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Pronunciation of "w" and "r"
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Shui -

I am a bit confuzed about the pronunciation of these two. When I hear my chinese teacher pronounce
"w", it sounds morelike "v". So, "zhong wen" sounds like "zhong ven".

And for "r", nor as in 二，but in 日. It sounds more like a jjjh sort of sound. I am not sure
how it should be written in english. It sounds to me like the "j" of the french "je", or like the
"s" of "measure".

谢谢你。

ありがとうございます。



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MCDULL -

the pronunciation of "w" in chinese is roughly the same as "w" in "when" or "want",different from
"v" as "very" or "vote".

"r" in"日”is particular,"日”spells“ri”in chinese, but the "i" is not pronounced,only "r"
works （第四声），so “日”sounds like "j" in French. But "r" in "人（ren）" or
"如（ru）" is pronounced as in "red" or "root".










semantic nuance -

As a native Chinese speaker, I feel confused too. Why is it 'zhong van' instead of 'zhong wen'
spoken in mainland china? Here in Taiwan, we say "zhong wen'. But I do remember one tv anchor here
who likes to use 'ven' instead of 'wen'. Perhaps she tries to act authentic or something. I have
no idea.

As for the pronunciation of 二, it's like [ar] sound as in 'are'. You can pronounce it as 'er' as
in 'bird' or 'ar' as in 'are'.

Hope it helps!










anonymoose -

The w sounding like v thing is probably because of your teacher's regional accent. I'm guessing
he/she's from the northeast of China. Some people in Dalian speak like that.

As for r sounding like jjjh, I think that's fairly normal (at least from what you've described,
without actually being able to hear it).










skylee -

I think that w/v thing is fairly common. When some actors pronounce it like this, sometimes I
think I see they bite their lips. ha ha. But I think it is quite nice on the ear.










atitarev -

Interesting that Chinese R is transliterated as either Ж (initial) or Р (final) in Russian. The
first is pronounced in Russian as "zh" (French "j" or English "s" in measure) and the second is
"r". Initial and final R are quite different in Chinese but the initial R is not quite as French
"J", it's something between French "J" and English "R"










Quest -

I started to notice Cantonese "w" is half way between "v" and "w" as well, and realized my
Cantonese "w" has been "corrupted" by my English "w", sigh...










Shui -

Ah, thank you.
So then, the "v" sounding "w" is a regional thing? I know that my teacher is a native beijing-ite,
so it probably is just the northeastern accent.

谢谢。










jukebox -



Quote:

So then, the "v" sounding "w" is a regional thing?

Yes, it happens amolst only in Beijing, but this doesn't apply to 我/wo 五/wu.










jbiesnecker -

The 'w' -> 'v' thing is definitely a regional variation. My wife is from Changchun and does it too
(so it's not only happening in Beijing ).












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