Characters with different pronunciations on Mainland / Taiwan

[skylee]

I can think of these (putonghua vs guoyu) ->

垃圾 la1 ji1 vs le4 se4

危 wei1 vs wei2

微 wei1 vs wei2

薇 wei1 vs wei2

期 qi1 vs qi2

驟 zhou4 vs zou4

髮 fa4 vs fa3

寂 ji4 vs ji2

Can you think of others? Is there a list of these words?

[xiaocai]

When the first time I heard di3di2 (younger brother) from a Taiwan drama, I just could help lol...

Taiwanese pronouce 法国 as fa4guo2, but the 法 in other words like 法律 or 立法 still remains fa3.

And some mainlanders including me also say tou2fa3 sometimes...

[hakkaboy]

Skylee, there is a long list at http://zhongwen.com/x/guopu.htm

[skylee]

Thank you. The list is helpful.

[wix]

Interesting post and thanks for the link to zhongwen.com.

垃圾 la1 ji1 vs le4 se4

The other differences are fairly small, but what is the origin of this one? Does le4 se4 come from Taiwanese? When I was living in Taiwan I was very familiar with this word, but I never knew it used the characters for la1 ji1.

[Quest]

垃圾 is Lap Sap in Cantonese.

[Luoman]

Didn`t find 液 ye4-yi4, 俄 e2-e4 and some others in that list. What do native-speakers think? Is that list full?

[jukebox]

The other differences are fairly small, but what is the origin of this one? Does le4 se4 come from Taiwanese? When I was living in Taiwan I was very familiar with this word, but I never knew it used the characters for la1 ji1.

垃圾 is still 'lese' in many dialects.

There's a rule called 约定俗成.

和 was 'he2' when used as a conjunction, but the one (i don't know who) who promoted Mandarin on Taiwan in early days was from Beijing and he read 和 as 'han4', therefore people in Taiwan began to use 'han4'.

呆板 was 'ai2ban3' in mainland, however nowadays teachers in primary schools will tell you 'dai1ban3' is the correct form.

I believe that one day dictionaries in mainland will give 甲壳 'jia3ke2' and dictionaries in Taiwan will give 角色 'jiao3se4'.

[Lu]

和: he2 is used much more than han4 on Taiwan. People only sometimes read han4 when reading aloud from the newspaper or things like that, I never heard it in natural speech.

垃圾 is not lese in Taiwanese, I forgot what it was but it's something completely different. Don't know where they got that pronounciation. It's not very logical either, if you look at the pronounciation element in the characters, you'd think they read laji.

[Quest]

垃圾 is not lese in Taiwanese, I forgot what it was but it's something completely different.

It is lese.

Don't know where they got that pronounciation. It's not very logical either, if you look at the pronounciation element in the characters, you'd think they read laji

I provided the Cantonese pronunciation because it might be similar to Minnan, and it would help you see the etymology. Cantonese 立 is pronounced Lap or Laap [aap], and 及 is Kap [ap]. From that, 垃圾 being "Laap Saap" and "Le Se" isn't too illogical.

[skylee]

dictionaries in Taiwan will give 角色 'jiao3se4'

I remember seeing some programme on Phoenix TV in which the host and the guest used jue2se4 and jiao3se4 respectively and both were perfectly comfortable with his/her own pronunciation. And I believe neither of them were from Taiwan.

[ala]

垃圾 is not lese in Taiwanese, I forgot what it was but it's something completely different. Don't know where they got that pronounciation. It's not very logical either, if you look at the pronounciation element in the characters, you'd think they read laji.

垃圾 is a native Wu word. It's pronounced close to Hanyu Pinyin "lese".

In Shanghainese the pronounciation became "lashi" probably from influence of English word "trash"

[Quest]

In Shanghainese the pronounciation became "lashi" probably from influence of English word "trash"

I doubt it.

[bhchao]

Since I am used to the pronounciation of 危險 as wei2xian3, wei1xian3 sounds very odd to my ears.

Also has anyone heard 蘇州 being pronounced as Su2Zhou1 in Taiwan, or am I the only person who pronounces it that way? (seriously speaking)

[Long Zhiren]

垃圾 is not lese in Taiwanese

You mean 福建話 or 台灣國語?

In 湖南話, 垃圾 is pronounced closer to la1xi1.

That's the way that I first learned to pronounce it. To my shock, others misinterpreted that as something else...

[Quest]

To my shock, others misinterpreted that as something else...

落屎？

[Long Zhiren]

落屎

ew. but you got it.

Actually in Taiwan, is pinyin even used much yet?

They've been using "bo po mo fo" or whatever it is that I've never learned.

Interestingly, the front page of a recent edition of the San Francisco Comical had a photo of kids in the SF area learning to "write Chinese traditional characters" in a Chinese school. The Comical journalists obviously couldn't tell that the kids were not writing Chinese traditional characters, but writing "bo po mo fo."

And people are supposed to believe what they get from these media sources?

[Lu]

Pinyin is rarely used by people. You can see it on street signs and MRT stops in Taibei, but apart from teachers-to-foreigners I haven't met any Taiwanese who knew it. They all use bopomofo.

[skylee]

Pinyin is rarely used by people. You can see it on street signs and MRT stops in Taibei

And those at MRT stops may actually be Tongyong Pinyin instead of Hanyu Pinyin ...

[bhchao]

The signs using pinyin in Taipei have dual usage of hanyu pinyin and tongyong pinyin. Hanyu pinyin comes first, followed by tongyong pinyin in parenthesis.

You have to thank Mayor Ma for standing firm on hanyu pinyin