"duibuqi" pronunciation

[only1blitz]

Hi guys

I've been listening to how "duibuqi" is spoken on tapes and have realised it's different to how I've been saying it. I thought the "dui" in "duibuqi" is pronounced like "gui" but with a d sound at the beginning.

However, after listening to "duibuqi" a few times I find it doesn't sound like this at all. It's shorter and almost sounds like in english "dub".

Is there a reason for this or is my hearing just off?

[tony1343]

I'll let others who aren't beginners like myself answer your question.

However, I swear that when I first started learning Chinese (and still sometimes), the same recording would sound different to me when playing it multiple times. I'd swear it sounded just like x (after multiple times listening to it). Then a native would correct me and tell me I should be saying y. I'd go back and listen to the recording again, and what do you know, this time it did sound like y. I found this very disturbing. Luckily, I'm not insane or I'd think it was a conspiracy (Chinese is out to get me).

Don't listen to me, but I do pronounce it like dui (gui with a d or dway). At first, in listening to Pimsleur's, I'd always hear and pronounce it as doi. Something is probably wrong with my hearing (though perhaps there is a small chance that some of this can be chalked up to different dialects / accents).

[Hero Doug]

I've heard people say dubuqi on television and asked my wife about it. She said it's poor pronunciation.

I've always heard it pronounced duibuqi; or to put it like Tiny wrote, dway

[liuzhou]

In every language, people don't pronounce words as the dictionaries say. Just think accents.

The vast majority of Chinese people, in my experience, pronounce it DUbuqi.

Who is to say they are wrong?

[only1blitz]

Thanks for the help guys =)

[imron]

I'm going to cast my vote for duibuqi. I never hear dubuqi.

[muyongshi]

I'm with imron on this one. Unless I'm reading how du would be pronounced wrong (I'm thinking just like other chinese words 读) then I have never heard dubuqi. And I live in Sichuan where lots of weird things are said

[Hofmann]

度不起? Never heard it.

[renzhe]

Bah, to me it simply seems that it is such a common phrase that is usually spoken so quickly that the "dui" isn't completely finished, so it sounds incomplete.

Anyone speaking slowly would pronounce it clearly.

Things spoken quickly in colloquial speech aren't always clear. Personally, I don't think there's much to discuss here?

[muyongshi]

It doesn't matter how fast I say it I can't get it to ever sound like du. So I think it may be important because the starting position of the lips is different. The tongue is the same but in du the lips really don't move much and aren't puckered up to much {gee can you tell I'm not a linguist}. In dui you are starting with a way which really forces your mouth into a more puckered shape.

*based on my own personal feeling and not necessarily the correct way of expressing it. take with large and many grains of salt. I am not to be trusted

[renzhe]

I've never heard "du", but I can see how it can sound like "dü" if spoken very quickly, with a long and stressed "qi".