How To Have a "Taiwan Guoyu" Accent to Your Taiwan Mandarin

[finley]

A: O-men go-ja dei hua-zan su zongyao dei
B: Su, a!

haha .. the farmer who owns the field next to me talks like that. I can barely understand a word he's saying, and I certainly wouldn't want to replicate it. I'll probably always have a weird foreigner accent, and that's fine with me.

[tommy525]

A heavy taiwanese accented mando is like hillbilly english. All in all, its better to learn to speak "taipei mando" then taike mando.

[Teddoman]

What can I say, some of us aspire to be Ma Ying Jiu types, and some of us aspire to be


Though it's more of a regionalism, age thing and a perception of class/education than an actual reflection of class/education.

After all, former prez and lawyer Chen speaks Taiwan goyee, and there are many more like him in Taiwan

[tommy525]

well if you do it well enough you will be able to get on some tv shows. The taiwanese will think you are a hoot. Cuz even themselves they dont want to speak "hillbilly" mando (among the younger set that is).

[Petrichor]

Can anyone clear up how the 'e' sound such as for example in zhenni 珍妮 should be pronounced? I've had people correct me one way then other people correct me back again! Some say it should be like the schwa /ə/ and then others correct me and say it should be /e/. I think this may be a Taiwanese Mandarin/mainland Mandarin thing. PAVC pronounces it /e/ but it uses mainland pronunciation for other sounds for sure. Don't know about this one.

[Feiren]

Can anyone clear up how the 'e' sound such as for example in zhenni 珍妮 should be pronounced? I've had people correct me one way then other people correct me back again! Some say it should be like the schwa /ə/ and then others correct me and say it should be /e/. I think this may be a Taiwanese Mandarin/mainland Mandarin thing. PAVC pronounces it /e/ but it uses mainland pronunciation for other sounds for sure. Don't know about this one.

Jen-nee.

I'm surprised to hear that you are being corrected on this, I wonder if it is something else. What do you think the tones are?

[Petrichor]

Can anyone clear up how the 'e' sound such as for example in zhenni 珍妮 should be pronounced? I've had people correct me one way then other people correct me back again! Some say it should be like the schwa /ə/ and then others correct me and say it should be /e/. I think this may be a Taiwanese Mandarin/mainland Mandarin thing. PAVC pronounces it /e/ but it uses mainland pronunciation for other sounds for sure. Don't know about this one.

Jen-nee.

I'm surprised to hear that you are being corrected on this, I wonder if it is something else. What do you think the tones are?

Thanks Feiren, but is it /e/ as in egg or /ə/ as in the?

It's definitely the sound of the 'e'. I've also been corrected on ben (stupid). I've pronounced it /e/ as in egg and corrected to /ə/. Another example is wenti (problem).

[Feiren]

Can anyone clear up how the 'e' sound such as for example in zhenni 珍妮 should be pronounced? I've had people correct me one way then other people correct me back again! Some say it should be like the schwa /ə/ and then others correct me and say it should be /e/. I think this may be a Taiwanese Mandarin/mainland Mandarin thing. PAVC pronounces it /e/ but it uses mainland pronunciation for other sounds for sure. Don't know about this one.

Jen-nee.

I'm surprised to hear that you are being corrected on this, I wonder if it is something else. What do you think the tones are?

Thanks Feiren, but is it /e/ as in egg or /ə/ as in the?

It's definitely the sound of the 'e'. I've also been corrected on ben (stupid). I've pronounced it /e/ as in egg and corrected to /ə/. Another example is wenti (problem).

It should be more like the /e/ as in egg. The /e/ in Jen is the same as the e in the English 'Jenny'. But by itself. 'e' is like the /ə/ as in the. For example, e4 'hungry, starving' is quite different from the 'e' in Zhen, Wen, or Ben.

I notice that all of these problem words end in 'n'. The Mandarin 'n' ends earlier than the English n. The tongue stays on the palate and is not released.

Mandarin speakers with Taiwanese-inflected Mandarin pronounce these differently. But these speakers very rarely correct others since (a) they know their Mandarin is 'non-standard' and (b) they are either (1) proud of their non-standard pronunciation or (2) don't care.

[shengou]

It should be more like the /e/ as in egg. The /e/ in Jen is the same as the e in the English 'Jenny'. But by itself. 'e' is like the /ə/ as in the. For example, e4 'hungry, starving' is quite different from the 'e' in Zhen, Wen, or Ben.

I notice that all of these problem words end in 'n'. The Mandarin 'n' ends earlier than the English n. The tongue stays on the palate and is not released.

Mandarin speakers with Taiwanese-inflected Mandarin pronounce these differently. But these speakers very rarely correct others since (a) they know their Mandarin is 'non-standard' and (b) they are either (1) proud of their non-standard pronunciation or (2) don't care.

Unless your pronunciation of egg and Jen is different from mine, zhen doesn't sound anything like Jen to me. That en sound sounds more like the un in under to me.

I found a website with all the sounds.
http://www.newconceptmandarin.com/learn ... inyin.aspx

Go to the Mandarin pronunciation table and you can click on all of the sounds. Go to z and find zhen.
I've clicked that about 50 times now, haha.

[shengou]

A heavy taiwanese accented mando is like hillbilly english. All in all, its better to learn to speak "taipei mando" then taike mando.

I don't know about Teddoman, but the only reason why I do this is for joking around. I don't go around all day speaking Taiwan guoyu. When I want to eat something, I might say to my girlfriend, "Ni yao cu suh-mo?"