Post a sample of your pronunciation here!

[heifeng]

Try reading the followings with the formal version of the prononciation

幸福感 xin4 fu2 gan3

or you could actually pronounce 幸福 with its 后鼻音， ie the nG~ xing4fu2gan3

[Bluemale_skl]

or you could actually pronounce 幸福 with its 后鼻音， ie the nG~ xing4fu2gan3

thanks for correcting, not前鼻音，but后鼻音.In Shanghai, the difference between 前鼻音 and 后鼻音 is not clearly shown and distinguished when we talk:conf So i think you had better not concentrate too much on that. (If you do, it dosen't matter, but it'll be complex. at least people in Shanghai don't.)

The formal pronon is xing4fu2gan3, but we never pronon. We pronon xing4fu0gan3 instead.

Just remember that you had better not pronon too exaggerately, wqhich makes you sound pretty stramge for us to understand.

Edited June 30, 2009 at 04:53 AM by Bluemale_skl

[imron]

Shanghainese people might not concentrate on the difference too much, but other people do Just remember that on the 普通话水平测试 you would lose marks for pronouncing it xìn and not xìng.

[Bluemale_skl]

Shanghainese people might not concentrate on the difference too much, but other people do

Only in nothern part of CNA. Now and then they''ll be confused as well

TO skylee: It makes no sense to post a sample of British accent.

[heifeng]

hmm, although I don't agree with the ng vs n not being (clearly) distinguished:evil:, I was looking up something in my PCS books about 3 syllable words & some of the other comments

i'm guessing that maybe 幸福感 falls under the 中轻重 category in terms of stress, but 幸福 itself would fall under 中重。This seems like it makes sense...

For as far as the '两可的轻声词‘， i found some additional resources here for more words that would fall under the 2 syllable category. I think point three applies to what our Shanghai kiddy a few posts back is referring to...while not technically wrong, it doesn't sound natural in reading or speaking~ at least not like a native speaker, hence "将影响测试员对应试人语感的判定". The link contains some of the words covered. Oddly, 机会’s not in there, but I know if falls under the 'can be 轻声‘ category too from some other references, probably the PSC reference listed under point #2.

Anyway, on the above link, over a list of such words, it says:

　　1、下表所列的词语，一般的辞典没有标注轻声，但在普通话的口语中人们却大多读作“后轻”，实际是“重·次轻”的格式（双音节词语的轻重音格式大多是“中·重”。双音节轻声词语的轻重音格式是“重·最轻”）

　　2、下表中的词语，出自《普通话水平测试大纲》普通话常用词语的[表一]。

　　3、在普通话水平测试中，应试人在第二测试项“读双音节词语”的测试中，将下表中的词语读作“中·重”的格式，不会影响其得分；应试人在第三测试项“朗读短文”和第四测试项“说话”的测试中，将下表中的词语读作“中·重”的格式， 将会影响其得分（将影响测试员对应试人语感的判定）。

omg nap time for me...too much time thinking about 轻声 & 次轻声...head hurts..

Edited June 30, 2009 at 07:23 AM by heifeng

[renzhe]

I've noticed that with many people from around Shanghai, the mixing up of -n and -ng.

But it's not standard, just like mixing up zh and z is common, but isn't standard.

[Hofmann]

Shanghainese has no [n] coda. [n] and [ŋ] are clearly distinguished in other places, and not only in the north.

[heifeng]

Just in case the readers of this thread are interest, here is an evaluation of a native speaker after she takes the putonghua shuiping ceshi... I found it pretty interesting.

http://you.video.sina.com.cn/b/14258505-1314033361.html

[renzhe]

Here's my reading of the text in the first post.

Keep in mind that I did practice this, so it's not a fair comparison to others, just a sample of my pronunciation. My langdu is nowhere near that good.

My main problems:

-e, as in 社 and 这

-ü, as in 取 and 绿

-ang, as in 航 and 唐

-un and -ün, as in 昆 and 云

roughly in that order. Also, I find the neutral tone tricky to nail sometimes. I can get most of this right in isolation, but even in a text as short as this, I'm bound to mess up some of them.

renzhe-08niandu.mp3

[Shi Tong]

Hello..

Attached is my sample.

I appologize for this, but because I speak Taiwanese guoyu, I missed out some of the erhua, because I'm so unused to saying it.

So I have said "yidian" instead of "yidier", and I have also said "waimian" instead of "waibier", since Taiwanese do not say these things. I've also used the tones that Taiwanese would- since mostly there is a lack of qingsheng in a lot of Taiwanese guoyu.

It's not that I cant.. it's that it would make me sound hideously unnatural when saying those phrases, which I think would be silly.

Also, please note the cold.. I have a frog in my throat the size of a 大青蛙, so please forgive this.

I will probably post something new again when it's recovered a little.

PS: I think Imron's is the "best" so far, but since I'm not too hot on "Chinese" mainland pronunciation, I might just be hearing it "wrong" for other posters.

Either way, hope you enjoy!!

Untitled.wma

Edited March 25, 2010 at 04:49 PM by Shi Tong

[skylee]

Shi Tong, I think you are not bad at all (but the recording is very short and the content very simple). Very surprising, as honestly I got a very different impression from your other posts.

[Shi Tong]

Thanks Skylee,

I was tempted not to post because I thought most people were assuming I was some dunce who actually couldn't speak Chinese for toffee, and I was thinking about cutting off my nose to spite my face, but life is too short, so I thought I'd prove I could

I wouldn't say my Chinese is the "deepest", but I can pretty much hold my own on a lot of things.. maybe politics is taking it too far, but you get the idea.

My accent is interesting, because of course, in my own head it sounds perfect, but listening back, even I think waimian is a bit softer than it should have been. That said, the recording was also attempt number 1 with a cold, so, maybe that's a good excuse.. maybe not.

I'd be happy to post more stuff later if there are more examples.

I think mostly my problem is with pinyin, which I think most people know by now that I'm pretty pants at. I hope that will change, but I still spell things wrong!:lol:

Thanks for the positive comment though!

PS: I did mention a long time ago that I pronounced a lot of the names from 3 kingdoms for their webiste (kongming.net). So these include such odd pronunciations as Tai4 Shi2ci2, Chen2 Yv2qiong2 (which was a REAL hard one, even I'll admit), and cao2pi1, which most people who've never looked at pinyin before things is pronounced like cow's urine.

It was a small snippet kind of project, but it was fun at the time.

You can hear more of my pronunciation there if you have the time or you want to, and you'll probably realise that I can say a few more stranger sounds.

I'm now learning to read and write a lot better, so my Chinese is getting deeper, which is good, but my accent aint bad I suppose.

[skylee]

I think mostly my problem is with pinyin, which I think most people know by now that I'm pretty pants at. I hope that will change, but I still spell things wrong

It's your problem, not everyone else's, or pinyin's. But we don't have to go into that.

And perhaps when you have learnt to read you would be able to record your reading of the text in post #1.

[renzhe]

Yeah, it's quite good

One thing I noticed is your 3rd tone at the end of a sentence, like 一点冷 or 很好 and 关好, which sounds like a falling tone. I don't know if this is the way it is pronounced in Taiwan or something to do with your cold or the recording.

But if it's good enough for skylee, it's good enough for me.

[taylor04]

My turn! I did the 有点儿冷 one. Feel free to criticize!

taylor04rec.mp3

[skylee]

One thing I noticed is your 3rd tone at the end of a sentence, like 一点冷 or 很好 and 关好, which sounds like a falling tone. I don't know if this is the way it is pronounced in Taiwan or something to do with your cold or the recording.

I am not sure what the "falling tone" comment is about. I suppose it means that the pronunciation is not full (ie the sound drops but does not seem to go up again), but they definitely do not sound like 4th tone. Actually I think Shi Tong's pronunciation sounds very natural to my ear. It sounds like what I usually hear, which is why I think it is ok, but of course I am not in the North. I don't care much about the neutral tone, and I don't usually use er hua. And as I don't have to take Putonghua or Chinese exams any more, I have quite a low standard.

Actually most of the members who have posted their recordings on this thread speak Mandarin better than I. (oh but I am quite good at Cantonese )

[renzhe]

I suppose it means that the pronunciation is not full (ie the sound drops but does not seem to go up again)

Yes, that's what I meant.

[wedge]

Hi I'd also really appreciate some criticism on my accent. The more brutally honest, the better! Bonus points for telling me that I sound like I'm from ABC country and have been studying Chinese for X years. I also did the 有点儿冷 text that HerrPeterson first posted.

我今天早上起床的时候觉得有点儿冷。

其实外边儿天气很好！

我忽然发现：

昨天晚上窗户没有关好！

Wǒ jīntiān zǎoshàng qǐchuáng de shíhou juéde yǒu diǎnr lěng .

Qíshí wàibiānr tiānqì hěn hǎo !

Wǒ hūrán fāxiàn :

Zuótiān wǎnshàng chuānghu méi yǒu guān hǎo !

wedge sample.mp3

[Shi Tong]

Hello,

Renzhe, you're right, 3rd tone in Taiwan is a slight anomoly, thought it's taught with a falling/rising, it's never really spoken that way on the street, especially when people are talking fast.

Skylee, Thanks very much indeed for your encouragement.

I realise that my problem with pinyin is my own. My arguements for zhuyin are based around my own experiences.

However, I understand that, if I hear a native Chinese person speaking Mandarin and I dont understand them, then that's definately my fault, not theirs. So pinyin, of course, is a very good system, it's just not as good for myself.

My encouragement of zhuyin is because I think for some people who are like me, they may find it "more" useful.

Taylor, I would say your tones are a little flat, and I think chuang1hu4 was pronounced with a qingsheng or a 3rd tone. This may be because in China they say it that way though. I'm also not sure that chuang hu is the correct pinyin..

Wedge, I think you're really good. Can I detect a very minimal American accent?

Both recordings are great though.

Edited March 26, 2010 at 12:48 PM by Shi Tong

[Shi Tong]

A crap explaintion of Taiwanese guoyu and Chinese Mandarin attached. I just spoke this off the cuff, and it's the "first take", I have no "script", but I thought I'd give you another listen to myself.

taiwanguoyu.wma