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Questions tagged [pronunciation]

Questions regarding the correct consonants, vowels, tone, stress, rhythm and intonation of a word in spoken Chinese

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Techniques for improving pronunciation

Are there any recommended resources or methodologies to improve ones Chinese pronunciation? Besides having a native speaker at your disposal, are there any tools that can help to correct pronunciation?
HeDinges
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How do native speakers of Chinese pronounce Latin characters?

I hear that "Windows XP" is commonly called "Chā P" because the letter "X" may be pronounced "Chā". Are there other Latin characters that have similarly peculiar pronunciations?
Matthew Rudy 马泰
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How is the pinyin 'iu' pronounced?

How does one pronounce the 'iu' sound (as in liu4 = six)? I have always said it and heard it to end in an [joʊ] sound, as in 'low', 'go', and 'sew'. But once I was told that it should actually be a 'u' sound, perhaps something like [iu:] as in…
cyanos
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说服: shuìfú vs. shuōfú

I've been trying to find some sort of indication as to the differences between these two pronunciations for 说服: shuìfú vs. shuōfú. I used to always read it: shuōfú, until I was corrected by a mainlander, who told me it should be shuìfú. The only…
Mou某
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What is considered to be the most difficult sound for native English speakers to pronounce?

When I was first learning Chinese, I found the e4 - 饿 & ü3/ü4 - 女/绿 sounds to be the most problematic. Has there been any research into this? If so, what sounds are generally the most problematic sounds for an initially monolingual English speaker…
Michael Robinson
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地 pronunciation variation

May I know how the rules governing the pronunciation of 地? In the song, 吻别, the singer pronounces 地 as di. 冷得连隐藏的遗憾都那么地明显 leng de lian yin cang de yi han du na me di ming xian However, a quick check with the Oxford Chinese-English Dictionary…
user2246
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How was Switzerland transliterated into Chinese?

So, my real question is: did 瑞 used to be pronounced suì in 官话? My roundabout way at getting to this is from the transliteration of Switzerland. Let's look at Chengduese.《现代汉语方言音库 • 成都话音档》records 瑞 with two pronunciations. One…
Mou某
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Are the two pronunciations of 谁 (shéi / shuí) the result of regional differences?

The pronoun 谁 has two pronunciations — shéi and shuí — without a difference in meaning. When I started learning Chinese, I learnt the pronunciation shéi. However, one of my Chinese language partners (from Henan) said that he had never learnt this…
Tsundoku
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Rhyming in modern Mandarin

What syllables rhyme in modern Mandarin, according to the native speakers? I'm looking for some rules or rhyme tables. I have found some, but I'm confused by the fact that 韵 may both mean "rhyme" and "the final of a syllable", so I'm not sure how to…
米好 '-'
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Pronunciation of "因为"

因为 is usually pronounced as yīn wèi, but sometimes I hear it pronounced as yīn wéi which really brings out the meaning as reason (yīn) being (wéi). Which pronunciation came about first? Do regional differences account for this phenomenon? Are the…
user160
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Intonation and stress for Chinese pronunciation

The new book 汉语国际教育用词语声调组合及轻重音格式实用手册 ("A Practical Manual of Tone Patterns and Formats of Stressed and Unstressed Syllables in Mandarin Words for the Application of Teaching Chinese to the Speakers of Other Languages") apparently discusses this,…
mic
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How is "⿰甴曱 ⿰曱甴" read?

I was scrolling through BabelStone's PUA page when I came across the following: For evidential purposes they also link the following picture: Unlike some entries on the chart there is no romanizaion for these two characters. Seeing "甴" makes…
Mou某
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pronunciation of 人 - regional or gender differences?

To my English tuned ear, these audio files of people pronouncing 人 sound very different. My colleague (a native Mandarin speaker) insists they are the same sound, and thinks I am just confused because one speaker has a higher pitched voice. He said…
compound eye
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Is it common for zh/j, ch/q, and sh/x to be merged?

I learned formally that in the standard Beijing accent, zh, ch, and sh are pronounced more in the back in the mouth than j, q, and x. However, I got lazy and speak all six of these consonants in the front of my mouth. I'm curious, is this common for…
Heitor Chang
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Why doesn't Chinese have voiced sounds like [b], [d] and [g]?

So I'm wondering why, Chinese lacks voiced sounds like B, D and G. B, D and G all sound different from English. B is like [p], D is like [t], and G is like [k]. Were the voiced sounds all too hard to pronounce or were they replaced with voiceless…
Akshat Goswami
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