The origin of the adjectival and adverbial mulaolao in Wu Chinese

Abstract

The word mulaolao (木佬佬) in Wu Chinese first appeared in written documents published during the period of the former Republic of China. It originated in Hangzhou dialect and spread to other regions such as Ningbo Taizhou, Jinhua, and Shanghai. In Hangzhou dialect, mulaolao serves both adjectival and adverbial purposes, and it is believed to have derived from the expressive adjective manlaolao (蛮老老). In manlaolao, the suffix - laolao (老老) intensifies the degree of a state or property and is written as “佬佬” due to its uncertain etymology. The man (蛮) part originally meant “rude and unreasonable” or “doughty” but has evolved to also mean “many”. In its weakened form, it underwent a checkedization1 process and was consequently pronounced as mu and written with a homophonous character “木”. The adjectival form of mulaolao is widely used, but in adverbial positions, it underwent semantic bleaching to become an adverb and fused into mao (冒). The adverbial usage of mulaolao is less prevalent among younger speakers.