KEY PRONOUNCIATION DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SICHUANHUA AND PUTONGHUA

Sichuanhua sounds very different from putonghua, with numerous consonants, vowels, and diphthongs changed, as well as a few irregularities in pronunciation and just general strangeness—even asking “what” and “how” are different.

However, you will find that grammar, vocabulary, and syntax are largely consistent with putonghua. Despite the rather numerous changes in pronunciation, if you are exposed to these differences on a daily basis you will very quickly adapt to them.

Anyway, let’s begin with consonant, vowel, and diphthong changes. There are a whopping twelve changes in total.

NOTE: Changes in vowel pronunciation occur only in the case of terminal vowels. For instance, in the word ren, the ‘e’ is not pronounced ‘oe.’ Only a word such as he, with the ‘e’ at the end, should be pronounced ‘hoe.’

1. ZH–>Z
2. CH–>C
3. SH–>S
4. W–>VW
5. AN–>AH
6. –UAN–>–UAH
7. –IAN–>–IAH
8. –O–>–OE
9. –E–>–OE
10. –UO–>–OE
11. –UE–>–UOE
12. R–>RZ

Here are samples of each sound, with an accompanying audio file.

1. 住zǔ
2. 车cé
3. 十si*
4. 五vwù
5. 饭fǎh
6. 川 cuáh
7. 电diǎh
8. 破poě
9. 河hoe*
10. 火hoè
11. 学xuoe*
12. 人rzen*

AUDIOhttp://www.mediafire.com/?ambgugid3gc

THE “OE” SOUND

OE is pinyin invented by me, because no adequate pinyin exists in putonghua. It is neither the same as the “ou” sound, nor is it the same as the “o” sound. I originally wanted to represent it with an umlaut (ö) because showing it as a diphthong is misleading, however there is no way I could put pinyin tone marks over an umlauted “o”.

I do want to emphasize, however, that there is no “E” sound—it is just a straight “o” sounding like the English “hoe,” “low,” “bow,” or “po’ ” (as in “we po’ folks!”)

I don’t know if Chinese language books have their own representation of this sound. If they do, please let me know, and I will change it here accordingly.

AUDIO

THE “VW” SOUND

Sichuanhua’s “w” is quite different from the putonghua “w,” and contains much more of a “v” sound at the beginning, hence it’s representation here as “vw.”

AUDIO

THE “AH” SOUND

“AH” is distinct from the Mandarin “a”; here it sounds like the “a” in “bad,” “mad,” or “sad.”

AUDIO

THE “NG” SOUND

Special sound unique to sichuanhua. It will be explained more in part 3.

THE SPECIAL, MAGICAL SICHUAN TONE
No doubt if you’ve already studied the tones in mandarin the idea of needing to pick up a new one is rather discouraging, and rightly so. Tones are a pain in the ass, and this one is not distinguished for its ease in replicating.
What does the special Sichuan tone sound like? […]

REPRESENTATION OF TONES IN THIS GUIDE
Because sichuanhua has a tone that does not exist in Mandarin, I cannot adequately represent the sounds of the language using traditional pinyin tone marks. Therefore, I have chosen to use the asterisk * mark after each syllable that uses the special Sichuan tone.
If you can think of a better […]

WHY LEARN SICHUANHUA?
This is a very good question because, frankly, unless you have a passionate interest in learning Chinese, trying to learn sichuanhua would be a colossal waste of time. But, honestly, to study sichuanese—and eventually, of course, to understand it or even to speak it—is to open up a possibility of experiencing an entirely […]

Sichuanhua, also known as Sichuanese, comprises the major Mandarin dialect group of Southwestern China, spreading from Sichuan east to Chongqing, south-east to Guizhou, and south to Yunnan.
Altogether, there are nearly 120 million people who speak sichuanhua or one of its variations as their primary language.  There are so many, in fact, that if sichuanhua were […]

Sichuanhua

Sichuanhua Primer: Introduction

Sichunahua Primer: Part 1–Tones

Sichunahua Primer: Part 2–Pronunciation