China, Taiwan, and Singapore Mandarin

[goldie]

標準國語 is used in both Taiwan and China and although i'm not familiar with Singapore, I'm sure it's used there too. As some people have already said, it's usually in news reports that you hear the most '標準' Mandarin. There are differences however, both in terms of vocabulary and in accent.

there are quite a few words that i can think of which are different in Taiwan and China for instance:

腳踏車 vs 自行車

計程車　vs　出租車

馬鈴薯　vs 土豆　

紅蘿蔔　vs 葫蘿蔔　

i'm sure there are others, just can't think of them now.

of course, even spoken Mandarin is different depending on if it's from the North or South of China. in Taiwan there isn't the 'r' ending to words like there is in China.

[tuxoar]

As a "generation 1.5" immigrant to the U.S. from Taiwan (I was born there but left at age one), I've found the differences in accent between Taiwanese and Mainlander Mandarin to be very different. From my own biased view, Taiwanese Mandarin sounds, well, a bit like "Californian English." More loose, certain sounds are less stressed "c- instead of ch-", more "informal." Even accentless, but of course that's just from my perception. (Though it should be noted that Californian English, like Midwest English, both seem really accentless)

Is my analogy flawed? In what way is Taiwanese Mandarin related to Mainlander Mandarin, to use the same English analogy?

I am just your average foreigner living in Taiwan right now, but I would agree with Celestialnaut here. The differences are enough to get me looked at weird and be told I have too "standard" chinese, but not enough to cause confusions. One of my teachers was born in 山東 and moved to Taiwan as a child. She gets a kick out of what she calls '我山東腔'

TV shows and even news in Taiwan do have slightly different accents than northerns in the mainland in my opinion. The usual zh ch sh, etc. As for Singapore, never been so can't say.

[supermann]

什么来的 is not only used in mandarin and cantonese. In Singapore, teochew and hokkien also has it and is pronounced "si mi lai eh".

As for the differences between China and Singapore mandarin I ｔｈｉｎｋ many of the mandarin phrases and sentences are influenced by dialects especially Hokkien and Teochew since these are two 2 largest dialect groups in Singapore.

E.g. 正确话语：你要喝什么饮料？

　　　新加坡试：你要喝什么水？(regardless of whether u want coke or tea)

This is because in hokkien, it will go like this, "li ai lim si mi zui"

Taxi in China:出租车

新加坡：德士（because in teochew that sounds like teck si which is actually taxi)

香港： 的士(for the same reason except in cantonese)

Also, the many “ah", "la", "meh" sounds you would hear in Singapore style mandarin is also due to dialects.

And there are of course other differences: 中国：摩托车/公车 新加坡：电单车/巴士

i am not so sure of taiwan mandarin i think the word printer is different from china. 中国：打印机 台湾：印表机

[sjcma]

標準國語 is used in both Taiwan and China and although i'm not familiar with Singapore, I'm sure it's used there too. As some people have already said, it's usually in news reports that you hear the most '標準' Mandarin. There are differences however, both in terms of vocabulary and in accent.

Actually, the two standards (guoyu in Taiwan; putonghua in Mainland) do have differences in pronunciation. Most of these are just differences in tones (i.e. 寂 -- ji2 in guoyu, ji4 in putonghua) but some are drastically different, such as 垃圾 (le4se4 in guoyu, la1ji1 in putonghua).

there are quite a few words that i can think of which are different in Taiwan and China for instance:

...

紅蘿蔔　vs 葫蘿蔔

胡蘿蔔 is the common term in Taiwan. 紅蘿蔔 is the common term in Hong Kong.