When to apply Tone Sandhi to 一？

[Apollys]

I've yet to come across a thorough resource explaining when to apply the tone change rule to 一 and when to keep it as a first tone.  For example, although the usual rule I see is "in numbers, 一 keeps its original pronunciation."  But I think I often hear 一百 as 4-3 or 一千 as 4-1, because it can be really ambiguous as to whether or not "one" is a number or not.  You could say 我有一只狗 means I have a dog, or I have one dog, either way the meaning is the same.  The same thing applies to 我有一百块.

 

So if I want to say the year is 2017, 今年是二零一七年, I probably want to use the first tone for 一.  But if I want to say I have one hundred dollars, 我有一百块, I would be tempted (intuitively speaking) to use the fourth tone.  But what if I want to say I have one thousand hundred eleven dollars, 我有一千一百一十一块, now I'm getting a little more confused. My instinct would be to pronounce the first two 一's in a fourth tone, and the latter two in a first tone.

 

Does anyone have a good set of rules for deciding how to pronounce 一?

[realmayo]

How about: 一 is pronounced first tone except where you can feasibly translate it as "a" in English, in which case the tone alters.

 

Or alternatively:

 

The tonal alternation of yi is restricted to its cardinal meaning ‘one’ and
does not extend to its ordinal meaning ‘first’ or ‘number 1’.

 

(The Phonology of STANDARD CHINESE San Duanmu)

 

What I hadn't realised was Standard Chinese used to apply the same rule to 七 and 八, which "might still be heard from some Beijing speakers, but the dominant trend today is to use only T1 in all environments.")

[Apollys]

So how would you pronounce 一千一百一十一?

[realmayo]

I'd probably pronounce it wrong but to be honest I wouldn't really care.

[realmayo]

Also it depends on context. If you're rattling off a number, then it's first tone.

 

Third tones can vary in numbers too. I've got a feeling you can choose how to pronounce 一九九九年.

[eddyf]

Apollys, I agree with all your pronunciations in the first post. It seems that the tone changes happen before 万, 千, and 百 but not before or after 十. Also, the tone change always happens when you just have 一 + a measure word. But it doesn't happen inside of certain compounds like 万一, certain chengyus, etc. It's kind of a mess. For compounds, in the audio recordings in Pleco, a lot of the time the female speaker changes the tone on 一 but the male speaker doesn't. Make of that what you will.

[Guest Yongjiang]

Hi all,

 

As a Chinese, I even find it difficult to explain the change of tone.

Here are my sense of pronouncing “一”, maybe some of them are kind of accent (Jinan, Shandong).

 

一(yī)十一(yī) usually 十一；

一(yī)(yì)百一(yī)十一(yī)；

一(yī)(yì)千一(yī)(yì)百一(yī)十一(yī)；

一(yí)万一千一百一十一；

Idioms:

一(yì)生一(yí)世、一(yì)心一(yí)意、一(yì)年一(yí)度、一(yì)模一(yí)样；

 

一(yī)五一(yī)十、一(yì)五一(yì)十；

 

一(yí)唱一(yí)和(hè)、一(yī)唱一(yī)和(hé) informal、一(yī)(yì)来一(yī)(yì)往 、一(yī)(yì)张一(yī)(yì)弛 ；

 

一(yí)路平安、一(yí)动不动、一(yí)叶知秋；

 

一(yì)马当先、一(yì)知半解、一(yì)鸣惊人、一(yì)本正经、一(yì)声不吭、一(yì)(yī)清二白；

 

独树一(yí)帜、背水一(yí)战、千钧一(yí)发、千篇一(yí)律；

 

万众一(yì)(yī)心、九牛一(yì)(yī)毛、首屈一(yì)(yī)指、大吃一(yì)(yī)惊、融为一(yì)(yī)体；

 

合二为一(yī)、以防万一(yī)、以一(yī)当十；一(yī)元复始、一(yī)无所求、举一(yī)反三。

 

Good luck!

[Flickserve]

I think the difficulty here is applying a 'rule'. If you apply a 'guideline' knowing that there are sometimes it doesn't apply strictly, it is easier.

Then you might say, how to know when it is different? Then, use experience gained from listening more.

For myself, I don't bother with the learning rules of tone sandhi. It would delay my speech even more just trying to think about it! I say it and get corrected and gradually move to a more natural and native sound. Note that I used the word 'native' and not 'correct'.