How to pronounce "ying" as in 英文

[mirgcire]

I have been studying mandarin for almost three years and feel that I have a reasonably good understanding of how hanyu pinyin is used to represent words, but one word is really throwing me off. Hanyu pinyin is quirky in some ways but reasonably consistent. In particular, as far as I know, all words with the same final (and same tone) rhyme. But "ying" appears to be pronounced a little differently. I often hear it pronounced as something more like yee-ung. I know that is not much of a clue if you have never hear it pronounced this way before, but I am wondering if anyone knows what I am talking about and has some insight as to why "ying" does not rhyme with "ting".

My theory is that it is a regional thing because all the people who I have noticed saying this are from Beijing or Tian Jin.

[Quest]

Yee-ung mainly in northern China.

Yeeng, Yeen or Eeng/Een depends on the person and region of China

Eeng/Een in Taiwan.

I found Taiwanese "yee"s and "woo"s pronounced predominantly "Eee"s and "Ooo"s.

[mirgcire]

Thanks for the reply Quest. As a follow up question, I am just wondering if this regional pronunciation also effects any other words with the -ing final?

And I am also wondering if anyone has captured a summary of typical regional differences? It can be pretty confusing talking with my friends from Shanghai, Beijing, Kunming, Guangzhou, Chungdu, Wuhan, Taiwan etc. I don't know how they understand each other. I have often thought of putting together a paragraph that uses all the common sounds of mandarin and recording how each recites it, then making a table of how mandarin changes in each of these regions. It could be useful for the traveler to know that in Guangzhou no one can pronounce the "sh" sound and in Hangzhou the "r" is different, etc.

[Quest]

Pronunciation of "ing" should be consistent.

Minor accent differences would not hinder communication.

In Guangzhou, like in many other southern cities, the newer generations know about and can pronounce "sh", but most don't make an effort to pronounce it.

[DrZero]

Xing2 as in "OK, fine" definitely gets a different treatment in the north than in other regions. In the north it is like "Sheeuuuhngr."

[Ari 桑]

Hahaha, oh wow its so true. I love beijing people and their whack pronunciation.

I'm very interested in regional differences in mandarin pronunciation, and I think I might make a project out of it, traveling around and recording peoples voices. As far as I know, there hasn't been a comprehensive study of the subject.

[mirgcire]

Minor accent differences would not hinder communication

Agreed, minor accent difference would not hinder communication. But to me, listening to a speaker who substitutes "s" with "sh" is a major communication hinderence. I have enough trouble making sense of standard mandadarin . However, I can see how native speakers acclimate themselves to regional differences with relative ease, since the majority of words are not affected.

[mirgcire]

Here is another one that has been bugging me: "liu" as in 六 or 刘 appearantly rhymes with "few", while jiu and qiu (九，酒，球， 秋) seem to rhyme with "blow" (well, close enough ). Does anyone know if this is a regional variation or a universal exception to the finals-rhyming rule?

[889]

To my ear, all those words properly end in an "oh"-like sound.

But I think it's common for Western students of Chinese to be misled by that "u" there in Hanyu pinyin and substitute a "ew"-like sound.

[muyongshi]

I agree...jiu and liu both should open up at the end with an "oh" type of sound. I'm not a linguistic so if the way I write it doesn't correspond to what I hear don't blame me

[Lu]

Pronunciation of "ing" should be consistent.

Not sure... the other day I said 'Qing' as qi-eng and immediately got told (by TW friend who is just studying the Real Correct Pronounciation of standard Mandarin) that that was very very Beijingnese. Seems Taiwanese say qing, not qi-eng. Same with xing, which in Beijing, when it means OK, sure, is pronounced xi-eng, with the -ng kind of disappearing.

[muyongshi]

普通话只有一个标准。。。

。。。我行我素

[Littleweed]

"iu" as a final means "iou". The rhythm of it is more semilar to "blow" as "ou" in pinyin sounds like "ow" in "blow".

[cloudrider]

Great post!  I notice the same thing!  I know this is an old thread, but I found it through google, and sure someone else will have the same question.

 

According to wiki, pinyin's final "-ing" is supposed to be pronounced as "eeng".  And if you have add a "y" to create "ying", the "y" should be silent, so it is still pronounced "eeng".  But I noticed, "xing" is pronounced "xeeng" (which is what you'd expect), but "ying" many times I hear it pronounced as "ying" or "yeeng" (not "eeng"), just like you said!

 

What happens is that, native speakers don't go by pinyin, they go by ear, so they don't try to get words with similar pinyin to rhyme.  They go by what they hear the most.

 

For example, "apple" is ping3 guo3, my wife says "peeng".  And "listen", ting1, she says "teeng".  But owl, mao1 tou2 ying1, she'll say "ying" or "yeeng" (not "eeng").

 

My advice is if most of the time you hear "ying" pronounced a certain way because of the region and people you are around, stick with that pronunciation, so you are most easily understood. 

 

Really good catch.