血

[Yuchi]

I'm a bit confused, and my father made me more confused when he tried to explain it to me.

I always thought 血 was pronounced "xuě", because I've used that all my life, and no one has ever (or bothered to) correct me. When I was translating something, I looked at the pronunciation just for fun (I do bore easily), it came up with "xiě" and "xuè" as the two pronunciations. For accuracy, I looked in two other sources, both with the same thing.

Now, am I the only one who uses "xuě"? And does it matter that I do?

My father said something about it being in what context, then he gave his attention back to some debate going on about taiwan on TV.

(someone explain the difference between the two pronunciations please)

[Catdiseased]

新华字典tells us for ｘｉｅ（３）:

血：ｘｉｅ（３），义同血ｘｕｅ（４），用于口语。

So, xie(3) has the same meaning like xue(4), but is rather used in spoken language.

[zhwj]

Conventional usage (as described in dictionaries) seems to be: xiě for V-O constructions: 献血、吐血、流血 and so on. Other contexts take xuè.

The xuě pronunciation is one of those common usages that standard dictionaries (at least the ones I've seen) do not acknowledge. Given the colloquial mark for xiě that Catdiseased mentions, you'd expect xuě to be a variant pronunciation of xiě, but I've heard it in many other contexts;

《哈尔滨方言词典》 shows a Harbin pronunciation of 血 in 上声 where Beijing has 去声, so it's probably a dialect thing - but then, it'd have to be common to an awful lot of dialects.

[bokane]

I'll have to check our your copy of the Harbin dictionary once I get back there, zhwj. For now, I can corroborate the 'xie3' reading in Harbin; I also had an ABC friend here whose parents were from Changchun who consistently said 'xie3,' though it should be noted that his Chinese was stunted.

[Jive Turkey]

There is quite a lot of variation in how the word is spoken. Some picky people will try to tell you that you should use xue4 here and xie3 or xue4 there, but these are hardly rules that are commonly accepted. If you were to follow the Xiandai Hanyu Cidian, then it should be pronounced as xue4 for just about everything, regardless of word order or syntax: liu2xue4 (bleed), xue4ya1. However, it seems that very few people follow that. If my ear and memory are correct, lots of northerners use xue4 when it is the first syllable of a word, but say xie3 when it is the second syllable. Southerners vary a lot. I don't remember ever hearing xue3/4 at all in Taiwan, but maybe that's just my ear. Despite what some prescriptive PSC type grammarians may tell you, this seems to be a word that has no commonly accepted standard for pronunciation. Xie3 or xue4 will both do just fine.

[Altair]

I cannot say anything about actual usage, but I have a dictionary called 多音多义字汉应字典 (Chinese-English Dictionary of Polyphonic Characters). Under the entry for 血, it has the folowing:

血 xie3 xue4

xie3

blood (in colloquial usage, and when as a monosyllabic word referring to actual blood): 一滴血 yi4 di1 xie3 a drop of blood // 流血 lie2 xie3 to bleed

血淋淋 xie3 lin1 lin1 dropping with blood

血丝儿xie3 sir1 fine capillaries

xue4

blood (in literary usage, and when in compounds with technical or figurative reference)

血汗 xue4 han4 blood and sweat = hard toil

血气 xue4 qi4 vigour; courage

雪球 xue4 qiu2 blood corpuscles

血统 xue4 tong3 a blood lineage

While I suspect that usage is not as clear-cut as this, as Jive Turkey suggests, this scheme at least seems fairly logical and matches other characters with "colloquial" and "literary" pronunciations.

[nipponman]

While I suspect that usage is not as clear-cut as this, as Jive Turkey suggests, this scheme at least seems fairly logical and matches other characters with "colloquial" and "literary" pronunciations.

There are others with literary and collouqial pronounciations? Maybe I have seen them but can't remember...

流血 lie2 xie3 to bleed

liu2 xie3:mrgreen:

[Altair]

There are others with literary and collouqial pronounciations? Maybe I have seen them but can't remember...

liu2 xie3:mrgreen:

I think some examples might be 谁 shui2 vs. shei2 ("who"), 薄 bo2 vs. bao2 ("thin"), 白 bo2 vs. bai2 (e.g., 李白 (Li3 Bo2/Bai2), 色 se4 vs. shai3, 角 jue2 vs. jiao3 ("horn," "corner," "angle"), and 落 luo4 vs. lao4 ("fall"). As I understand it, many of these are not freely interchangeable, and the choice may depend on context. Perhaps, someone with better Chinese than me can shed some light on whether each character must be taken by itself or whether there is a general attitude toward these types of choices.

[nipponman]

I think some examples might be 谁 shui2 vs. shei2 ("who"), 薄 bo2 vs. bao2 ("thin"), 白 bo2 vs. bai2 (e.g., 李白 (Li3 Bo2/Bai2), 色 se4 vs. shai3, 角 jue2 vs. jiao3 ("horn," "corner," "angle"), and 落 luo4 vs. lao4 ("fall"). As I understand it, many of these are not freely interchangeable, and the choice may depend on context. Perhaps, someone with better Chinese than me can shed some light on whether each character must be taken by itself or whether there is a general attitude toward these types of choices.

Well, Shui2 and shei2 are interchangeable (like zhe4 and zhei4, na4/na3 and nei4/nei3)

shai3 and se4 are not, nor are jue2 and jiao3. jue2 has a different meaning than jiao3, jiao3 means horn, corner, angle, but jue2 means to contend; role.+

[zhwj]

nor are jue2 and jiao3. jue2 has a different meaning than jiao3, jiao3 means horn, corner, angle, but jue2 means to contend; role.

Sure, that's what the prescribed difference is, but tons and tons of (highly educated) people say 角色 as jiǎosè rather than juésè.

[skylee]

but tons and tons of (highly educated) people say 角色 as jiǎosè rather than juésè.

And there are people who say 供給 as gong1 gei3 rather than gong1 ji3 ...

[nipponman]

Sure, that's what the prescribed difference is, but tons and tons of (highly educated) people say 角色 as jiǎosè rather than juésè.

Then, that would technically be incorrect. Not that I am authorized to call anything like this, not being a native and all. But, it is the same in english. Oftentimes people say "irregardless", etc. That of course is wrong. Sometimes people will use "ain't" in the wrong place. I ain't got your book! == I do not have your book! (the correct contraction of do not is don't the used contraction of have not is ain't.) ain't is really an all purpose negative, "I ain't watchin' you." So in all languages, I think, there is room for error, and it is oftentimes thought to be truth.

nipponman

[zhwj]

Then nipponman, naturally you pronounce 滑稽 as gǔjī, 从容 as cōngróng, 恪 you read as què, 报导 is bàodào, and 听 in 听天由命 is tìng, right?

[nipponman]

Then nipponman, naturally you pronounce 滑稽 as gǔjī, 从容 as cōngróng, 恪 you read as què, 报导 is bàodào, and 听 in 听天由命 is tìng, right?

I don't get it, why would I do that? 从's tone is 2nd, 恪 I just now learned the meaning of this word, and it appears to be pronounced as ke4, 听, I can understand this one though, since 听 is pronounced ting1 or ting4 depending on context. 导's tone is 3rd. You're confusing me!

nipponman

[zhwj]

The point is that all examples I gave are pronunciations that were current at one time or another in the recent past. 恪 was què as late as the 1950s, and 从容 was officially changed from cōngróng to cóngróng sometime between 1978 and 1985; the others have a similar history. Language changes, so it seems rather arbitrary to insist on fixing the pronunciation as it is right now rather than, say, fifty years ago.

(The only accepted pronunciation of 听 in mainland Mandarin, incidentally, is in the first tone. tìng, which used to be used for the meaning of 任 as in 听其自然, is no longer listed.)

So for adherence to the rather artificial standard of Mandarin Chinese, you are correct in pointing out that things like jiǎosè are not 'proper'. But no one adheres to the standard completely, and 'errors' like these are not socially unacceptable.

Unless, of course, those errors cause a Chinese team competing in a Mandarin contest to lose to a team made up of foreigners...

[nipponman]

The point is that all examples I gave are pronunciations that were current at one time or another in the recent past. 恪 was què as late as the 1950s, and 从容 was officially changed from cōngróng to cóngróng sometime between 1978 and 1985; the others have a similar history. Language changes, so it seems rather arbitrary to insist on fixing the pronunciation as it is right now rather than, say, fifty years ago.

Wow, that shows how little I actually know about chinese:-? ...But that is also very cool!

(The only accepted pronunciation of 听 in mainland Mandarin, incidentally, is in the first tone. tìng, which used to be used for the meaning of 任 as in 听其自然, is no longer listed.

Yeah, I looked it up and you're definitely right on that on. When I learned that character, CQuickTrans listed both so I learned them, no wonder it is so hard to find vocab for ting4...

So for adherence to the rather artificial standard of Mandarin Chinese, you are correct in pointing out that things like jiǎosè are not 'proper'. But no one adheres to the standard completely, and 'errors' like these are not socially unacceptable.

Roger that, it makes language beautiful.

nipponman

[reay]

usually, 血 was pronumciated xiě when it been used as noun, on the other hand it was pronunciated xuè when it been used as verb or adjective.

血 is most pronunciated xuè and this is formal pronunciation

for example:

xiě:

流了一点血

鸡血

血块子

xuè:

血刃

血洗somewhere

血流成河

血仇

[syz47]

I’ll second zhwj’s assertion -- that xue3 must be pretty common -- with an example from Beijing. My wife was born and marinated there and says she can’t think of anyone saying xue4, although she has heard xie3. My other informant is her mother, who is a lifelong resident and implies xue3 in pronouncing both流血 [liu2 xue3] and in 血管 [xue2 guan3] (where it is of course following the rule for switching to tone 2 before another tone 3).

I still haven’t discerned any more complicated rules such as Jive Turkey mentioned.

Thanks to Yuchi for getting this out there as it’s been bugging the heck out of me.

[trien27]

To Altair,

the following are corrections I've made:

雪球 xue4 qiu2 doesn't = blood corpuscles

should be

血球 xue3 qiu2 = blood cells (red or white?)

雪球 xue4 qiu2 = snowballs

blood cells and corpuscles are very different things.

[amego]

Now, am I the only one who uses "xuě"? And does it matter that I do?

Hey u're not alone! I used and will be using "xuě" all the way...btw most Singaporeans do too