血

[adrianlondon]

Surely "snow" is xue3?

[carlo]

What about shi3 in 办公室, 卧室? This is also very common (in BJ at least).

[sleepy]

I remember talking about this in the past and in my research I found out and always memorized it as xuè when in mainland China and as xiě when in Taiwan (and probably parts of southern China).

[syz47]

Hi Sleepy et al.

From the discussion, it's clear that 血 has various pronunciations. But better avoid the sweeping generalizations. It's demonstrably false to say 血 is just pronounced xuè here on the mainland. It may be xuè somewhere on the mainland -- I don't know. But among many Beijingers it is clearly xuě.

To cover my bases, I also asked several people (here in Beijing) about xiě and xuè. All had heard of xiě as a possible pronunciation. One of those stated that Beijing commoners (by which maybe he means the uneducated?) say xiě: "说俗了". But none thought xuè was a legitimate pronunciation.

Moral to everyone, especially myself :^) is that when you contribute a point on grammar / pronunciation, you should be sure to include your location/source, cuz there's not as much a set standard as we'd like to think.

[sleepy]

Hi syz47...

I was typing in haste and clicked on the wrong button (I’m new here and it was my first post and meant to click preview instead of submit). I actually intended to include xuě along with xuè in the mainland, but did not have time to edit, my apologies.

I personally say xuě / xiě because the third tone sounds right to me after almost twenty years of hearing it and saying it. I adapt using xuě or xiě to whomever I am talking with in China, Taiwan or anywhere else. I do not get strange looks nor do people laugh when I say it.

Still, how one could take what I said as sweeping or definitive is beyond me. I meant it as a helpful guide and quick reply to some one who asked. I still do not believe it to be too far off, for practical purposes. Of course, one could always pick it apart on an individual or local level.

However, I appreciate your moral point.

[muyongshi]

Here is what my teachers have taught me is the appropriate by the book rule of when and how to use these differences (once again by the book I am not talking about how it is actually used).

the pronunciation xiě is a when it is used by itself not as a part of a larger word i.e. 我的血

the pronunciation xuè is when it is a part of a larger word or a 固定的说法 i.e. 流血，献血

xuě is an incorrect usage of the word but due to the fact that everybody uses it who knows what it will be in 5 or 10 years.

[syz47]

Sorry, Sleepy, after re-reading my own post it sounds a bit annoying – the whole “sweeping generalizations” phrase. Didn’t mean it that way. I resolve to do less moralizing and more listening :^)

I agree with you that you won’t get any raised eyebrows for using xiě or xuě, at least in Beijing.

For muyongshi, at the risk of moralizing :^) I’ll say that I think you will get raised eyebrows for xuè in Beijing. So I’m doubly curious that your teachers say it is an “incorrect usage”. Do you know where they are from? I suspect it’s a regional thing.

Best

[muyongshi]

For muyongshi, at the risk of moralizing :^) I’ll say that I think you will get raised eyebrows for xuè in Beijing. So I’m doubly curious that your teachers say it is an “incorrect usage”. Do you know where they are from? I suspect it’s a regional thing.

I'm not saying you won't get raised eyebrows for using it. I did not say anything about that being what is used. I simply pointed out the TEXTBOOK/DICTIONARY/ANAL definition of the "rule". My teachers are from Sichuan and do not use it this way at all. It is simply the "proper" way of using it. Did not say anyone actually uses it that way.

[Mugi]

普通话

From 多音字辨析字典 (福建教育出版社, 1993) pg341 under 血

一 xuè 1) 血液, 人和动物体内一种红色液体...(lists dozens upon dozens of compounds) 2) 有血统关系的...(lists 8 compounds) 3) 比喻刚强热烈... (lists 7 compounds)

二 xiě <口> 义同 '血一xuè' ... lists 17 examples)

[辨析]二音同义, 都指'血液'。区别在于:

一、使用时语体色彩不同: 血xuè用于书面语; xiě用于口语。

二、使用范围不同: 血xuè除指'血液'外，还表示'有血统关系的'和'比喻刚强热烈', 使用范围宽; xiě只表示'血液'义, 使用范围窄。

The entry then goes on to list 3 compounds which have different meanings depending on the reading of 血 (血晕、活血、流血).

北京话

From 汉语方音字汇 第二版; pg50 血

[slightly annotated: pinyin instead of IPA and 8 tone diacritics]

Under 北京: xuě 文; xuè 文; xiě 白

[NB: Beijing is the only location that gives a 上声 (3rd tone) pronunciation for 血]

On pg429 of 北京土语辞典 (徐世荣 编; 北京出版社 1990), there are several compounds that start with 血xiě, some clearly related to blood. On pg434, there is a single entry under 血xuè: 指月经。如:"来了血。"

There are no entries beginning with 血xuě

Summary (based on above references, some of what others have posted here, and personal experience):

1. xuè is the literary pronunciation in MSC/普通话, while xiě is the colloquial pronunciation. Uses thereof are standard for lit. vs col.

2. xuě is the literary pronunciation in Beijing dialect and for all intents and purposes seems to replace xuè, and possibly also xiě for standard usages, although xiě would appear to survive at least in some Beijing dialect words.

Side note: I have noticed several 中古汉语入声字 (Middle Chinese entering tone characters) are pronounced in 上声 (3rd tone) in Beijing dialect, where they are 去声 (4th tone) in the standard language: 血 xuě/xuè, 室 shǐ/shì, 较 jiǎo/jiào ...

[muyongshi]

From 多音字辨析字典 (福建教育出版社, 1993) pg341 under 血

一 xuè 1) 血液, 人和动物体内一种红色液体...(lists dozens upon dozens of compounds) 2) 有血统关系的...(lists 8 compounds) 3) 比喻刚强热烈... (lists 7 compounds)

二 xiě <口> 义同 '血一xuè' ... lists 17 examples)

This is what my teachers would be talking about. You notice under the xuè pronunciation all of the lists are of compounds. Xiě they aren't. So that is what would be considered 标准.

I do not live in Beijing nor have ever looked at a beijing dictionary so forgive my ignorance that it is an actual legitimate pronunciation. I am only familiar with 标准 which as we all now doesn't mean much. Here in Sichuan people say xue3 a lot but it's not in the dictionary.

Right now on words like the this I have the habit of saying it the "right" way in class and then with my friends saying it like they day. Here's another one that I have to do it on: 一模一样. Look it up. Even my input method has the wrong pronunciation.

[MXQBLGH]

Hi

I was curious just how is the word 血 supposed to be pronounced because I just can't believe I don't see forums filled with topics on how 血 should be pronounced created by learners of Chinese.

According to Wenlin (as well my many other dictionaries I've consulted)

血 = xue4, xie3 so one would more likely go with the first pronunciation

but that's not where all the confusion lies, see below

from this there are constructions like

流血 = liu2 xue4 (in Wenlin, typing in liu2 xie3 results in nothing) Other dictionaries only have liu2 xue4 together, no liu2 xie3.

白血病 = bai2 xue4 bing4 .....in Wenlin, typing bai2 xie3 bing4 results in nothing. Same as above, other dictionaries dont have bai2 xie3 bing4.

血管 = xue4guan3, xie3 guan3. Wenlin has 2 pronunciations, but the former appears first so one would think that's the more common one.

血液 = xue4ye4 --- no xie3ye4 (on an off note, I know in TW they pronounce the second word as yi4 instead of ye4)

ALL OF THE ABOVE, I've never heard 血 pronounced as xue4!!

They pronounce those 2/3 word constructions with 血 being either xie3 or xue3

My mainland friend told me he's never heard ppl say it as xue4 and that he normally says xue3. So another thing that boggles my mind is that......the most common pronunciation from the dictionary xue4 is NEVER pronounced...and the way it's mostly pronounced xue3 DOESNT APPEAR in the dictionary!

I do hear xie3 as well but xue3 is also very common...

so what gives? How come it seems like I'm the only mandarin learner who notices this? It seems like a pretty serious thing to me. Imagine someone learning liu2 xue4 from the dictionary and actually uses it! People would laugh!

[imron]

Merged question with answer.

I just can't believe I don't see forums filled with topics on how 血 should be pronounced

You could always try looking a little harder This thread wasn't particularly difficult to find.

[MXQBLGH]

oh damn my bad

I just realized when I did my search before by clicking Search at the top and entered 血 in the "search forums" box, this gave me 0 results.

But if instead I typed it in the box below that which was Search Site/Google I got a few topics

I guess after the first box I just thought there wasn't any lol

sorry

[gato]

You could always try looking a little harder This thread wasn't particularly difficult to find.

Actually, the built-in vbulletin search returns an error when searching for "血" because it's too short:

Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms.

The following words are either very common, too long, or too short and were not included in your search : 血

But google search works.

[imron]

But google search works.

And google search is now built-in to the search box. That's how I found this thread.

[MXQBLGH]

ya I used the forum search so that's why I didn't find anything

shoulda done the google search my bad

[Hofmann]

I'd say xue (any tone) is better than xie.

維基爾雅 on 血

【唐韻】【集韻】【韻會】

[ABCinChina]

Let's all use xuě which will solve this problem. That's the way I learned it and the way I hear people saying it all the time. I only hear xue4 and xie3 in mainland pronunciations and even so only occasionally.

[MXQBLGH]

In Taiwan xie3 is quite common too, although you hear xue3 as well.

I watch a lot of TW variety shows/dramas and I've noticed this

[FadedStardust]

I'm sorry for dragging open an old thread, but I just thought I'd point out what dict.cn has to say about 血

血 [xuě, xiě, xuè]

So even if you can't find xuě in your paper dictionaries, that doesn't necessarily mean much... In a few years, paper dictionaries will likely start printing it.

This thread actually got me thinking about the "proper" vs. "actual" pronunciation myself. I personally have NEVER heard anyone say xuè, it's always been xuě or xiě, and 9.5 times out of 10, I'll say xuě; it just seems more "natural" at this point because it's what I hear everyone else say.