Questions tagged [mandarin]
The official form of Modern Chinese based on the language used in Beijing and Northern China.
25 questions
1
vote
2
answers
133
views
Mandarin Chinese phonology: on the issue of p/b, t/d, k/g distinction and older romanization systems
Like many people, I've found it intriguing that older Chinese romanization systems such as Wade-Giles and postal romanization seem to "confuse" certain sounds, such as p/b, k/g, and t/d. I ...
- 729
0
votes
0
answers
54
views
Is there terminology to distinguish between syllables with and without tone?
I was looking over Wikipedia's Syllable article, and it surprised me the precise level of terminology that exists to specify specific parts of syllables. The Chinese model section shows that the term ...
- 101
7
votes
1
answer
330
views
Sociolinguistics of pre-handover Hong Kong cinema and dialogue in non-Cantonese Chinese “dialects”
I have always heard that mutual intelligibility between the Sinitic languages of China is low. However, I am confused by the sociolinguistics of Hong Kong cinema in 1980s and 1990s. Films from that ...
user21126
13
votes
8
answers
4k
views
Do non-tonal languages evolve into tonal languages?
I have read that the language in China did not always use tones or was less reliant on them. Native speakers have emphasized to me how much more compactly the same idea can be expressed in Mandarin ...
- 555
1
vote
2
answers
294
views
Is tone actually phonemic in Mandarin?
Mandarin Chinese is often used as an example of a tonal language (one where the meaning of a word depends not only on its articulation but also on its pitch contour).
However, going by what I've read, ...
- 183
1
vote
1
answer
494
views
How is the 什么...都 (shénme ... dou) construction in Standard Chinese usually analyzed?
Disclaimer: I am assuming that the example sentences listed here have been vetted by a native speaker, but since I'm not totally sure of this, I'll use a leading @ sign to show my uncertainty. If I am ...
- 1,366
1
vote
1
answer
358
views
pronunciation of [əj]
According to Wiedenhof's A Grammar of Mandarin, page 42,
The pronunciation of the final -ui [weı] vary with the accompanying
tone for some speakers. With first or second tone, the u sound tends
...
- 275
5
votes
0
answers
162
views
What happened to the number of english speakers in february 2018?
I recently noticed that English was in front of Mandarin in the Wikipedia list of languages by total number of speakers, so I wondered when it became first. I didn't find any convenient statistics on ...
- 59
3
votes
0
answers
140
views
Do North and South Korean accents in Mandarin differ significantly?
I was watching a documentary about North Korean escapees living in China. It mentioned that some of these escapees were worried that their "North Korean" accent when speaking Mandarin would give them ...
- 367
8
votes
4
answers
1k
views
Why is the English phoneme /θ/ pronounced like /t/ in Indian accents but /s/ in Chinese accents?
The dental fricatives (/θ/ and /ð/; spelled with th) often present a challenge to non-native learners of English. Depending on the speaker's native language, different phonemes may be substituted. In ...
- 183
2
votes
1
answer
200
views
Is Mandarin understandable by Taiwanese in written context if simplified characters are mapped to traditional ones?
According to Wikipedia entry on Taiwanese Mandarin:
The official Guoyu is almost identical to the official language of the People's Republic of China, called Pǔtōnghuà, with the exception of their ...
- 553
0
votes
1
answer
351
views
Which Chinese Romanisation system is most intelligible to English speakers?
This may be a difficult question, because I've heard that pronunciation can vary greatly even within Chinese-speaking countries. I'm also not really aware of when Mandarin or Cantonese would be used; ...
- 761
2
votes
1
answer
293
views
Can Egyptian hieroglyphs (or other hieroglyphs) be construed as having anything like Chinese radicals?
I wonder if any hieroglyph-like orthographies use semantic radicals in a way comparable to how Mandarin Chinese does, or if the radical is unique to Chinese and other similar languages?
- 2,711
2
votes
1
answer
126
views
Transcriptions of Mandarin Chinese into writing systems other than Latin, Arabic and Cyrillic?
I was wondering if Standard Chinese has been transliterated (either officially or unofficially) into writing systems other than the Latin (Pinyin, Wade-Giles), Arabic (Xiao'erjing) or Cyrillic (Dungan ...
- 49
9
votes
0
answers
302
views
Phonological development of Middle Chinese 學 /hæwk/ to Mandarin xue /ɕye/
學 was /hæwk/ according to Baxter-Sagart transcription of Qieyun, and according to this wikipedia page, -æwk became /Jye/ in modern Mandarin, where J is a palatalized initial consonant.
What I'm ...
- 537
5
votes
0
answers
81
views
Where can I find auditory records of Chinese Mandarin within 1930-1970?
I am doing research on pure Chinese and I need a auditory recording made between 1930-1970. I searched for subject of anthropology in Hong Kong local library and found nothing material in auditory ...
- 51
3
votes
3
answers
471
views
Is there re-syllabification in Chinese?
I'm reading prosodic phonology, and wondering if there is any re-syllabification process happening in Mandarin Chinese?
- 99
2
votes
2
answers
322
views
Chinese 3rd tone: cross-linguistic comparison
I'm wondering about the rate of occurence of complex tone contours like the Mandarin Chinese third tone, the falling-rising tone. By "complex" I mean that its contour isn't simply a rising, falling, ...
- 402
1
vote
0
answers
91
views
Is there a source that lists English Loanwords into Mandarin Chinese?
Is there a source(database, dataset, etc.) that lists English Loanwords into Mandarin Chinese?
- 111
4
votes
1
answer
405
views
Differences between Hong Kong Mandarin and southern Mandarin generally?
With Mandarin making more and more in-roads into Cantonese speaking Hong Kong, I'm wondering what characteristics set it apart from Standard Mandarin or other regional Mandarin dialects and/or accents ...
- 14.8k
2
votes
2
answers
138
views
Besides lexicon and phonology, what are the biggest differences in Mandarin that are hard for Westerners to learn?
I'm dabbling in Chinese lately and of course most of the vocabulary is new and the phonology is difficult, including tones, tone sandhi, unstressed syllables, and even some aspects of the vowels and ...
- 14.8k
3
votes
1
answer
303
views
Could certain adjectives or adverbs be analysed to function as a type of copula in Mandarin Chinese?
Chinese (I've only had experience with Mandarin so far) has at least one or two equivalents to English to be, such as "在" (zài) and "是" (shì).
Now I know that Chinese adjectives are actually verbs so ...
- 14.8k
11
votes
2
answers
4k
views
Does Mandarin Chinese have phonetically voiced plosives, fricatives, or affricates (besides "r" = [ʐ] / [ɻ])?
The various Wikipedia articles covering Standard Chinese all seem to agree that Mandarin does not have voiced plosives, fricatives, or affricates except for [ʐ] / [ɻ], written in Pinyin as "r".
But ...
- 14.8k
6
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Could the Mandarin word "要" (yāo) and the Thai word "เอา" (ao), both meaning "to want" be related?
After a couple of weeks in Thailand and learning how to say "I don't want it" I've just realized the word for "want" is very similar to the word for "want" in Mandarin Chinese.
I know the coincidence ...
- 14.8k
17
votes
4
answers
8k
views
How do tones work in music sung in tonal languages, such as Cantonese or Mandarin Chinese?
I have not yet studied tonal languages, so it might be understandable, but when I listen to Chinese music, for example, I'm unable to perceive tones. This makes me think they are partially or ...
- 173