Today I’m going to discuss some regional differences in pronunciation and how people generally characterize accents in China.\u00a0 Here are some broad differences between north and south.<\/p>\n
Between north and south, \u77e5 zhi1 \u5403 chi1 and \u662f shi4 all lose the “h” component, leading them to sound like zi1, ci1, and si4, respectively.\u00a0 This change also applies to \u4ec0\u4e48 (shen2me – what).\u00a0 The consonants l and n are interchanged, so a word like \u80fdneng2 may sound like \u51b7 leng3.<\/p>\n
\u513f\u5316\u97f3 or the “er”ification of words.\u00a0 In the north, many words have an \u513f or “er” sound following them, while the final consonant of the word is removed- e.g. \u5927\u95e8\u513f da4me2r – large gate<\/p>\n
With this new knowledge, I hope you get more insight into where someone is from just by hearing him\/her speak.\u00a0 Alternatively, maybe you can try altering your pronunciation and seeing if people guess you’re from the north or the south!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today I’m going to discuss some regional differences in pronunciation and how people generally characterize accents in China.\u00a0 Here are some broad differences between north and south. Between north and south, \u77e5 zhi1 \u5403 chi1 and \u662f shi4 all lose the “h” component, leading them to sound like zi1, ci1, and si4, respectively.\u00a0 This change…<\/p>\n