You know why I like Popup Chinese?

Elementary: You know why I like Popup Chinese?

We love our staff and they love us too (especially the children, bless their souls). Which is why we were mystified when the Labor Relations Board approached us with outrageous allegations of unpaid overtime and that old story about us locking staff in the studio while we retreated to our executive yacht. It was lunch people... everyone is supposed to go out for lunch!

In any event, seeing that the government has formally launched an investigation into human rights abuses in the construction of our new office space, we've decided to go on a public relations offensive. And we're starting with this podcast, in which we showcase some of the best and brightest actors in the Beijing arts scene going on the record about why they love working for us. And we didn't even have to script this! Hot damn this is good stuff.

palafx

said on

December 15, 2010

I've been wanting to field this question for a while, and the issue comes up in this dialogue;

When is it natural to give 'w' the fricative 'v' pronunciation? In this dialogue, almost every 为什么 was pronounced this way. Does it sound more emphatic in Chinese to pronounce 'w' this way, or is it just a matter of phonological environment?

Echo

said on

December 16, 2010

@palafx,

Because in standard Mandarin, we don't distinguish "w" and "v". You can choose which one you want :)

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com

Brendan

said on

December 17, 2010

@Echo -- Whoa! Whoa whoa whoa! Hang on a second here!

A better way of saying it might be that the sound referenced by the Pinyin "w" is somewhere between an English "w" and a "v," depending mostly on the speaker. There are some accents that give it a more fricative reading; there are others that give it something much closer to an English "w," but it's not -- unless I'm wrong; standard non-native speaker disclaimers apply -- a matter of emphasis.

Echo

said on

December 18, 2010

@Brendan,

Well, I mean "w" and "v" pronunciations don't distinguish the difference of meaning. That's the reason in standard Mandarin, we don't have pinyin "v". When you see pinyin "w", you can pronounce "w" or "v" pronunciation. It doesn't affect the meaning you want to express.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com

Brendan

said on

December 18, 2010

@Echo -- OK, yes, point taken -- but I thought we *were* accent snobs! At least, I certainly am!

palafx

said on

December 18, 2010

@Brendan

Thanks Brendan. I'm an accent snob too. Would you say 'v' is kind of a Southern thing? It seems like whenever you describe a character as Southern-sounding, they have the more fricative pronunciation.

Also, it seems like maybe the 'v' crops up when a 'w' comes after a 'u' sound, or another really round vowel. Could that be right?

Brendan

said on

December 18, 2010

@palafx -- Actually, I tend to associate the 'v' sound with Northeastern accents, but that's probably just because I spent time up there, and haven't spent all that much time in the South. Wu dialects like Shanghainese actually keep the voiced sounds (like "v") that dropped out of other Chinese languages.

As for when the "v"-like sound crops up: I don't know that there's actually any kind of rule for it; I'd tend to think of it more as a general way of articulating the "w" sound in various accents.

palafx

said on

December 18, 2010

@Brendan

Excellent, thanks for all your thoughts. I don't want to make any odd choices that make my accent sound broken.

Xiao Hu

said on

December 19, 2010

@Palafx,

Take another listen and you'll notice that the only "w" that was pronounced as a "v" was in 为什么, while 我 and 五 were not.

The other note is that, as Brendan said, it's actually a cross between a "w" and a "v". It's pronounced in the precise opposite of our English "v" which is pronounced by curling the middle of your bottom lip and touching it to your upper teeth, wheras the Chinese point of friction in the "v" sound is produced by touching the two sides of your bottom lip to your teeth, IE: Sichuan Southern Mandarin 五.

seamus5

said on

May 29, 2012

Ok, I find this really interesting. There are two sentences that are practically the same, the only difference is that the noun in one is bread, and water in the other (还有水~还有面包). Why is it that the first one is a statement, and the second is a question?

As far as I have learned there is no intonation to imply a question in Chinese.... Is it just because of context or position in the dialogue?

Elementary

said on

May 30, 2012

@seamus5,

Because '还有水‘ is said by 丙 and it is a statement, a additional explanation to 甲's line. But '还有面包‘ is said by 乙, the speaker, he says this to confirm what 甲 has said.

--Amber

amber@popupchinese.com

seamus5

said on

May 30, 2012

Then wouldn't a confirmation still be a statement?

Echo

said on

May 30, 2012

@seamus5,

Because person 乙 didn't know we also provide bread here...He's never had, so he was expressing his pleasant surprise.

Actually, yes, we can use intonation to imply a question in Chinese. This is same in English. For instance, 他是学生 can be either a statement or a question. If you want to make it a question, just raise up the intonation at the end of the sentence.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com

1biometricdocuments11

said on

April 13, 2022

Top 10 Genuine Biometric Consultant Online sales@biometricdocument.com. - Biometric Document Consultant Online

How to Get Resident Permit, ID Card, Driving License, IELTS, TOEFL, NEBOSH, US & UK Passport? ( sales@biometricdocument.com)

Contact Info

United States

call+1 (352) 405-1569

sales@biometricdocument.com

whatsapp+1 (352) 405-1569

24/7 - Monday to Sunday