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While looking for the correct pronunciation of 站 (zhàn / zhan4), I've come across several different recordings in online dictionaries, Forvo, wiktionary, and Google Translate, for example.

Sometimes it's pronounced as "dshan" (the "a" like in "angry" or the German umlaut "ä" / IPA -æn) and sometimes as "dshuhn" (like "un" / IPA -ʌn).

Is this a regional difference? What is the "standard pronunciation" as you would expect to hear it in TV news etc. in mainland China?

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    IPA /ɑːn/ would be closer, though I think the English pronunciation for this varies from different areas.
    – Stan
    Apr 16, 2016 at 17:36
  • If you find the correct pronunciation difficult, prefer /ʌn/ over /æn/ as the former sounds dialectical but the latter sounds foreign.
    – NS.X.
    Apr 16, 2016 at 20:24

2 Answers 2

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Standard mandarin pronunciation is [an] (”un” for Americans). Regional speech is [æn], preferably in Sichuan and some southern areas, more so for finals like -uan.

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according to 國語辭典, it's zhàn

http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/cbdic/gsweb.cgi?o=dcbdic&searchid=W00000007820

then, in 漢語多功能字庫, there're 2 pronunciations:

http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=站

have fun :)

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