There are so many accents and dialects out there! But if you master the sounds of Standard Mandarin, you'll maximize your chance of communicating with people effectively! Join my Chinese pronunciation training program “FINDING YOUR MANDARIN VOICE” today to speak and understand natural Chinese this summer! 👇LIFETIME access is still open👇 www.ritachinese.com
As a French who learnt mandarin, I feel differences between Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien or Shanghainese are quite similar to those between Italian, French, Spanish and Portuguese. All those languages derivate from Latin and we can understand a few words here and there but general mutual comprehension is not really possible.
你的英文写的非常好，我只会说英语还有一点点中文。只有一个地方你写错了: if your nationality ends in a ch/sh/ic or ese in English, it is considered an adjective but not a noun in the singular, so you need to complete it with "person/guy/man/woman etc" (an English guy, a French person etc) ;) It's weird because you can say The French, The Chinese in the plural, but when you refer to any singular person of these nationalities you have add a noun on the end e.g a French person/ a Chinese person. （不好意思我只是想让你了解一下. 你英文写的这么好我觉得我应该告诉你这个小错误。）
Chinese dialects are really languages in their own right. They were classified as dialect for political reasons. The Chinese dialects are more different from each other than some of the Romance languages are between themselves.
@@thoughtfulsapien1235 It's because the Roman Empire split up & all these "dialects" are now spoken in different countries. China hasn't split up, & is one political entity, hence, all these different languages are considered "dialects" by the ignorant & the insecure. That's all.
Yue, Min, Wu, etc. are definitely all separate languages without a doubt. The idea of Chinese just being a wide range of dialects is moreso unifying agenda - "a language is just a dialect with an army and a navy" as they say. Imo an accurate counterpart of Old Chinese + The Sinitic languages is Latin + The Romance languages. Even some of the Romance languages are more mutually intelligible than the Sinitic languages are. That's how diverse 'Chinese' really is. I think the disparity is more obvious when the languages have a combination of distinct differences (e.g. Cantonese with it's different phonology, different grammar structure (sometimes), and use of completely different vocab). It's hard to classify Yue, Min, Wu, etc. as dialects instead of languages when even the dialects of those respective languages are almost mutually unintelligible with each other. There's even a possibility that Yue, Min, Wu, etc. can be classified as entire language groups themselves. I'm a Cantonese speaker myself and I can barely understand Hoisan (another Yue dialect), and my dad's a Hokkien speaker that doesn't understand a word of Fuzhounese (another dialect of Min)
europe was the same. both modern german and modern italian are basically artificial languages that replaced "dialects" by a central government. in Germany in the old days (before WWI, WWII eras) dialects were incomprehensible. Still true in Bavaria, but in the North it is mostly gone Plattdeutsch being mostly forgotten. When Italy was unified, only like 5% or something actually spoke what we call "Italian"
@@Sybok51288 Happens everywhere though. Hindi is considered the main language of India. Before that they were many Indian culture's and kingdoms. Bahasa Indonesia is a national language of united Indonesian Islands. Etc.
(Socio) linguistic registers, or formality/informality levels cause more or less mutual comprehension/intelligibility Dialect words, whether unique, borrowed from other dialects, SW China minorities, or foreigners, or are obsolete old Northern/national words, are in several categories of most often daily use words, like demonstrative adjectives, some pronouns, question words, some common nouns, and in social life, some common actions, some common physical objects. At semi formal, and even more, at highly formal levels, people speak most words from same characters with some pronunciation and many tone differences Main problems are in commonly used, more informal words, as those are the dialect origin and dialect use, retained or borrowed, words. There is.some help, suchasMathews Chinese Dictionary
Thisdictionary shows which characters in Mandarin used to have --k, --p, --t, or glottal stop at ends of syllables, but does not specify WHICH of the 4!! It does not show which Mandarin pronun ciation. words ended in --m, now abandoned and replaced by --n. Hopefully, that dictionary s publisher.can correct the problems, or another can. William Shakespeare ? said, "There is a method to this madness." Dialect description books In Chinese
Dialect description books, in Chinese from Mainland China, such as Hanyu Fangyan Gaiyao (Han Language Dialect Summary ?), also, Fangyan Magazine and Zhongguo Yuwen, (Chinese Language magazine, at times have articles on selected dialect topics. Some resources exist, but, so far, need more development for Chinese, whichever varieties. learners. Hopefully, Chinese dialect learners can join with Chinese Dialect Association and its Fangyan, mafazine, also ZY magazine (all in Beijing with websites.) Xiexie laoshi !!!
I want to learn Cantonese and Shanghainese after I reach my desired level of fluency in Mandarin. Chinese is such a cool language family! I struggle with hearing different accents, but it helps to know how certain regions pronounce words.
I also love how much you have integrated linguistics into this! It’s so cool to see how languages are spoken, heard, perceived, etc… and the different groups… difference between dialect vs accent. It’s quite informative!
I got so excited for a new video every time! As for the video, this really tackles the stereotypes us as Westerners have. If people are confused, watch this video!!!
1:12 though this dendrogram is widely used, I don't think it actually reflects the differences and similarities between dialect groups, as "northern southern dialects" (dialects that are close to the Yangtze River, like Wu, Xiang, and Gan) have heavy contact with Mandarin actually. These dialects do not even have a distinct boundary with Mandarin, forming a great dialect continuum with Mandarin. In this dendrogram, the "contact region" of Wuu and Gan is marked as Hui, while the contact regions between Mandarin and the "northern southern dialects" are not marked at all. Actually, from a northerner's opinion, the "northern southern dialects", though they are drawn far from Mandarin in the dendrogram, are easier to learn and get used to in general.
Depends on where you live, you might know Cantonese, mandarins and the dialect. Fun fact the dialect of one village is different from village next door. Lol.
I know what you mean. When I moved from England to Scotland it seemed like another language. Thick accent and some dialect words can be tough to understand
Very good video it makes sense why some Chinese dramas and shows have voice over actor/ actresses because some of may be from another are of china with a different dialect so it make since to have a dub so all the accents are consistent. 🤔🤔
I think people get so confused because China conflates “dialect” and “language” for whatever political gain they want (eg unification etc but idk enough about that). This is also a problem in Japan and Korea with the Ryukyuan languages and the Jeju language being regarded as “dialects” of Japanese and Korean which has meant that there’s no support for them and they’re dying out. The Chinese “dialects” are definitely different languages since as a Taiwanese (Hokkien) learner I can’t understand Mandarin even tho I can read it (I could read a lot of it anyway because I speak Japanese but anyway). Secondly, because there is a written standard, because of different languages, people just read it with the phonology and pronunciation of their language when it’s not important which I think adds to it as well
I think so, too. Another widespread misconception is that Chinese writing is all just one neutral, standard form of the language which represents all dialects. Not true, at all. Almost all Chinese writing outside of Hong Kong is just exactly written Mandarin, not a neutral, general “Chinese”, which is not something that exists.
@@justakathings not really though. I learned most of my mandarin just from watching TV. Nobody has ever spoke out to me but because I know Cantonese, I just have to carry over the pronunciation most of the time. It really isn’t that different.
I don't speak any of the dialects with 入声, so my knowledge and understanding of the sound system are limited, but I'd love to learn more. There are some research and books about it, like 赵元任's 《现代无语的研究》. But I think across all the 入声 dialects, it basically is a glottal stop with different lip shapes and tongue positions. Hope it makes sense!
They seem to be words that end in consonants --k, --p, --t, glottal stop. This shortens pronunciation and mainly allows short level tones, though all ? dialects have words that end in vowels or --n and at times also have level tones that can be said longer. Why bother to make distinction ?! Why are they called entering tones ? What is entering what ?!
At common use, informal spoken level of register, Chinese dialects are like related languages. But, at semi formal and highly formal levels, people use minimum of dialect words and mostly dialect pronunciation, with slight differences, and usually quite different tones, of same Northern national words. So, at semi and highly formal level registers, they are like dialects, but at informal spoken level register, they are like related languages.
This video is great, many resources for learning "Chinese" do not explain the variety of Chinese language. Learning Chinese by limiting yourself only to Mandarin is reductive, the Chinese language group is highly diverse. I often see people learning Mandarin and not even knowing what other Chinese languages exist. 👍
Here are some curiosities. N I hao. Dia, dhuitch. Conas, a tha, thu? 1) In Scottish, 1 vowel is some- times pronounced like -- e in Mandarin de, =to get, or she = snake 2) In Cantonese Sei Yap = Si Y I (4 Districts, Modern 4 Counties = Si (+ge) Xian) sub dialect of actually 6 counties (!?) people substitute for s-- , the ll- as in Welsh, Zulu, etc. Small world, small human mouth ? 3) In Spanish Civil War, Irish (Conolly Column) and Chinese (in which unit?) both.fought together in International Brigades (there are websites for both) Slan! Zai, Jian! Zhu ni, hao yunqi!! Jia, you!!!
Interesting that you used Age of Empires. Is the ancient Chinese in it pretty well researched? Hows the Chinese in a game like Total War: Three Kingdoms? From a quick listen it sounds fairly modern? The Dynasty Warriors series sounds even less historical.
For the dummies: Chinese: Writing style, people, culture. Mandrain, cantonese, hakka, hokkien, teh cheow, fujuian: Specific dialects. They can all read chinese characters.
Almost true. The characters used in some dialects, especially verbal expressions, will be unrecognized by speakers of other dialects. They might be able to guess at the pronunciation, but probably won't understand the meaning, because they are characters that mostly give phonetic hints, not semantic hints.
Rita i love your accent and I love your channel will you please do crouching tiger hidden dragon in mandarin my favorite movie plz thats my request Tommy click
I think there are some videos trying to present how the ancient Chinese may have sounded based on some ancient books that recorded the sounds by a written system. But I can’t tell if it really reflects the true past😊
I did a study program in Taipei a few years ago and really loved it (first time learning the language) but I find myself struggling with standard/Beijing accent vs Taiwanese accent when I'm looking for study materials on youtube/online. Is there any suggestion as to how I can improve my understanding? Or should I just stick to one accent?
You are not alone - I've met and taught some students who sued to struggle with different accents. I think it really depends on which group of people you usually interact with, and people always tend to change their accents a bit to facilitate communication. But you've just started learning Chinese, I'll suggest you stick to one accent to build a solid foundation of the Chinese sound system. Btw which program did you study in Taipei? ICLP?
My opinion is that there’s one essential thing: learn to hear all of the differences between mainland Mandarin and Taiwan Mandarin. Every aspect of the language differs between the two, but especially the tones, consonants, and vocabulary. You want to learn to understand both variants of Mandarin, but you can choose which you want to speak. Since you’ll be able to clearly distinguish between them, you won’t mix up features of the two and get confused. I’ve met a few people here in America who have learned a little from mainlanders and a little from Taiwan people, they haven’t mentally distinguished between the two, and they get really confused. Don’t do that. While you’re still learning to hear the difference between the two types of Mandarin, always find out whether the person you’re listening to is from the PRC or Taiwan. I lived in the PRC and Taiwan. I speak mainland Putonghua with a little Dongbeihua. In Taiwan, I learned to understand how they speak.
Rita, standard mandarin has 4 tones + neutral tone + ü am I right? and double words like Ge Ge or Jie Jie (there is a special rule for how 2nd repeated word should sound)
Falling rising tone is usually spoken in 1/2s 1) 2 falling risings--1st substitutes mid to high rising tone, while 2nd only uses 1st 1st 1/2 = mid low to very low falling ( = 1 of Cantonese tones) 2) The above 1st 1/2 low falling changed tone substitutes for whole falling rising tone, whenever there is only 1. People rarely, if ever, say whole falling rising tone. Why keep it ??
There is an issue with the table 7:15 no ? (some accent are named flat but they are rising, ...) I am not sure I understand why Taiwanese at 1:13 is under beijing mandarin and standard mandarin, I thought that the main feature of taiwanese mandarin is that it stayed similar to more traditional mandarin (writing and else) ? Shouldn't be the opposite ?
Taiwanese Mandarin compared to Beijing Mandarin is like American English Vs British English. When we say "traditional Chinese", there's actually no difference in pronunciation or meaning at all, just that the words are literally harder to write (their characters preserve the original ancient meaning). Simplified Chinese is the equivalent of a spelling reform, not so much any change in phonology, vocab, or grammar. The Taiwanese language, however, is a dialect of Min and is a completely different story.
I think Taiwanese mandarin in this case refers to non-standard spoken mandarin of Taiwan (descendant of standard mandarin brought to the island). It is mainly influenced by Hokkien. Standard mandarin of both Mainland and Taiwan are virtually the same so there is not really a need for specification in that level.
@@aaarodrigo Not true. Standard Taiwanese Mandarin, while mostly the same, has some distinct differences that set it out from Standard Mainland Mandarin.
“Traditional” refers only to the traditional characters, which are used for writing in Taiwan. It has nothing to do with the language itself. Taiwanese Mandarin is not in any way more “traditional” than mainland Mandarin. Sometimes, you see “Traditional Chinese” and “Simplified Chinese”: these should say “Traditional Chinese Characters” and “Simplified Chinese Characters”. Mandarin, wherever it’s spoken, has evolved over time. Across Southern China and Taiwan, it has taken influence from Southern Chinese languages. In the Northern/Northeastern part of China, local people still speak a very pure Mandarin. However, it’s not the same as the Mandarin a hundred years ago. Languages always change.
That's a really hard question to answer. I sort of answered in this video, tho: ua-cam.com/video/GHgNqXUerTE/v-deo.html At the end of the day, it really depends on the learner.
Hi Rita. You help us so much with Chinese, now it’s my turn to help you with English. You’re not saying the word “dialect” correctly. It sounds more like “dialog”. Your tongue needs to be more forward when you pronounce the “e” sound. It should sound the same as the “e” in “get”, “met”, “let”. Yours sounds like the “oo” in “door”, or “floor”. That back tongue position is also making the “c” sound more like a “g”, not a “k”. This is also one of the few times where you can’t swallow the final “t”. You have to pronounce it, dia leh k-t.
Thank you so much for pointing it out! Yeah there is definitely a huge room to improve my English haha, especially when I'm in front of the camera and I wanna enunciate words using a more excited intonation - oftentimes there are quite a few sounds that would be off or sound different from what I usually say in a more natural speech😂 which means that those are the sounds/words that I should practice more with to reform my mouth muscle memory for them!
I remember Langfocus doing a very good breakdown of this on his video on the Sinitic (Chinese) language family: ua-cam.com/video/QY0AMmLuiqk/v-deo.html
Mandarin is a language. Cantonese, hokkien, teochew, etc are chinese dialects. Hokkien & teochew are a little similar but a hokkien speaker will have no idea what a cantonese speaker is saying & a hakka speaker sure as heck will not know what a hainanese speaker is saying. Assuming of course one doesn’t already speak that dialect. As for tones & pronunciation, the pinyin system is even more complex as countries like china use hanyu pinyin but taiwan uses a different pinyin. In case anyone ever wonder why Cai Yiling becomes Tsai Ee Ling in Taiwan.
Languages and dialects are the same thing, French and Spanish are different languages, but there is more differences between them than btwn mandarin and Cantonese for example.
@@thelias91 Isn't this just proof that the current language/dialect classifications are unhelpful and should be overhauled? Tons of mutually intelligible dialects like Danish and Norwegian get called different "languages" because they have different countries, while tons of mutually unintelligible languages like Mandarin and Cantonese get called "dialects" because they're in the same country--linguistically makes no sense.
There are so many accents and dialects out there! But if you master the sounds of Standard Mandarin, you'll maximize your chance of communicating with people effectively! Join my Chinese pronunciation training program “FINDING YOUR MANDARIN VOICE” today to speak and understand natural Chinese this summer! 👇LIFETIME access is still open👇
www.ritachinese.com
As a French who learnt mandarin, I feel differences between Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien or Shanghainese are quite similar to those between Italian, French, Spanish and Portuguese. All those languages derivate from Latin and we can understand a few words here and there but general mutual comprehension is not really possible.
Very underrated point. It seems like an anachronism that one group are considered different dialects and the other different languages.
你的英文写的非常好，我只会说英语还有一点点中文。只有一个地方你写错了: if your nationality ends in a ch/sh/ic or ese in English, it is considered an adjective but not a noun in the singular, so you need to complete it with "person/guy/man/woman etc" (an English guy, a French person etc) ;) It's weird because you can say The French, The Chinese in the plural, but when you refer to any singular person of these nationalities you have add a noun on the end e.g a French person/ a Chinese person. （不好意思我只是想让你了解一下. 你英文写的这么好我觉得我应该告诉你这个小错误。）
Chinese dialects are really languages in their own right. They were classified as dialect for political reasons. The Chinese dialects are more different from each other than some of the Romance languages are between themselves.
Portuguese and Spanish speakers are mutual intelligible.
@@thoughtfulsapien1235 It's because the Roman Empire split up & all these "dialects" are now spoken in different countries. China hasn't split up, & is one political entity, hence, all these different languages are considered "dialects" by the ignorant & the insecure. That's all.
Yue, Min, Wu, etc. are definitely all separate languages without a doubt. The idea of Chinese just being a wide range of dialects is moreso unifying agenda - "a language is just a dialect with an army and a navy" as they say.
Imo an accurate counterpart of Old Chinese + The Sinitic languages is Latin + The Romance languages. Even some of the Romance languages are more mutually intelligible than the Sinitic languages are. That's how diverse 'Chinese' really is.
I think the disparity is more obvious when the languages have a combination of distinct differences (e.g. Cantonese with it's different phonology, different grammar structure (sometimes), and use of completely different vocab).
It's hard to classify Yue, Min, Wu, etc. as dialects instead of languages when even the dialects of those respective languages are almost mutually unintelligible with each other. There's even a possibility that Yue, Min, Wu, etc. can be classified as entire language groups themselves. I'm a Cantonese speaker myself and I can barely understand Hoisan (another Yue dialect), and my dad's a Hokkien speaker that doesn't understand a word of Fuzhounese (another dialect of Min)
europe was the same. both modern german and modern italian are basically artificial languages that replaced "dialects" by a central government. in Germany in the old days (before WWI, WWII eras) dialects were incomprehensible. Still true in Bavaria, but in the North it is mostly gone Plattdeutsch being mostly forgotten. When Italy was unified, only like 5% or something actually spoke what we call "Italian"
@@Sybok51288 Happens everywhere though. Hindi is considered the main language of India. Before that they were many Indian culture's and kingdoms. Bahasa Indonesia is a national language of united Indonesian Islands. Etc.
(Socio) linguistic registers, or
formality/informality levels cause
more or less mutual comprehension/intelligibility
Dialect words, whether unique,
borrowed from other dialects,
SW China minorities, or foreigners,
or are obsolete old Northern/national words, are in several
categories of most often daily use
words, like demonstrative adjectives, some pronouns, question words, some common nouns, and in social life, some common actions, some common
physical objects.
At semi formal, and even more,
at highly formal levels, people
speak most words from same characters with some pronunciation
and many tone differences
Main problems are in commonly used, more informal words, as those are the dialect origin and
dialect use, retained or borrowed,
words.
There is.some help, suchasMathews Chinese Dictionary
Thisdictionary shows which characters in Mandarin used to
have --k, --p, --t, or glottal stop
at ends of syllables, but does not
specify WHICH of the 4!! It does
not show which Mandarin pronun
ciation. words ended in --m, now
abandoned and replaced by
--n. Hopefully, that dictionary s
publisher.can correct the problems,
or another can. William Shakespeare ? said, "There is a
method to this madness."
Dialect description books In
Chinese
Dialect description books, in
Chinese from Mainland China,
such as Hanyu Fangyan Gaiyao
(Han Language Dialect Summary ?), also, Fangyan Magazine and Zhongguo Yuwen,
(Chinese Language magazine,
at times have articles on selected
dialect topics.
Some resources exist, but, so far,
need more development for Chinese, whichever varieties.
learners. Hopefully, Chinese dialect learners can
join with Chinese Dialect Association and its Fangyan, mafazine, also
ZY magazine (all in Beijing with
websites.)
Xiexie laoshi !!!
I want to learn Cantonese and Shanghainese after I reach my desired level of fluency in Mandarin. Chinese is such a cool language family! I struggle with hearing different accents, but it helps to know how certain regions pronounce words.
Thank for your your invitation Fàn Lǎo Shī! Hope this video would get more Chinese learners to have a basic idea about Chinese language!
Yayy huge shoutout to XIE Laoshi!! We'll talk about Cantonese more in future videos!
This is one of the most complete yet simple to understand videos that I ever watched of the topic.
Thank you Ritaaa 🤯
Yayy glad you find it helpful! You’re very welcome😄🙌
I also love how much you have integrated linguistics into this! It’s so cool to see how languages are spoken, heard, perceived, etc… and the different groups… difference between dialect vs accent. It’s quite informative!
I'm so happy that you see this! It's really hard to make the balance between "educational/informative" and "entertaining"😆 But I'm trying my best!
I was expecting a simple explainer, but this is a comprehensive, whirlwind tour of the Chinese language landscape.
I got so excited for a new video every time! As for the video, this really tackles the stereotypes us as Westerners have. If people are confused, watch this video!!!
1:12 though this dendrogram is widely used, I don't think it actually reflects the differences and similarities between dialect groups, as "northern southern dialects" (dialects that are close to the Yangtze River, like Wu, Xiang, and Gan) have heavy contact with Mandarin actually. These dialects do not even have a distinct boundary with Mandarin, forming a great dialect continuum with Mandarin.
In this dendrogram, the "contact region" of Wuu and Gan is marked as Hui, while the contact regions between Mandarin and the "northern southern dialects" are not marked at all.
Actually, from a northerner's opinion, the "northern southern dialects", though they are drawn far from Mandarin in the dendrogram, are easier to learn and get used to in general.
Depends on where you live, you might know Cantonese, mandarins and the dialect. Fun fact the dialect of one village is different from village next door. Lol.
Glad that Rita laoshi also covers our precious language Cantonese!!! :D
I know what you mean. When I moved from England to Scotland it seemed like another language. Thick accent and some dialect words can be tough to understand
Hahah I can imagine! Scottish English accent is pretty famous😆
P
Once Again,Rita The Master.
Does Bring Brilliant Info.
Rita You Are Awesome.
Richard.
Hey Richard, thank you so much for your kind words and support!
Very good video it makes sense why some Chinese dramas and shows have voice over actor/ actresses because some of may be from another are of china with a different dialect so it make since to have a dub so all the accents are consistent. 🤔🤔
I think people get so confused because China conflates “dialect” and “language” for whatever political gain they want (eg unification etc but idk enough about that). This is also a problem in Japan and Korea with the Ryukyuan languages and the Jeju language being regarded as “dialects” of Japanese and Korean which has meant that there’s no support for them and they’re dying out. The Chinese “dialects” are definitely different languages since as a Taiwanese (Hokkien) learner I can’t understand Mandarin even tho I can read it (I could read a lot of it anyway because I speak Japanese but anyway). Secondly, because there is a written standard, because of different languages, people just read it with the phonology and pronunciation of their language when it’s not important which I think adds to it as well
I think so, too. Another widespread misconception is that Chinese writing is all just one neutral, standard form of the language which represents all dialects. Not true, at all. Almost all Chinese writing outside of Hong Kong is just exactly written Mandarin, not a neutral, general “Chinese”, which is not something that exists.
I think it makes sense to call them dialects though.
@@Weeping-Angel they have very different phonology, grammar and vocabulary, so why does it make sense?
@@justakathings not really though. I learned most of my mandarin just from watching TV. Nobody has ever spoke out to me but because I know Cantonese, I just have to carry over the pronunciation most of the time. It really isn’t that different.
I still don't really understand what 入声 is, but I'm going to look into it a bit more. Maybe a future video idea?
I don't speak any of the dialects with 入声, so my knowledge and understanding of the sound system are limited, but I'd love to learn more. There are some research and books about it, like 赵元任's 《现代无语的研究》. But I think across all the 入声 dialects, it basically is a glottal stop with different lip shapes and tongue positions. Hope it makes sense!
It's like pronouncing the word “bit” without the sound of the last letter t.
@@fengshi4284 Thanks!
They seem to be words that end in
consonants --k, --p, --t, glottal stop. This shortens pronunciation
and mainly allows short level tones, though all ? dialects have words that end in vowels or --n
and at times also have level tones
that can be said longer.
Why bother to make distinction ?!
Why are they called entering
tones ? What is entering what ?!
At common use, informal spoken
level of register, Chinese dialects
are like related languages.
But, at semi formal and highly
formal levels, people use minimum
of dialect words and mostly dialect
pronunciation, with slight differences, and usually quite different tones, of same
Northern national words.
So, at semi and highly formal
level registers, they are like dialects, but at informal spoken level
register, they are like related
languages.
This video is great, many resources for learning "Chinese" do not explain the variety of Chinese language. Learning Chinese by limiting yourself only to Mandarin is reductive, the Chinese language group is highly diverse. I often see people learning Mandarin and not even knowing what other Chinese languages exist. 👍
Cantonese Chinese is so much fun to hear😂😂😂
Haha glad you enjoyed it!
This is why learning to hear Mandarin is so difficult! I feel less incompetent now that you've explained this. lol thank you
Haha the Chinese sound system(s) is complex! But it's def trainable!
I got to know 普通话 means mandarin 华語some years back😂😂interesting 🥰
非常好的视频！我是土生土长的爱尔兰人，在学习普通话。It was nice to see 'teanga' (Irish word for language) included at 1:25 👍
Here are some curiosities. N I hao. Dia, dhuitch. Conas, a tha, thu?
1) In Scottish, 1 vowel is some-
times pronounced like -- e in
Mandarin de, =to get, or she = snake
2) In Cantonese Sei Yap = Si Y I
(4 Districts, Modern 4 Counties
= Si (+ge) Xian) sub dialect of
actually 6 counties (!?) people
substitute for s-- , the ll- as in Welsh, Zulu, etc.
Small world, small human mouth ?
3) In Spanish Civil War, Irish
(Conolly Column) and Chinese
(in which unit?) both.fought
together in International Brigades
(there are websites for both)
Slan! Zai, Jian!
Zhu ni, hao yunqi!! Jia, you!!!
Wu, Min, and Cantonese are not dialects but different languages within the Chinese language.
Interesting that you used Age of Empires. Is the ancient Chinese in it pretty well researched? Hows the Chinese in a game like Total War: Three Kingdoms? From a quick listen it sounds fairly modern? The Dynasty Warriors series sounds even less historical.
awesome video! - eilis challoner
fr
i agree
911: "911. What is the nature of your emergency?"
Caller: "My husband was trying to learn Chinese, and he is now unconscious."
For the dummies:
Chinese: Writing style, people, culture.
Mandrain, cantonese, hakka, hokkien, teh cheow, fujuian: Specific dialects.
They can all read chinese characters.
Almost true. The characters used in some dialects, especially verbal expressions, will be unrecognized by speakers of other dialects. They might be able to guess at the pronunciation, but probably won't understand the meaning, because they are characters that mostly give phonetic hints, not semantic hints.
Rita i love your accent and I love your channel will you please do crouching tiger hidden dragon in mandarin my favorite movie plz thats my request Tommy click
Thank you for your suggestion! Are you interested in the accents or the language style that the roles apoke?
@@RitaChinese yes i love the mandarin style of kung fu movie zhang ziyi is my favorite Chinese sweetheart i love her
I love that movie too! I wanted to watch it again, but it’s not on Netflix 😭
这个视频蛮有意思！
Are there any example videos of the ancient standard Chinese spoken in different Chinese dynasties?
I think there are some videos trying to present how the ancient Chinese may have sounded based on some ancient books that recorded the sounds by a written system. But I can’t tell if it really reflects the true past😊
I did a study program in Taipei a few years ago and really loved it (first time learning the language) but I find myself struggling with standard/Beijing accent vs Taiwanese accent when I'm looking for study materials on youtube/online. Is there any suggestion as to how I can improve my understanding? Or should I just stick to one accent?
You are not alone - I've met and taught some students who sued to struggle with different accents. I think it really depends on which group of people you usually interact with, and people always tend to change their accents a bit to facilitate communication. But you've just started learning Chinese, I'll suggest you stick to one accent to build a solid foundation of the Chinese sound system. Btw which program did you study in Taipei? ICLP?
@@RitaChinese I was part of the MTC program at NTNU back in 2019. I'll take your advice and stick to one, thanks :)
My opinion is that there’s one essential thing: learn to hear all of the differences between mainland Mandarin and Taiwan Mandarin. Every aspect of the language differs between the two, but especially the tones, consonants, and vocabulary. You want to learn to understand both variants of Mandarin, but you can choose which you want to speak. Since you’ll be able to clearly distinguish between them, you won’t mix up features of the two and get confused. I’ve met a few people here in America who have learned a little from mainlanders and a little from Taiwan people, they haven’t mentally distinguished between the two, and they get really confused. Don’t do that. While you’re still learning to hear the difference between the two types of Mandarin, always find out whether the person you’re listening to is from the PRC or Taiwan.
I lived in the PRC and Taiwan. I speak mainland Putonghua with a little Dongbeihua. In Taiwan, I learned to understand how they speak.
so cantonese is the Chinese the ancients used ?
Rita, standard mandarin has 4 tones + neutral tone + ü am I right?
and double words like Ge Ge or Jie Jie (there is a special rule for how 2nd repeated word should sound)
Heya "ü" is just a vowel, not really a tone. And "the neutral tone" is actually a few different tones determined by the previous syllable's tone😊
@@RitaChinese thanks! Is there a video on this?
@@DarkPa1adin you can check out the tone guide video😊
@@RitaChinese 谢谢您老师！
Falling rising tone is usually spoken in 1/2s
1) 2 falling risings--1st substitutes mid to high rising
tone, while 2nd only uses 1st
1st 1/2 = mid low to very low
falling ( = 1 of Cantonese tones)
2) The above 1st 1/2 low falling
changed tone
substitutes for whole falling rising
tone, whenever there is only 1.
People rarely, if ever, say whole
falling rising tone. Why keep it ??
There is an issue with the table 7:15 no ? (some accent are named flat but they are rising, ...)
I am not sure I understand why Taiwanese at 1:13 is under beijing mandarin and standard mandarin, I thought that the main feature of taiwanese mandarin is that it stayed similar to more traditional mandarin (writing and else) ?
Shouldn't be the opposite ?
Taiwanese Mandarin compared to Beijing Mandarin is like American English Vs British English. When we say "traditional Chinese", there's actually no difference in pronunciation or meaning at all, just that the words are literally harder to write (their characters preserve the original ancient meaning). Simplified Chinese is the equivalent of a spelling reform, not so much any change in phonology, vocab, or grammar. The Taiwanese language, however, is a dialect of Min and is a completely different story.
I think Taiwanese mandarin in this case refers to non-standard spoken mandarin of Taiwan (descendant of standard mandarin brought to the island). It is mainly influenced by Hokkien. Standard mandarin of both Mainland and Taiwan are virtually the same so there is not really a need for specification in that level.
@@aaarodrigo Not true. Standard Taiwanese Mandarin, while mostly the same, has some distinct differences that set it out from Standard Mainland Mandarin.
“Traditional” refers only to the traditional characters, which are used for writing in Taiwan. It has nothing to do with the language itself. Taiwanese Mandarin is not in any way more “traditional” than mainland Mandarin. Sometimes, you see “Traditional Chinese” and “Simplified Chinese”: these should say “Traditional Chinese Characters” and “Simplified Chinese Characters”.
Mandarin, wherever it’s spoken, has evolved over time. Across Southern China and Taiwan, it has taken influence from Southern Chinese languages. In the Northern/Northeastern part of China, local people still speak a very pure Mandarin. However, it’s not the same as the Mandarin a hundred years ago. Languages always change.
I am overwhelmed 😭
It takes time to process all information! Take your time and let me know if you have any questions about it!
Great. =====> How long does it take to learn Mandarin?
That's a really hard question to answer. I sort of answered in this video, tho: ua-cam.com/video/GHgNqXUerTE/v-deo.html At the end of the day, it really depends on the learner.
@@RitaChinese Thanks.
Hi Rita. You help us so much with Chinese, now it’s my turn to help you with English. You’re not saying the word “dialect” correctly. It sounds more like “dialog”. Your tongue needs to be more forward when you pronounce the “e” sound. It should sound the same as the “e” in “get”, “met”, “let”. Yours sounds like the “oo” in “door”, or “floor”. That back tongue position is also making the “c” sound more like a “g”, not a “k”. This is also one of the few times where you can’t swallow the final “t”. You have to pronounce it, dia leh k-t.
Thank you so much for pointing it out! Yeah there is definitely a huge room to improve my English haha, especially when I'm in front of the camera and I wanna enunciate words using a more excited intonation - oftentimes there are quite a few sounds that would be off or sound different from what I usually say in a more natural speech😂 which means that those are the sounds/words that I should practice more with to reform my mouth muscle memory for them!
我现在才清楚了, 谢谢老师
不客气😄🙌
The best chinese dialect is english. It's the newest chinese dialect. There is enough chinese english speakers. It's a dialect.
Cantonese is older than Mandarin but why Cantonese is a dialect? India has better respect to all Indian languages.
I remember Langfocus doing a very good breakdown of this on his video on the Sinitic (Chinese) language family: ua-cam.com/video/QY0AMmLuiqk/v-deo.html
Hebrew actually came before Chinese.
Mandarin is a language. Cantonese, hokkien, teochew, etc are chinese dialects. Hokkien & teochew are a little similar but a hokkien speaker will have no idea what a cantonese speaker is saying & a hakka speaker sure as heck will not know what a hainanese speaker is saying. Assuming of course one doesn’t already speak that dialect.
As for tones & pronunciation, the pinyin system is even more complex as countries like china use hanyu pinyin but taiwan uses a different pinyin. In case anyone ever wonder why Cai Yiling becomes Tsai Ee Ling in Taiwan.
Languages and dialects are the same thing, French and Spanish are different languages, but there is more differences between them than btwn mandarin and Cantonese for example.
@@thelias91 Isn't this just proof that the current language/dialect classifications are unhelpful and should be overhauled? Tons of mutually intelligible dialects like Danish and Norwegian get called different "languages" because they have different countries, while tons of mutually unintelligible languages like Mandarin and Cantonese get called "dialects" because they're in the same country--linguistically makes no sense.
我只会一种话…. 脏话。
哈哈说得地道吗？流利吗？
马斯瑞该给你点流量，您这不怎么涨粉，不行说说西班牙语，我们老家有个智利的老外也在油管上播西语介绍中国，您试试！
台灣不是中國的一部分，請不要在地圖中偷渡！兩者的護照根本不一樣！