Characters with different pronunciations on Mainland / Taiwan

[Mugi]

I don't think any of those characters are 入聲, how to find out is if they have a final -k,-t, or -p (or g,d,b, depending what system you're using) in Cantonese. If they do, then they are 入聲.

Maybe you are confusing 入聲 with 去聲?

Unfortunately Hofmann deleted all the 入聲字 from his/her original and I didn't quote them, hence to someone just joining the thread, it looks like I don't know what I'm talking about

[ABCinChina]

Mugi, I've just joined the thread and have come to the conclusion that you don't know what you're talking about.

[calibre2001]

I swear that when Taiwanese talk fast , '他講' sounds like 'ha jiang' (excuse the lack of tones in my pinyin). Anybody else notices this??

Oh, and 然後 sounds like 'na hou'

[semantic nuance]

'他講' sounds like 'ha jiang' ...Oh, and 然後 sounds like 'na hou'

Either your ears or their tongues or mouths are the problems.

[calibre2001]

I'm quite convinced it's a southern mandarin thing, especially in everyday talk to switch between 'ha' and 'ta' when talking at faster speed. In a more formal context, they probably would revert to 'ta'.

'這樣' often gets pronounced like ‘醬’ in everyday speech.

Reminds me of the word 'thank you'. It's pronounced 'thank Q' colloquaily rather than 'thank you'.

[trien27]

That list is only a partial list at http://www.zhongwen.com.

That site, like this one, is where the webmaster/administrator/moderators is / are NOT Chinese, but rather of European origins.

[skylee]

That site, like this one, is where the webmaster/administrator/moderators is / are NOT Chinese, but rather of European origins.

So???

[Hofmann]

zhongwen.com is an American site.

[semantic nuance]

口吃 kou3 chi1.

In mainland china, does it really pronounce kou3 chi1?

In Taiwan,it is pronounced kou3 ji2.

[liuzhou]

In mainland china, does it really pronounce kou3 chi1

Yes

[semantic nuance]

you mean 吃 in 口吃 pronounced as "eat"?

Wow! Really? But on the webpage of zhongwen.com the hanyu pinyin of 口吃 is kou3 ji2. Which one is pronounced in Mainland China?

[HashiriKata]

Which one is pronounced in Mainland China?

It should be kou3 chi1, from the dictionaries I've tried. Another word for it is 结巴.

[semantic nuance]

Thanks! Quite something to learn! It never occurred to me that this phrase pronounced differently in Taiwan and Mainland China. Here in Taiwan, we say 口吃 as kou3 ji2.

[MXQBLGH]

This is so annoying. Ok, I am fully aware that in mainland some words are pronounced differently than in Taiwan.

For instance,

擊 is pronounced ji2 in TW, but ji1 in Mainland.

期 is qi2 in TW, qi1 in Mainland.

企 is qi4 in TW, qi3 in Mainland

there's even a site that shows the differences in pronunciation

as you can see here

http://zhongwen.com/x/guopu.htm

Background

Growing up, I was sorta exposed to mandarin through my parents (we're Fujian) and cantonese but more so cantonese which is why I need to improve my mandarin. The pronunciations I'm more familiar with are the TW pronunciations, ie. I've always heard 星期 as xing1 qi2 not qi1. Same with 'dangerous' as wei2 xian3 not wei1 xian3. Assault as "gong1 ji2" not "gong1 ji1"...plus I watch TW shows a lot. I use Wenlin (awesome dictionary program with handwriting recognition) to help me with words. Although I AM aware that it has standard mandarin pronunciations ie. 期 as qi1 not qi2 but that's not a problem to me.

Anyway I have a friend from mainland who helps me with mandarin and so one day we were talkign and I used the word 友誼.

I said you3 yi4 and he told me it was supposed to be you3 yi2 second tone instead of 4th.

Argh...

On that site that I just linked it says that in TW ppl pronounce it yi2, wheres in Mainland it's yi4....second of all, I used Wenlin which is based on standard mandarin and here it says 友誼 is you3 yi4....

so wth? My friend is from mainland and he doesnt even say it the way the DICTIONARY nor the website above that I linked says what the 'mainland' pronunciation should be....he says it the way the website says "Taiwan" ppl say it as..

what gives?

Why the hell does mandarin have to be this confusing? Now I'm very hesitant to even use the DICTIONARY because I feel like a) TW vs Mainland pronunciation may be a factor and b ) even if I followed the dictionary (based on putonghua ie. mainland), it's STILL wrong because ppl dont pronounce it that way (well my mainland friend would be an example since he did grow up in mainland china)

today i encountered another issue....生肖 is listed as sheng1 xiao4 in my Wenlin dictionary...yet my friend says its supposed to be sheng1 xiao1 and that sheng1 xiao4 sounds more like 生效 - totally different...

Also, for acupuncture 針灸, Wenlin says zhen1 jiu3 third tone. Yet my mainland friend says zhen1 jiu1....which happens to be the way TW ppl say it (or so I see from watchin some variety shows )

*sigh*

[skylee]

b ) even if I followed the dictionary (based on putonghua ie. mainland), it's STILL wrong because ppl dont pronounce it that way (well my mainland friend would be an example since he did grow up in mainland china)

It is very good that you have a friend who is a native speaker, but native speakers also make mistakes. I make mistakes all the time. I think learners need a standard. You can take your friend's pronunciation as your standard, or you can take the, like, HSK standard as your standard. If you follow a good/reliable dictionary (like Xiandai Hanyu Cidian), you won't be "wrong", even if people might not always actually use the pronunciations in there.

I agree with your observations, though.

[MXQBLGH]

thanks for the response

Just curious, how do you people pronounce 友誼 and 生肖?

[Lu]

企 is qi4 in TW, qi3 in Mainland

Thanks for posting that one! It's been bugging me for a while, since I was sure business is qi3ye4 but there's a place in Taipei called Yuan2qi4, with the same qi. This explains it.

I agree with skylee, pick one standard (a good dictionary works) and stick to it for now. Anyway it's only a small number of characters that have different pronounciations.

[MXQBLGH]

I was thinking of sticking to one standard (the Wenlin program that I use, which is based on putonghua), with minor adjustments in pronunciation (for instance, I use qi2 for 其 instead of qi1) so you might say I'm following the TW standard then.

I guess the tough part is because Wenlin follows putonghua and I don't think I'm gonna bother trying to find a dictionary specific to TW mandarin because Wenlin is just such a good program and I've been using it for some time.

I guess all I can do now is use Wenlin and adjust where necessary using this site http://zhongwen.com/x/guopu.htm but at the same time double check with my friend.

so I guess

友谊 is you3 yi4 in the dictionary, but even my mainland friend says you3 yi2 which is the TW pronunciation (apparently)

生肖 sheng1 xiao4 in dictionary......is it actually pronounced that way or sheng1 xiao1? This one I'm stumped on

卑鄙 bei1 bi3 in dictionary but I'm aware in TW they say bei1 bi4

how do you guys pronounce those words?

[doezeedoats]

Many thanks to MXQBLGH for the pointer to the site with all the differences. I had been compiling my own list (25 so far)...now I won't have to bother, except to learn them!

[bhchao]

跌 is another character pronounced differently in Mainland and Taiwan.

Taiwan pronounces it as die2, while the Mainland pronounces it as die1.

跌到 - die2dao3 (Taiwan pronunciation)

跌到 - die1dao3 (Mainland pronunciation)