronoun suffix” are well-attested in the classical literature, dating back to theSix Dynasties. At the present time, traces of this word are found in various Southern regions such asFujian,Jiangxi andZhejiang, inWu,Min,Hui andGan.

“Person; human”

In Coastal Min (Eastern,Southern andPuxian Min), it serves as the vernacular reading of人 (OC*njin, “person”), by itself or in compounds. It is also used inJinqu Wu lects (also classified as Wuzhou Wu and Chuqu Wu), usually written as農.

“I”

儂 was used to mean “I” in medieval poetry from the Wu region, before it was displaced by the more common我 (MC ngaX, “I”). Also attested was Ancient Wu阿儂 (MC 'a nowng, “I”), which was abbreviated to阿 (“I”) in certain localities, such as that ofJinhua.

“Pronoun suffix”

This is widely found in Wu and Min languages. The structure ‹ singular pronoun (“I, you, he/she/it”) +儂 › is common, with儂 functioning either as a meaningless particle or a pluraliser. The resulting forms were thus used to mean singular or plural pronouns, and were rather prone toelision to become a single syllable. Compare the following plural pronouns in Min:

Original word	Meaning	Fuding (Eastern Min)	Longyan (Southern Min)	Xiamen (Southern Min)	Xianyou (Puxian Min)
我儂	we	ua neiŋ	gua laŋ	gun (阮)	kuoŋ ~ kŋ (滾)
儂儂	we (inclusive)	-	laŋ laŋ	lan (咱)	-
汝儂	you (plural)	ni neiŋ	li laŋ	lin (恁)	tyøŋ (長)
伊儂	they	i neiŋ	i laŋ	in (𪜶)	yøŋ (𪜶)

A similar chain of changes happened in the Wu varieties to arrive at the modern divergent dialectal forms for “you (singular)”.

爾儂 (MC nyeX nowng)
Lect		Term
Northern	Fenghua	/n̩˧˨˦ noŋ/	爾儂／尔侬
	Yuyao	/noŋ˩˩˧/	儂／侬
	Shanghai	/noŋ˩˩˧/	儂／侬
	Ningbo	/nəu˨˩˧/	諾／诺
	Changshu	/nɛ̃˧˩/	倷
	Suzhou	/ne̞˧˩/	倷
	Shengze	/nə˧˩/	倷
Jinqu	Tangxi	/ŋ˨˩˩ noŋ˩˨/	爾儂／尔侬
	Lanxi	/ŋ˥˦˦ noŋ˦˧˧/	爾儂／尔侬

Some lects, such asShanghainese, have merged the two syllables into one, leaving儂／侬 to mean “you (singular)”.

With regard to the etymology of this word,Huang (1980),Norman (1983) andZhou (1986) hypothesised that this is the same as農 (OC*nuːŋ, “farmer; peasant”). The use of this word as a pronoun may have originated as a form of personal deprecation and then come to be used as a full-fledged pronoun.Pan and Chen (1995) disagree, proposing thatnong was originally aBaiyue substrate word possibly ofKra-Dai origin, and possibly an original clan name later developing to mean “person; I”. CompareZhuangNungz(surname) and name of the 11^th centuryZhuang leaderNong Zhigao, as well as the name of theNùng people in Vietnam.

This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with theIPA then please add some! Particularly: “Hainanese”

儂

1. (Coastal Min, dialectal Wu)person;human being(Classifier:隻／只md; 個／个mn)
2. (Coastal Min) a person associated with a particularidentity ortrait;-er
3. (Coastal Min)physical,psychological ormoralquality orcondition
4. (Coastal Min)others;otherpeople
5. (literary or Wu)I;me

   • 花紅易衰似郎意，水流無限似儂愁。[Classical Chinese,trad.]
     花红易衰似郎意，水流无限似侬愁。[Classical Chinese,simp.]

     From:c. 9th century,Liu Yuxi,竹枝詞

     Huā hóng yì shuāi sì láng yì, shuǐliú wúxiàn sìnóng chóu.[Pinyin]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 歡愁儂亦慘，郎笑我便喜。[Classical Chinese,trad.]
     欢愁侬亦惨，郎笑我便喜。[Classical Chinese,simp.]

     From:子夜歌, in樂府詩集

     Huān chóunóng yì cǎn, láng xiào wǒ biàn xǐ.[Pinyin]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 儂今葬花人笑痴，他年葬儂知是誰？[Written Vernacular Chinese,trad.]
     侬今葬花人笑痴，他年葬侬知是谁？[Written Vernacular Chinese,simp.]

     From:Cao Xueqin,Dream of the Red Chamber, mid-18^th centuryCE

     Nóng jīn zàng huā rén xiào chī, tānián zàngnóng zhī shì shéi?[Pinyin]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

6. (archaic or Wu)you(singular)

   儂叫啥名字啊？[Shanghainese,trad.]
   侬叫啥名字啊？[Shanghainese,simp.]

   ⁶non⁵ciau⁵sa⁶min-zy⁰a[Wugniu]

   What isyour name?

   哪能儂現在上海閒話講了介好？[Shanghainese,trad.]
   哪能侬现在上海闲话讲了介好？[Shanghainese,simp.]

   ⁶na-nen⁶non⁶yi-ze⁶zaon-he⁶ghe-gho⁵kaon⁸leq⁵ka⁵hau[Wugniu]

   How comeyou speak Shanghainese so well?

7. (dialectal Wu)he,him;she,her;it
8. (Min, Wu)Suffix for pronouns, functioning as a meaningless particle or a pluralising particle.

   • 王老小兒吹笛看，我儂試舞爾儂看。[Literary Chinese,trad.]
     王老小儿吹笛看，我侬试舞尔侬看。[Literary Chinese,simp.]

     From:9th century,Sikong Tu,《力疾山下吳村看杏花》

     Wánglǎo xiǎo'ér chuī dí kàn, wǒnóng shì wǔ ěrnóng kàn.[Pinyin]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

9. asurname,Nong

• (I):
  • Archaic in Wu.
  • In Coastal Min (Eastern Minnè̤ng; Hokkienlāng, lǎng, lâng; Hainanesenang²), it is often used affectionately like Mandarin人家 (rénjia).