Much maligned and often thought of as a bit 土, or "rustic", compared to its neighbor Beijing, the city of Tianjin is nonetheless one of China's most important cities. Along with Shanghai, Chongqing, and, of course, Beijing itself, it is one of the "Big 4″ cities directly under the control of the central administration, whereas other cities fall under the jurisdiction of their provincial government. Despite the fact that it is now, with the advent of 高铁, only half an hour away from Beijing by train, it retains a distinctness in terms of culture and history, and, it turns out, in linguistics as well. Now, given the relatively short distance from the capital, you might imagine that there couldn't be many glaring linguistic differences between the Tianjin dialect and Beijinghua, but just speak to a native of this great city, and you'll soon see how wrong you were; that is, if you've managed to understand what they've said in the first place.
Much like advocates of Dongbeihua, speakers of Tianjinhua will probably describe their vernacular as 有个性 (full of character), or 豪爽 (Chilled out and confident), but it's got to be said that people encountering it for the first time might well say that it sounds a bit crude or brutish, often downright angry. Why? It's difficult to say, although a few subtle changes make all the difference. Here are the staples of your typical Tianjin conversation/street brawl:
嘎嘛
gǎmà
"What"
Nothing is more representative of the Tianjin dialect than this, which you probably know better as the rather less interesting 干什么呢 (of course, 嘎嘛 is pure transliteration) in written Chinese, the mà in the Tianjin dialect simply meaning "what", and so we have:
他那儿嘎嘛呢？
"What on earth is he doing over there?"
and again:
那是嘛玩意儿？
"What's that thing?"
