Translingual

Han character

儂 (radical 9 人+13, 15 strokes, cangjie input 人廿田女 (OTWV), four-corner 2523₂, composition ⿰亻農)

References

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

Chinese

Glyph origin

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

Etymology

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

Its senses of “person; human being” and “pronoun suffix” are well-attested in the classical literature, dating back to the Six Dynasties. At the present time, traces of this word are found in regions of Jiangsu (Northern Wu), Anhui (Hui), Shanghai (Northern Wu), Zhejiang (Southern Wu), Jiangxi (Gan), Fujian (Min), Guangdong (Southern Min, Cantonese), Guangxi (Cantonese) and Hainan (Min).

“Person; human”

In Eastern (Min Dong) and Southern Min (Min Nan), it serves as the vernacular readings of 人 (OC *njin, “person”), by itself or in compounds.

“I”

儂 was used to mean “I” in medieval poetry from the Wu region, before it was displaced by the common Chinese 我 (MC ŋɑ^X, “I”). Also attested was ancient Wu 阿儂 (MC ʔɑ nuoŋ, “I”), which was abbreviated to 阿 (“I”) in certain dialects, such as Jinhua.

“Pronoun suffix”

This is widely found in Wu and Min dialects. 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 to elision to become a single syllable. Compare the following plural pronouns in Min:

Original word	Meaning	Fuding (Eastern Min)	Longyan (Southern Min)	Xiamen (Southern Min)
我儂	we	ue neŋ	gua laŋ	gun (阮)
汝儂	you (plural)	ni neŋ	li laŋ	lin (恁)
伊儂	they	i neŋ	i laŋ	in (𪜶)

A similar chain of changes happened in the Wu dialects to arrive at the modern divergent dialectal forms for “you (singular)”. In Shanghai and some other Wu dialects, the first syllable had become elided, leaving 儂 to mean “you (singular)”.

爾儂 (MC ȵiᴇX nuoŋ)
Fenghua (Zhejiang)	/n̩˧˨˦.noŋˑ/
Yuyao (Zhejiang)	/noŋ˩˩˧/
Shanghai (Shanghai)	/nʊŋ˨˧/ (儂)
Ningbo (Zhejiang)	/nəu˨˩˧/
Changshu (Jiangsu)	/nɛ̃˧˩/
Suzhou (Jiangsu)	/ne̞˧˩/
Shengze (Jiangsu)	/nə˧˩/

With regard to the etymology of this word, Huang (2000), Norman (1983) and Zhou (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) considered this theory implausible, and proposed that this was originally a Baiyue substrate word, possibly of Tai-Kadai origin. The initial meaning of nong was possibly a clan name, later developing to mean “person; I”. Compare Zhuang Nungz ‎(“a surname”) and name of the 11^th century Zhuang leader Nong Zhigao, as well as the name of the Nùng people in Vietnam.

Pronunciation

Definitions

儂

1. person; human being
2. Suffix for pronouns, functioning as a meaningless particle or a pluralising particle.
3. Used as a variety of pronouns in different dialects: I; you (singular); he, she, it; we; you (plural); they
   • 哪能儂現在上海言話講了介好？ [Shanghainese, trad.]
     哪能侬现在上海言话讲了介好？ [Shanghainese, simp.]

     How come you speak Shanghainese so well?

4. A surname​. Nong

Synonyms

Compounds

Japanese

Kanji

(uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji)

Readings

• Goon: の (no), のう (nō)
• Kan’on: どう (dō)
• Kan’yōon: のん (non)
• Kun: わし (washi), かれ (kare)

Usage notes

This character is seldom used in modern Japanese.

Etymology 1

Contraction of 私 ‎(watashi, “I, me”).^[1][2]

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• (Tokyo) わし [wàshí] (Heiban - [0])^[2]
• IPA^(key): [ɰᵝa̠ɕi]

Alternative forms

• 私 (more common)

Pronoun

儂 ‎(hiragana わし, romaji washi)

1. I, me (used by the elderly)

Usage notes

The term is generally only used by the elderly, and its use is often considered stereotypical of them. As such, it is frequently used in TV shows and comics to emphasize the age of characters.

More commonly spelled 私, or in kana to make the reading explicit.

Etymology 2

From Old Japanese. Compound of 彼 ‎(ka, “that, yon”) +‎ れ ‎(re, nominalizing suffix for demonstratives). Found in the Man'yōshū compiled around 759.

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• (Tokyo) か​れ [káꜜrè] (Atamadaka - [1])^[2]
• IPA^(key): [ka̠ɺ̠e̞]

Alternative forms

• 彼 (more common)

Pronoun

儂 ‎(hiragana かれ, romaji kare)

1. (rare) third person pronoun: he, she
   1. particularly, male personal third person pronoun: he
   2. by extension from he: boyfriend

Usage notes

Very rare spelling. See the more common spelling 彼 for more details about the term.

References

1. ↑ 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
2. 1 2 3 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9

Korean

Hanja

儂 • ‎(nong) (hangeul 농, revised nong, McCune-Reischauer nong)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Vietnamese

Han character

儂 (nông, nùng, noọng)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.