儂

Han character

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

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 coastal Min (Min Dong, Min Nan and Puxian Min), it serves as the vernacular reading of 人 (OC *njin, “person”), by itself or in compounds. It is also used in Jinqu Wu dialects (formerly 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 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)	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 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. (coastal Min, dialectal Wu) 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

Compounds

Kanji

(uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji)

Etymology 1

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

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.

References

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}}.

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}}.