对歌 (duì gē) — to sing antiphonally (call-and-response style)

Definition

A folk activity where two groups alternate singing lines to each other, common among ethnic minorities like the Zhuang and Miao people. The verb covers the session as a whole, not a single song.

verb

to sing antiphonally (call-and-response style)

Examples

对歌，。
Tā men zhèng zài shān shàng duì gē, gē shēng fēi cháng yōu měi.
They are singing antiphonally on the mountain, and the singing is very beautiful.
，。
Qù nián wǒ men cān jiā mín sú jié, duì le yí cì gē.
Last year we joined a folk festival and had an antiphonal singing session.
对歌，。
Zhuàng zú rén de duì gē hěn yǒu tè sè, zhí dé yì tīng.
The antiphonal singing of the Zhuang people is very distinctive and worth listening to.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

对duìanswer

歌gēsong

对 means answer or respond and 歌 means song; 对歌 is answering with songs in antiphonal style.

Characters in this word

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 對; 对 is its simplified writing.

丵丵zhuótool for digging
土土tǔearth
又又yòuhand

For the traditional form 對, the shape comes from an early drawing of 丵 (a digging tool), 土 (earth), and 又 (a hand); it may have meant developing land.

Open 对 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

哥欠歌

Meaning part形符xíngfú

欠欠qiànblow

Sound part声符shēngfú

哥

哥gē歌gē

Same sound today

The shape 歌 uses 哥 for the sound and 欠, meaning blow. It came from a form of 哥 used for singing.

Open 歌 →

Appears in