sonia Posted February 16, 2006 at 12:21 AM Report Share Posted February 16, 2006 at 12:21 AM Hello everyone, I have some novice questions: I know some Chinese who speak (in English) with a nasal sound (it sounds like they have some mucus in the throat..I don't know how else to explain it), while I know others who do not speak this way. Do some Chinese languages require a nasal sound when speaking? If so, which languages do and which do not? Someone told me that speaking with a nasal sound is often considered more formal/polite while speaking without this kind of "filter" is more intimate/personal. Is this true? I hope somebody understands what I'm talking about Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amego Posted February 16, 2006 at 10:06 AM Report Share Posted February 16, 2006 at 10:06 AM Well Teochew have a lot of nasal sounds, Hokkien have a little, Mandarin and Cantonese maybe a few words. Do Mandarin sounds like "jiang", "xiang" counts? The rest of the languages i'm not sure Someone told me that speaking with a nasal sound is often considered more formal/polite while speaking without this kind of "filter" is more intimate/personal. Is this true? Well it doesn't make much sense to me. Teochew and Hokkien are similar to a certain extent, so if a Hokkien wants to be more polite, then wouldn't he be speaking like a Teochew !? So he will be speaking different dialect/language already. Anyway, Teochew does sound more sophisicated and "class" to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ala Posted February 16, 2006 at 05:17 PM Report Share Posted February 16, 2006 at 05:17 PM Two Chinese dialect groups have nasal vowels: Min/Hokkien/Taiwanese 闽 and Wu/Shanghai/Wenzhou 吴, they also border each other.... Shanghainese (a Wu dialect 吴方言) has lots of nasal vowels, like that in French "non", "cent", etc. I don't know if it carries into English, I wouldn't be surprised if it did. Mandarin doesn't have nasal vowels. Xiang, Jiang does not count. Honorifics in Wu dialects used to include an "ng" nasal (pronounced like 五 ng) for certain nouns. For example "ng饭" (food). This is now only found in rural villages outside of Shanghai. Nasal sound is considered softer and less abrupt that's for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
笨笨德 Posted February 16, 2006 at 07:31 PM Report Share Posted February 16, 2006 at 07:31 PM Dont the mandarin sounds that end in ㄥ eng ㄤ ang count as (at least partialy) nasal? After all thats what differentiates them with ㄢㄣ sounds? Especially the few words like 腌 腌 嗯 which are particualy nasal... ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ala Posted February 16, 2006 at 09:18 PM Report Share Posted February 16, 2006 at 09:18 PM Dont the mandarin sounds that end in ㄥ eng ㄤ ang count as (at least partialy) nasal?After all thats what differentiates them with ㄢㄣ sounds? I don't think that's what the original poster meant. I think he meant nasal vowels, which is a completely different sound from -ng endings, etc. The Mandarin -ng final is no different from the -ng in English "king", "long", "hang", "young" etc etc, so that can't be what the original poster meant. English has plenty of -ng ending words. But nasal vowels don't really exist in English, and are instead found in French. Hence French is often perceived as being "nasal", no one will say English sounds nasal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stephanhodges Posted February 17, 2006 at 01:36 PM Report Share Posted February 17, 2006 at 01:36 PM You can also check out this thread on nasalization http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/80-how-many-chinese-characters-are-there95 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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