What is the proper pronunciation of 等等？

Question

Is 等等 pronounced:

deng2deng0 (2nd tone and neutral) like 老子、孔子

OR

deng3 deng0 (3rd tone and neutral) like 椅子、法子

Answer 1

It's pronounced

deng2deng3

as in the typical tonal sandhi of two consecutive 3rd tones, like 老板 (lao2ban3).

However I wouldn't outright exclude your first suggestion deng2deng0, as it might be pronounced like that in fast speech, or in the middle of a sentence.

Answer 2

This is a difficult problem to address, because 等等 apparently fits one of the criteria for neutral tone, but at the same time there is tone sandhi for two conjoint third-tone words. The following attempts to resolve the conflict between the two rules:

The pronunciation of 33 words

0. In my explanation below, I use 1 through 4 to indicate the first to fourth tones respectively, 0 to indicate the fifth or neutral tone, X > Y to indicate an alteration in tone from pattern X to Y, and tone letters ˩ ˨ ˧ ˦ ˥, five-levelled, arranged from lowest to highest here, to describe the pitch change within a particular tone.

1. If the second third-tone character is justified to be pronounced in the neutral tone, then the first third-tone character remains pronounced in the third-tone, i.e. 33 > 30. Justifications for neutral tone may be of one of the following types:

• 寶寶, 姐姐: they are words formed by reduplication (重疊).
• 椅子, 法子, 影子: they are formed by the suffix (詞綴) ～子, which is arguably diminutive and duly reflected in its pronunciation.
• 打點: to contrast polysemy, especially in mainland Mandarin. dǎ dian means to organise things or to get ready, but dǎ diǎn > dá diǎn literally means the clock strikes a certain time. In general, figurative meanings are marked by a neutral tone, but not so in literal meanings.
• 耳朵, 馬虎: by convention, including Taiwanese Mandarin (which is akin to 33 > 31 instead of 33 > 30).

2. Notable exceptions (i.e. those that still follow tone sandhi 33 > 23 despite apparently fitting the listed criteria for neutral tone)

• 裊裊 niǎo niǎo, 緊緊, 等等: reduplicated words that are adverbial or adjectival.
• 每每 (every time), 秒秒 (every second), 種種 (every kind): words that mean 'every sth.' (equivalent to 每～, as in 每秒, 每種). In these words, there is something more than mere character redundancy.
• 汩汩 gǔ gǔ: reduplicated words that are onomatopoeic.
• 孔子, 老子: 子 here is not a diminutive suffix but a meaningful character in itself (an honorary title for the philosophical greats).
• 嘴裏, 手裏: directional complements such as ～裏 are usually a good justification to be pronounced in the neutral tone (e.g., 心裏 xīn lǐ > xīn li, 海上 hǎi shàng > hǎi shang). However, it seems more natural to pronounce 33 ～裏 words as 23 or 20 instead of 30.
• Most words in 1., but read in Taiwanese Mandarin.

3. Saying 33 > 23 words are pronounced like 33 > 23 > 20 is a dangerous metaphor. That is because the second third-tone is not toneless (0) per se (unless it is well justified, as in 1.; 等等 is not). Besides, this analogy complicates things. At most, we can only say the 'tail' of the pitch ˨ ˩ ˦ in the third tone is discarded, becoming ˨ ˩, and that is not limited to conjoint third-tone words. Even a word as simple as 我 wǒ ˨ ˩ ˦ > ˨ ˩ can behave like that in a spoken sentence.

4. A simple explanation of the pitch of the neutral tone is given by the syllabus of Putonghua Proficiency Test (普通話水平測試實施綱要) (p. 35):

• When the neutral tone follows the third tone, it takes on a slightly higher pitch. (The pitch of the third tone is low enough; one then raises the pitch of the neutral tone that follows to differentiate between the two.)

• This is in contrast to the neutral tone's taking on a slightly lower pitch when it follows the first (e.g. 媽媽), second (e.g. 玩啊), or fourth tone (e.g. 去吧).