Different "W" pronounciations

[Gotti]

hello! i have a pronunciation-question regarding the ways of pronouncing the vowel W in mandarin. At university i'm being taught to pronounce it like a U (For instance "Uaibian" ,outside) (My professors are both from beijing)

But before starting attending lessons at university,i traveled in china and listened a lot of podcast on the intenet as well: And i heard some people saying the W in a more "rude" way,more like the english V ("Vaibian")

Maybe the difference is linked to dialects or different way of speaking mandarin but i'm not sure and i would like to know the details!

Thanks again

[889]

From 现代汉语 [1962] 46:

零声母字的开头虽然说是元音，但在实际发音上往往带有一些主要是同部位的摩擦成分。。。。“乌” 、“外”的开头有一点与 u 同部位的摩擦成分，因此“乌” 、“外”可标作 ［wu］、［wai］。 有些人发“乌” 、“外”时，嘴唇比较松弛，上齿微接下唇，出现近乎唇齿摩擦那样的音，因此 “乌” 、“外”也可以标作［vu］、［vai］。

[Mugi]

As a footnote to the above post, the /u/ pronunciation is the standard pronunciation, but many northerners, and especially those from Beijing, will use the weak "v" /ʋ/ before vowels other than pinyin "o". I think I've read somewhere that it's particularly prominent among women of a certain age group (30-50?). According to a Taiwanese frind of mine, children in Taiwan used to be taught that the weak "v" pronunciation was the correct pronunciation, although in reality it was only newscasters and some teachers who would actually use it.

[Gotti]

eheh..today i asked my beijing ren professor about the "W" situation and he appeared to be quite skeptical. He stated that in his judgement no one ever spoke with the hard "W" in china,and he kept on laughing:roll:

Of course he've been living here in italy for something like 20 years (My god you should hear how funny is his italian!) and he's a beijing-fanatic but it's strange that he never heard about the "W" pronounced as "V"!

[Ari 桑]

I hear this all the time too. Not all pinyin W's are pronounced V-like by those who use the V sound. I hear it the strongest in 因为的为. But in 喂 it always seems to be pronounced with a relatively hard W. My boyfriend had that V sound, and when asked he said that was the correct way to say it, but I hear a whole range.

[Mugi]

but it's strange that he never heard about the "W" pronounced as "V"!

That is very strange - especially condering that it's a very Beijing thing. However, the "v" sounds isn't like the hard v in English - it's much softer, half way in between an English "w" and "v".