17
votes
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b and p, d and t, k and g etc. in English and Cantonese
Voicing and Aspiration
Stop consonants can fall into the following categories (roughly):
Voiced stops: Vocal chords start vibrating before stop is released. E.g., English "b" as in "bat" (/bæt/ in ...
- 6,806
15
votes
Why is Russia translated to 俄罗斯(E Luo Si)?
“俄罗斯”不是从英文或俄文来的。可能是从蒙古文Oros来的。
在中国元明朝时称俄罗斯族为“罗斯”或“罗刹国”.当时蒙古族人用蒙语拼读俄文“ROCIA”时,在“R”前面加一个元音.因此,“ROCIA”就成了“OROCCIA”.满清政府时,蒙语的“OROCCIA”转译成汉语时,就成了“俄罗斯”.
The name of "Éluósī" does not come from English or ...
- 151
14
votes
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Why e is pronounced differently in de (的, 地) and ye (也,夜)?
Systems designed to represent pronunciation and to be practical at the same time don't have a 1:1 mapping between spoken sounds and written symbols. Or in other words, each sound can be represented ...
- 3,048
13
votes
Why is 吏 (lì) pronounced differently to 史 (shǐ) and 使 (shǐ)?
Let us look at the reconstructions (specifically, at Baxter-Sagart):
吏 (lì) 'officer' is [r]əʔ-s;
史 (shǐ) 'scribe' is s-rəʔ;
使 (shǐ) 'to send, to cause' is s-rəʔ;
使 (shì) 'to be sent as an envoy; ...
- 966
12
votes
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Pronunciation of 要
In most cases, we cannot pick one of different pronunciations arbitrarily.
The reason is very simple.
If we can, we do not have to pronounce differently. Right?
DICT.TW 線上字典 can give you the commnon ...
- 5,886
12
votes
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What is the Chinese version of いろは?
I don't know of an example where every possible Chinese syllable is listed. I doubt such a text exists, because even without counting tones, there are over 400 hundred distinct syllables in Standard ...
- 717
11
votes
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Bigrams ending in third tone where first syllable is second tone vs. third tone
There have been conflicting claims on whether the second tone and the "raised third tone" are distinct, but according to Jerry Norman's 1988 book, Chinese, "Perceptual tests done by Dreher and Lee (...
- 4,335
11
votes
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Yinwei or Yinvei? 因为
/v/ is not an initial found in MSM.
The initial /v/, though, is often found in Northern Mandarin and its branches. In fact, it can still be found, even, in distant branches like Sichuanese.
If you ...
Mou某♦
- 35.7k
11
votes
Pronunciation difference between 医生 and 一生
In this case, tone sandi plays a role. I would pronounce 医生 as yi1 sheng1 and 一生 as yi4 sheng1.
That way we can easily differentiate them.
- 24k
10
votes
Accepted
跟您请教一个字(Do you know this Chinese word?)
臵 （U+81F5） [ gé ｜ ㄍㄜˊ ]
From 《康熙字典》:
《集韻》「各額」切，音「格」。與「𢓜」同。「至」也。
Same as 𢓜. It means "to arrive" or "to go to".
又《六書原》徦，俗作臵。
The original or formal form of 徦.
徦 （U+5FA6） [ jiǎ | ㄐㄧㄚˇ ]
1. 至；到。(to ...
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10
votes
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How did Chinese people know in the past the pronunciation of words?
The pronunciation of characters was glossed using the Fanqie (反切) system, which uses two existing characters whose pronunciations are known to determine the pronunciation of the unknown character.
...
- 22.2k
10
votes
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Strange pronunciation of 非常
I like your use of 飛揚 here. While it is comical or cultural to use an otherwise unrelated word to signify an elision – e.g., consider 醬子 in place of 這樣子 in Taiwanese Mandarin internet slang – if you ...
- 5,595
9
votes
Is the ''a'' in ''ta'' pronounced as the ''a'' in ''tan'' or the ''a'' in ''tang''?
Depending on the speaker, these spellings represent either two or three sounds. The short answer is that for standard pronunciation, you can treat the vowel sound in ta and tan the same way, but the a ...
- 3,048
9
votes
Do we need to pronounce 那 in 那个 different than 那 in general?
I think you misheard nèige as nigè.
Colloquially 那 is usually pronounced as nèi. Of course nà can also be used colloquially.
nèi is the combined pronunciation of "那 nà" and "一 yī", ...
- 4,485
9
votes
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Is there research regarding the link between Chinese tones and musical intervals?
五度标记法 （five level tone mark, labeled 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, roughly do re mi fa so）is similar to intervals. It was invented by Zhao Yuanren in the 1920s. It's considered inaccurate, but almost always, at ...
- 4,485
8
votes
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Help with pronouncing 道 precisely
As a Mandarin native speaker I pronounce 道 exactly same as 到，稻。 I pronounce the initial d exactly same as in dog or dad.
I also pronounce t exactly in the same way for stop. The native English ...
- 4,079
8
votes
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How to pronounce 廿卅卌 in Chinese?
In most Cantonese speakers I know, 廿 is still a colloquial item of vocabulary, replaced with 二十 in usual formal writing; but 廿 remains a very common alternative, for counting as well as enumerating. ...
- 6,423
8
votes
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Where can I find a list of (acceptable) 连读 words?
Some have been crystallized in the spelling:
- 别 < 不要 (when used as a negative imperative)
- 甭 < 不用 (it's even explicit in the character!)
- 啦 < 了啊
- 这/那 as zhei/nei < 这一/那一 (zhe yi / na ...
- 592
8
votes
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Where did "Chinchew" come from?
泉州，簡稱泉或鯉，又稱刺桐城、清源、溫陵。
Although 清 can be transliterated as chin, it does not seem to be the reason.
Quanzhou, formerly known as Chinchew.
The Postal Map name of the city was (note: should be "is") "...
- 1,404
8
votes
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-uan pinyin pronunciation
There are several cases in Mandarin of multiple sounds sharing the same symbols in Pinyin, such as -uan as you've noticed, as well as -i which has multiple sounds associated with it. In the case of -...
- 1,492
7
votes
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How to indicate "long pronunciation" in writing in Chinese?
The one I see most often is the use of "～": "啊～～～"
- 592
7
votes
Why is Russia translated to 俄罗斯(E Luo Si)?
After some searching, it seems that the name comes from the Mongolic/Tungusic language family group, of which Manchu is a member. This explains why the Qianlong Emperor decreed that the country be ...
- 824
7
votes
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Are there any dictionaries that show the relative frequency of 多音字?
As far as I know, there is one dictionary for this: 《现代汉语频率词典》，1986，北京语言学院出版社.
However, this dictionary is a little old and difficult to find. What's more, some of the readings are outdated, because 《...
- 245
7
votes
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二 Mandarin pronunciation vs. other dialects and Japanese
Here there's some other people asked the same question. 忆珩 and Nimmer provided answers that maybe very helpful to your question:
忆珩:
二、耳等字属于日母止摄三等，日母古音是个舌面的鼻音ȵ，本来是从泥母n中分化出来的，后来北方方言中日母鼻音消失并且卷舌化成了ʐ，...
- 431
7
votes
Are people's names always pronounced the same in Mandarin?
The pronunciation is the same for the last names.
For example, 華 must be pronounced as huà for the family name.
When it is in the first name, it can be pronounced as huā, huá or huà.
They can decide ...
- 1,463
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