poleag Posted May 8, 2012 at 10:42 PM Report Share Posted May 8, 2012 at 10:42 PM or is this my imagination? and if you've noticed this to, how can it be corrected? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lechuan Posted May 8, 2012 at 10:52 PM Report Share Posted May 8, 2012 at 10:52 PM It all depends. Are they americans trying to speak Chinese? Did they learn Pinyin properly? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poleag Posted May 8, 2012 at 11:01 PM Author Report Share Posted May 8, 2012 at 11:01 PM yes, we're assuming they know pinyin and they are trying to say 挺 but it ends up sending a little like 请 when they produce it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lechuan Posted May 8, 2012 at 11:12 PM Report Share Posted May 8, 2012 at 11:12 PM It could help to have them contrast the [t] (tease) and [ch] (cheese) in English, as well having them aware of what's going on with their tongue when they're making these sounds. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michaelyus Posted May 10, 2012 at 09:52 AM Report Share Posted May 10, 2012 at 09:52 AM Interesting that you hear Americans do this... it can be to do with the affrication that English /t/ has at the beginning of words (some people say it has an 'explosive' quality), so that [tʰ] becomes [tʰs], which might palatalise before /i/ in Pinyin, becoming [tʰʃ] (I wouldn't say that the palatalisation is very strong in English though). However, I associate that with British English more than American. I know it is also characteristic in certain French speakers learning Mandarin through Pinyin (where the palatalisation is more evident). 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geiko Posted May 10, 2012 at 02:23 PM Report Share Posted May 10, 2012 at 02:23 PM This is interesting... When I was 16 I spent one month in Birmingham (UK) studying English. I remember I was asked how to say "naughty boy" in Spanish, which is "chico malo" (ch sounds like ʧ , close to Chinese 'qing'). Despite repeating it a couple of times, the English person who asked me always pronounced it like "tico", t- instead of ʧ- , and I couldn't understand why, since this sound also exists in English... I even thought my pronounciation might be bad, or perhaps she had trouble in pronouncing this sound, but another classmate told me that their British hosts seemed to do the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neverending Posted May 10, 2012 at 04:12 PM Report Share Posted May 10, 2012 at 04:12 PM I speak British English (with a mangled accent, mind you, as I have a few regional influences) and I occasionally say words like 挺 close to 请 - I can hear myself doing it but my tongue seems to do this naturally in fluent speech. I used to attribute it to an individual quirk but it's nice to be able to blame it on my accent! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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