Questions tagged [pronunciation]
Questions on specific points regarding the ability to use the correct consonants, vowels, tone, stress, rhythm and intonation of a word in a spoken Chinese
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questions
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Prononciation of Suzhou
What is the pronunciation of the city Suzhou?
Here, it looks like she says "Shu dshjo". Here it's more "Shu djo". Here it sounds more like "Su djo".
0
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1answer
53 views
Why does Pleco give so many pronunciations of 欸?
Above is a screenshot of Pleco's "sentence" page for 欸 which displays 5 different pronunciations. This puzzles me.
Question: Why does Pleco give so many pronunciations of 欸?
My impression is that 欸 ...
2
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3answers
96 views
Does pronunciation of a vowel change with tones?
As it is extremely hard to find a good online summary of all Pinyin pronunciation rules, I am listening the sounds in a Pinyin chart: https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-pinyin-chart.php . I have read ...
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vote
1answer
38 views
Pronunciation of the vowel “i” in Pinyin si
What is the pronunciation of the vowel I in Pinyin si? /ɪ/, /ɘ/ or /ɨ/ ? Each website I read describe it differently.
Please answer using IPA symbols.
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1answer
57 views
Pronunciation of Z and C in Pinyin
What is the correct pronunciation of the letters Z and C in Pinyin? Chinese phonology wikipedia says that Z is pronounced /ts/ and C is pronounced /tsʰ/, but several websites and videos say they are ...
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0answers
120 views
How did 秘 “bi” become “mi”?
I came across this comment just now:
“秘”声符是“必”没问题，但是并不是说“秘”和“必”一定同音，“秘”这个字是北京话读错了，其实应该读bi，“秘鲁”一词还残存bi的读音
Which got me thinking.
秘 is still read "bi" in:
surnames
transcriptions (e.g.: Peru)
...
6
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1answer
160 views
How was Switzerland transliterated into Chinese?
So, my real question is: did 瑞 used to be pronounced suì in 官话?
My roundabout way at getting to this is from the transliteration of Switzerland.
Let's look at Chengduese.《现代汉语方言音库 • 成都话音档》records 瑞 ...
3
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1answer
65 views
Question about third tone sandhi in two specific cases
I know of the commonly cited rules for third tones, which are the following (copied from somewhere else, so excuse the grammatical errors):
"When word with the 3rd tone is used alone, or used at the ...
3
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3answers
135 views
曲子 pronunciation
I'm usually confused with the light tone thing. Here I have the word 曲子 which according to the Internet should be pronounced as qǔzi. However, I have heard some people pronounce it as qū (1st tone) zǐ ...
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2answers
104 views
Pronunciation of “轧” in 富顺(县)?
《富顺方言》has an entry that reads:
【轧】
读音：ōā（连读）
释义：碾压，轧扎。
举例：1、小心车子轧斗人！
2、有一道菜叫“轧海椒”，下饭安逸得板。
The thing that is confusing me is the:
读音：ōā（连读）
I've checked in the actual print edition of ...
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1answer
67 views
Help with song lyrics pronunciation （我的新衣）?
So I was listening to the song "我的新衣” by Vava, and at a point the rapper Ty sings. And for some reason in this verse走到街上就像一千台进口奔驰 instead of 街 I listen he raps kāi. Can someone please tell me what he ...
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1answer
230 views
Pronounciation of 腺
Quoting Wiktionary, the glyph origin of the character 「腺」 is as follows:
A 国字 (kokuji, “Japanese-coined character”) coined in the late 1700s–early 1800s by rangaku scholar Udagawa Genshin as a ...
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4answers
192 views
Why does 努力 which means “to make a great effort” sound so similar to 奴隸 which means “slave”?
I find it interesting that these two are phonetically similar. Is there a historical background to this?
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1answer
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Origin of transliteration of ~j/sw to ~r in Mandarin
In Malaysia/Singapore, “Raja” is often transliterated to 拉惹，although Wikipedia uses 拉者as the name for its article on the title.
e.g. Ayer Rajah 亚逸拉惹
Perlis’s Raja 玻璃市拉惹（https://zh.m.wikipedia.org/zh-...
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2answers
76 views
Should the second character in 回来了 be pronounced with second or fourth tone?
I almost always hear 来 pronounced as lài in 回来了, but are there any rules of tone sandhi that account for this?
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2answers
146 views
Pronunciation of 辆
So this morning I was trying to have a conversation in mandarin with my Malaysian Chinese friends. During the conversation, I pronounced 辆 in 4th tone just the way I learned online. Apparently, they ...
2
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2answers
83 views
How to distinguish two words the same pronunciation but different meaning (gāo jià)
I just wonder about how to distinguish the words 高价 vs 高架. Both of them seem to have the same pronunciation gāo jià.
Are there any additional cues for distinguishing them in a sentence? or Do people ...
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2answers
142 views
How to pronounce the word 月 (Yue) in English？
Could anybody help me to pronounce the Chinese word 月 (Yue)?
Is there any word in English whose pronunciation is similar to this?
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1answer
74 views
Unusual looking characters at a temple in Hong Kong?
(source)
It's from the Tsz Shan Monastery in the New Territories in Hong Kong. And I reading it up-down, left-right, or simply left to right on both levels? Many thanks to whoever can help.
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1answer
41 views
Are begging and ball homonyms in spoken mandarin?
Are 求 (beg) and 球 (ball) both written in pinyin as Qiú homonyms? I am trying to get the pronunciation for ball right. Are there authoritative homonym lists maintained somewhere?
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6answers
168 views
Where is 肉 pronunced “you”?
I have heard 肉 pronounced you (not sure of the tone, 4th probably, as in: yòu) on multiple occasions. It seems to be a northern Chinese thing - as opposed to a southern thing - but I'm not sure on ...
2
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1answer
101 views
Are the “h” in pinyin always pronounced as “[x]” in IPA?
Chinese (Mandarin) use [x] to pronounce h sound. It does not have any sounds such as [h] and [ɸ].
However, I'm not sure if it is fine to assume that all the h in pinyin are pronounced as [x]. ...
2
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4answers
168 views
Using 反切 to determine readings of characters in modern varieties of Chinese
From my understanding, 反切 is presented in the format XY 切, where a pronunciation of a character is determined from the inital of X and the rime of Y. However, there are still some points that are ...
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3answers
121 views
Distinguish between 眼睛 (Yǎnjīng) eyes and 眼镜(Yǎnjìng) glasses
You may have know 眼睛 is eyes, and 眼镜 is glasses. They sound quite similar.
I get confused when listening to someone say "yanjing". I may not know what the speaker refers to, eyes or glasses. How do ...
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1answer
75 views
How do you pronounce Erjie?
I have an interview and the interviewer's name is Erjie. I'd like to be able to pronounce when I get there. Can anyone give me guidance on how to pronounce his name?
FWIW, the person is from ...
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1answer
72 views
Why is Higher Brothers pronouncing 你 as “nie”?
In Higher Brothers' (海尔兄弟) recent song Gong Xi Fa Cai (恭喜发财), there's a line that says:
恭喜你 恭喜你发财
I'm pretty sure they're pronouncing 你 as nie, and I've never heard it pronounced that way before. ...
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4answers
168 views
为什么 “也” 发音为 “ye” 但是 “他”发音为“ta”？？？
Oh great. I have to ask in English to get it past StackExchange filters.
Characters with radicals typically have pronunciations close to the bare character.
For example: "韦“ (wei) versus "伟“ (wei) or "...
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1answer
45 views
Should 企 be pronunciated as ㄑㄧˋ or ㄑㄧˇ?
It seems that different online dictionaries gave me different answers:
Is 企 a heteronym?
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1answer
37 views
Is the pronunciation of a heteronym in a given name indeterminable unless we ask the person personally?
There are tones of heteronyms in Chinese and when a heteronym is a given name, or a part of a given name, is asking the person (or his friends, relatives, etc.) the only way to find the pronunciation?
...
2
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2answers
142 views
Does Taiwanese Mandarin have the neutral tone?
So I'm trying to learn Taiwanese Mandarin, and apparently they don't really use the neutral tone, but if that's the case how do you say things like 子,了, and 的?
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1answer
86 views
Documentation of 不+“x” contractions resulting in “r” sounding initial consonant?
I've been looking for documentation showing 不+"x" contractions resulting in "r" sounding initial consonants, but to no avail.
This is an interesting phenomenon and I'm sure the regular person would ...
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2answers
63 views
Is ㄙㄨㄚˋ (sua4) for the character 嘴 from another Chinese dialect or language?
In my explorations of my area of Taichung today I noticed this sign with Zhuyin Fuhao and took a photo to look it up when I got home:
And it seems that ㄙㄨㄚˋ (sua4) is not even an existing syllable in ...
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1answer
56 views
How to pronounce several consecutive '“三声” characters? [duplicate]
It is known that the first character in a two-"三声"-character word is prounounced as "二声"。For example,
勇敢 （ㄩㄥˇ ㄍㄢˇ）is usually pronounced as "（ㄩㄥˊ ㄍㄢˇ）".
How about when in a sentence there are some ...
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2answers
128 views
Why did the actor pronounce 程, “du” instead of “cheng”?
To improve my Chinese listening, I decided to watch 天下一碗 (Tian Xia Yi Wan), as actors tend to speak with very precise and clear tones.
In the link, Liu laoye says:
"如果是一时意气用事的话, 岂不是耽误了子女的前程了吗".
I ...
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0answers
109 views
What could 轰 be a contraction of to mean “what”?
轰 can be found in some dialects, often with a 个 found on the end, to mean what.
This is most definitely a contraction. (Similar dialects also feature a contraction of 哪 and 样 as 孃 niang, also meaning ...
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3answers
117 views
Why Fiorentina is commonly translated as “佛罗伦萨” instead of “费奥伦庭那”？
Though “费奥伦庭那” is sometimes used, it is not nearly as common as "佛罗伦萨".
When the name of a place is translated into Chinese, why do people not use the most close pronounciation?
Another example is ...
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2answers
196 views
How to say “oink!” in Mandarin in a family situation?
This may not be on-topic for the next 4383 days, but hopefully today someone will help me out.
Last year was the year of the dog, and a common way to write (in English) the Chinese version of what ...
2
votes
1answer
102 views
Are Chinese native speakers more sensitive to tones or phonemes?
It seems like people are more sensitive to tones instead of phonemes. People may not notice some vowels/consonants are wrong but will immediately find that tones are weird. Does this apply for all ...
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2answers
117 views
When 少 is used in someone's name, is it always pronounced shào？
少 can either be pronounced as shào or shǎo. But when used in names, is it always pronounced as shào?
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3answers
94 views
Does pronouncing every word accurately make you sound less like a native speaker?
There are words that many natives Chinese speakers mispronounce. In speaking, if one always pronounces every word correctly (and I believe he/she should), does it make him/her less like a native ...
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5answers
156 views
Why so many people pronounce “馄饨” as hún dùn?
According to dictionaries, the correct pronounciation of "馄饨" is hún tún, but I have never heard any native speakers pronounce the word this way; instead, almost all native speaks say hún dùn. Why?
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3answers
212 views
How is【的、得、地】pronunced when talking about the difference in usages of 的·地·得?
When discussing the differences between 的·地·得 usage I've only know the following pronunciation:
的、地、得
die、di、de
I can't find a lot to back this up. But, I did find one Tianya forum thread that ...
5
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2answers
339 views
Can bù (不) change its pronunciation to bú?
When I first learned 不，the accompanying pinyin was given as
bù (falling tone).
But I've also been doing Pimsleur Chinese lessons and there is the example
wo bú hùi shuo ying wen
and here 不 ...
5
votes
3answers
179 views
Yinwei or Yinvei? 因为
I’m a newbie here.
I hear some people say 因为 as “yinwei”, but also some say it sound like “yinvei”. I’m not sure why there is a difference in pronunciation.
Hope the question is the new one. If it’s ...
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1answer
89 views
Pronunciation and the usage of 啊
So what does the word 啊 actually use for? I have seen it being use for some sentence but don’t really know when to use it
Also my teacher said to me that depending on the word 啊 goes with it will ...
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0answers
55 views
Do Chinese learners find the tone sandhi phenomenon a natural way to pronounce?
Especially the tone-three-sandhi. Chinese people find it is really hard to pronounce several adjacent three tone without the tone sandhi. Do learners taking Chinese as foreign language think so, or is ...
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2answers
93 views
Is this a spoken contracted form of 現在【现在】？
In this video at time stamp 0:07 the Taiwanese speaker (according to the subtitles) says:
我們現在是在臺北。。。
However the what she actually says for 現在 is one syllable that sounds like /xia1/ to me.
What ...
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0answers
72 views
Where in Sichuan is 虾 pronunced ha1 (xa⁵⁵)?
《现代汉语方言音库 • 成都话音档》has two listings for 虾 one that says:
xa⁵⁵ 又ɕia⁵⁵
xa⁵⁵ can pretty much be pinyinized as ha1 - for simplification here.
And there is of course a second entry that says:
ɕia⁵⁵ ...
4
votes
5answers
130 views
Contracted pronunciations of 今天 and 这里【這裡】(Taiwan)?
I was watching this great video interviewing people on the street in Taiwan. The interviewer asks the question “你今天來這裡做什麼？” to many people. When introducing the question to "us", the interviewer uses ...
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0answers
30 views
pronunciation of more than 2 following 3rd tone [duplicate]
Is there any rule for the prounciation of more than 2 following 3rd tone ?
for exemple the word " 展览馆 " or the short sentence " 我很好 " ？
