What Does “rang” Mean in the Henan Dialect? It Even Appears in the 《左传》 (Zuo Commentary)

无事小狗仙
2026-09-22 15:34
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I imagine many fellow Henan natives will understand immediately when they see this pronunciation.

When a child misbehaves, an adult calls out from behind to frighten them:

“你再追鸡子，恁妈回来rang你！” (“If you keep chasing the chickens, your mom will scold you when she gets back!”)

When a disobedient child inevitably gets a scolding, adults will even gloat and say:

“叫你不听话，挨rang了吧？” (“You wouldn't listen, and now you've been scolded, haven't you?”)

When I was little, if I broke a bowl or did something I shouldn’t have, I would also say:

“俺妈rang了我几回。” (“My mother scolded me a few times.”)

This “rang” is a verb where we live, pronounced in the first tone. It means roughly to criticize, blame, or scold.

But it is not quite the same as the Mandarin “批评” (to criticize).

The term “批评” (criticize) is relatively formal: teachers can criticize students, and managers can criticize their subordinates. Our “rang” is much more colloquial. Whenever I hear this word, I picture an adult standing with hands on hips, scolding a naughty child:

“给你说多少遍了？就是不听！” (“How many times have I told you? You just won’t listen!”)

So when I was little, I always thought this word should probably be written as “嚷” (to shout).

Because “嚷” itself means speaking loudly. When adults “rang” children, they generally do not do so gently; their manner is usually somewhat loud and forceful.

Later, I came across a claim that surprised me a little:

The Henan dialect word “rang” should be written as——

yield.

It is the “让” in “谦让”“让步”“你让我一下” (“yield courteously,” “make a concession,” and “let me have my way for a moment”).

At first glance, I was rather skeptical.

让 (“ràng”), how could it mean insulting someone?

When I looked it up in dictionaries before, I only noticed meanings such as “让步” (yield), “让座” (give up one’s seat), “让给别人” (let someone else have something), and “不让他去” (not allow him to go), which seemed to have nothing whatsoever to do with reprimanding someone.

Only after looking into it specifically this time did I realize that this character “让” really deserves closer attention.

The traditional form of “让” is “讓”.《说文解字》 (Shuowen Jiezi, Explaining Graphs and Analyzing Characters) One explanation of this character reads: “相責讓。” (To reproach one another.)

Put plainly, “让” has long had the meanings of blaming, reproaching, and condemning.

This meaning is also fairly common in ancient texts.

《左传》 (The Zuo Commentary) contains the line:

“寺人披请见，公使让之。” (“The eunuch Pi requested an audience, and the duke sent someone to rebuke him.”)

Here, “让之” certainly does not mean “give something to him”; it means to reproach or question him.

In ancient times, there was even a term, “责让,” meaning to rebuke or condemn.

Seen this way, when people in Henan say:

“你再淘气，恁妈rang你。” (“If you keep misbehaving, your mother will scold you.”)

If we really write it as:

“你再淘气，恁妈让你。” (“If you keep misbehaving, your mother will give you a scolding.”)

It suddenly took on an ancient air reaching back more than two thousand years.

The meaning of “让” most familiar to us today is to yield, give way, or let someone else have something.

But this character has not always had only this one meaning. Quite the contrary: dictionaries still retain an older meaning that is now rarely used: to rebuke or condemn.

In other words, Mandarin gradually lost this meaning, while some Henan dialects continue to use it.

That is why people online often say that ancient Chinese lives on in the Henan dialect. Examples like these really do stir excitement: it turns out that the “rang” we endured every day as children was something people in the Zuo Commentary endured too.

Still, I remain a little unsure whether we can call the case solved at this point.

Because there is another issue:

Back home, we pronounce this “rang” in the first tone.

But where I come from, the character “让” in “谦让” (to yield modestly) is not pronounced this way.

If we say:

“You can have this seat.”

That “让” (ràng) and:

“你再淘气恁妈rang你。” (“If you misbehave again, your mom will scold you.”)

To my own ears, they are two distinct sounds.

Since their pronunciations differ, whether they are actually the same character still deserves some thought.

More coincidentally, the character “嚷” (to shout), which I had originally suspected, was not entirely without basis either.

Consulting a dictionary reveals that, besides shouting loudly, “嚷” also has a northern dialect meaning that is precisely:

Blame, reprimand.

Dictionaries even give examples like this:

If Mom finds out about this, she'll yell at me again.

Isn't this almost exactly what we used to say as children?

Moreover, “嚷” (shout) is already related to speaking, so using it to mean scolding someone loudly also makes sense as a semantic development.

So now, instead, I have two candidate characters before me:

One is to let.

Its strength is its long history: in Classical Chinese, it clearly already meant “责备” (to reproach), as the Zuo Commentary attests.

The other is 嚷 (rǎng, “to shout” or “to scold”).

Its strength is that in modern northern Chinese dialects, it already means “责备、训斥” (to reproach or reprimand), and the shift from “大声说话” (speaking loudly) to “大声责骂” (scolding loudly) also fits our everyday experience.

As for that first-tone “rang” back in my hometown, which character is it, exactly?

Perhaps it really is an ancient “让” character that has retained its old meaning in Henan dialect while also acquiring a pronunciation different from Mandarin.

Perhaps it is simply “嚷” (to shout or scold), except that locally we pronounce it in the first tone.

It is also possible that, over a long period of spoken use, the two words grew closer in pronunciation and meaning until ordinary speakers could no longer distinguish which one the expression had originally been.

Things like this are actually quite common in dialects.

When we learned a word as children, we never first saw the written character and then pronounced it accordingly.

“都是听俺奶说，听俺娘说，听村里人说，一辈传一辈。” (“We heard it all from our grannies, our mothers, and the folks in the village, passed down from one generation to the next.”)

Decades later, when those of us who know how to use the internet and look things up in dictionaries suddenly want to write it down, we discover:

The speech lives on, but its written characters were lost long ago.

Folks, do people where you live use this “rang”?

Which tone is it pronounced with?

When you were subjected to “rang” as a child, did you think the character should be written as “让” or “嚷”?

来源：https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/FocolatbgYNcPEBnPLD9Mw

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What Does “rang” Mean in the Henan Dialect? It Even Appears in the 《左传》 (Zuo Commentary)

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