讀音 vs. 語音

[in_lab]

This question was asked by someone else a couple of months ago, but not answered.

Also, why is there sometimes a different "讀音" in dictionaries? Why would you generally read a word one way but say the same thing another way?

I have the same question. Some dictionaries list a 讀音 and a 語音 for a word, where the 讀音 is supposedly how the word or character is read, and the 語音 is how the word is spoken in common speech. But this makes no sense to me. It makes sense that there could be different pronunciations based on formality or the age or regional orgin of a text, but it doesn't make sense that sense that pronunciation should be influenced by whether your speech is formed spontaneously or whether it comes from a written page.

Some examples. 骰子tou2zi vs. shai3zi; 百姓 bo2xing4 vs bai3xing4; 導演 dao4yan3 vs. dao3yan3. I'm not 100% sure I remembered these correctly, and different dictionaries will choose difference pronunciations for these words instead of giving both. I mainly wanted to discuss the concept of separate 語音 and 讀音.

Edit: Corrected 讀音 of 百.

Edited October 28, 2009 at 09:40 AM by in_lab

[Hofmann]

You are talking about 文白異讀.

[in_lab]

It is a little confusing because the article is talking about two phenomena at the same time. First, there's the one I gave in the examples, then there is another one. The first two sentences below describe one kind, the second half describes the second kind.

一種是讀書識字所使用的語音，稱為文讀，又叫讀書音、文言音、字音；另一種是平時說話時所使用的語音，稱為白讀，又叫做說話音、白話音或話音。在一些方言中，同一個字在不同的詞中、不同的用途時有著不同的讀法，如客家話裏，無論在口語還是書面語中，「生」字單用表示「生娩」或表示「活著」的時候讀作 [sen1]，而在固定的詞中卻讀作 [sang1]，這種現象也被稱為文白異讀，前者是白讀，後者是文讀。

The article says

一般來說，年輕人、教育水平高的人、會說普通話的人更多使用文讀。在不同的環境中，文白異讀也不一樣。正式場合多用文讀，日常生活則多用白讀。但是，兩者實是擔負該語言當中不同的功能，習慣用白讀音讀出的固有語詞並不適合改用文讀音代換；習慣用文讀音讀出的借詞也無法改用白讀音。因此不應當將文讀音與白讀音賦予不同的文化評價，而應當同等地視為該語言不可或缺的兩套漢字讀音；並且也不宜為了「標準化」或「優雅化」某種語言起見而強迫將固有語詞全部改用文讀音發出。

The middle part is talking about the second kind of 文白異讀. But if we assume that the other parts are talking about both situations, then it is saying that you should pick based on the formality of the occaision and the function of the word. Choosing based on formality and the general level of trying to sound "educated" makes sense. Another reason, not explicitly stated in the article, would be to choose based on rhyme in poetry. When the article talks about function, I think that is referring to the second kind of 文白異讀. If there are any other factors, I missed them.