Is the Mandarin Chinese uniform everywhere?
Mandarin Chinese(Pu tong hua) is spoken in a vast area but my Chinese friend says it is uniform everywhere.
So I asked him if Taiwanese people and mainland Chinese people(Mandarin speakers) have the exactly same accent. He said the Taiwanese accent of Mandarin Chinese is a little bit different from the mainland Mandarin accent.
Is it true that Mandarin Chinese is uniform everywhere in mainland China?
Whether you live in Beijing or Harbin, Nanjing or Tsingtao, you hear the same accent?
The Party's form of Mandarin is the only one allowed.
When I started learning Mandarin I had teachers from Taiwan and the only difference I could realize so far is that people in Taiwan don't distinguish between "si" and "shi" so 10 (shi) in Taiwan sounds like 4(si). I also heard about Taiwanese is based on the language spoken in Fujian, which is the 闽南 (minnan) dialect.
Cheers!!
Not really. But the peculiar thing is Mandarin is understood from Harbin to Beijing to Shanghai and to Chengdu. For such a huge country like mine, it's interesting to see a language prevailing among almost a billion of Chinese with a multitude of accents. China didn't impose Mandarin on everyone completely, so to speak. I'd say, unlike Russian in Russia and English in the US, Mandarin developed for centuries to get a foothold in much of China.
Note also that the notion of Mandarin existed even during the Qing Dynasty. Notably, the guanhua of Sichuan was a kind of south-western guanhua, the Sichuan precedessor to Sichuan Mandarin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_sinitic_languages-en.svg
So, we end up with something this.
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Madarin_in_Chinese_Mainland.PNG
But along with Mandarin, at least the kind of standard Mandarin prevailing in much of the media, whenever I watch TV asking passers-by questions about practically anything, they sometimes speak with some unintelligible accents - they may actually be something else, not Mandarin.
A more vivid example may be Taiwanese, something derived from Minnan. Of course, the name itself does have some cultural and political implications. Those in the mainland tend to have their names eluded... somehow.
As my friend reminded me while watching a recently released movie,
Lin Chi-Ling seems to use a more neutral accent in the movie, instead of her very (sickening; though she's still very hot after all, for me) feminine Taiwanese accent. That has been very typical of hot girls from Taiwan. Many Hong Kong guys find them much more attractive than ... domineering, high-maintenance, headstrong chicks in Hong Kong.
Why a neutral accent? I guess it has to do with the actors involved - many from the mainland. If I were her, I wouldn't want to sound to be speaking too many regionalisms with others. That makes my speech more difficult to follow.
I do suggest that you listen to more accents to get used to them. Listening comprehension is essential.
<Not really. But the peculiar thing is Mandarin is understood from Harbin to Beijing to Shanghai and to Chengdu.>
So, which area's accent is considered to be the most "Standard Mandarin Accent"? Is it Beijing Mandarin?
You don't need "the" in your title. It changes the meaning from the language to a uniform, for example a uniform from the time of Mao.
Back to the Standard Chinese spoken in China and Taiwan topic, I remember that I heard some words of Japanese origin such as "basu" (bus) and "pento" (from "bento":lunch box) whereas in China one would say 公共汽车 and 盒饭. Can anyone tell me of other differences? I just travelled in Taiwan for one week and couldn't figure out many differences.
Cheers!!
Oops, I also remembered that my Taiwanese teachers used "礼拜“ for week instead of 星期。
> J.C. "I also heard about Taiwanese is based on the language spoken in Fujian, which is the 闽南 (minnan) dialect."
> J.C. "Oops, I also remembered that my Taiwanese teachers used "礼拜“ for week instead of 星期。
The Chinchew, Changchew, Amoy and Taiwanese are the main vernaculars of Hokkien (Mandarin name: Minnan or Minnanhua)
Mandarin: 星期 (xing qi: week)
Taiwanese: 礼拜 (le pai; week)
Caspian
Sei persino in grado di scrivere in cinese? Sei un vero poliglotta!
「礼拜的拼音是 'li bai', 是不是？」
对呀！但是，我想这个生词在中国被不使用！
再见！
Grazie abc! Si, imparo il cinese da circa 1 anno da solo, perchè lo trovo molto interessante e bello - è difficile, ma è una sfida!
" 对呀！但是，我想这个生词在中国被不使用！ "
在中国不使用，可是我的一个朋友是台湾人 - 有时候她说 ‘礼拜’，有时候他用 ‘星期’。在台湾都可以用吗？