Pronunciation of 一會兒

[dwq]

Got this link from another discussion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone_sandhi#Mandarin_Chinese

It gives an example of "一会儿 (yī + huǐr = yì huǐr)". I thought 会 is pronunced huì and thus 一会儿 should be pronunced (yī + huìr = yí huìr) instead, right? Just want to make sure I'm not missing something.

[陳德聰]

Both are acceptable, though I only ever say the first one.

[tooironic]

See also Mandarin variant pronunications on Wiktionary.

[xiaokaka]

It is discussed in this post on Language Log: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=14199

[dwq]

Thanks all. I guess this is another case of Textbook not reflecting common usage.

[Demonic_Duck]

It is discussed in this post on Language Log: http://languagelog.l...du/nll/?p=14199

 

I gotta say, although I think it's an interesting blog, I'm not convinced as to the reliability of Language Log. For example, this entry claims that “明白” is  often pronounced [míngbài]; I'd say it's never pronounced that way, but almost always pronounced as [míngbai]. Neutral tone after second tone sounds a hell of a lot like fourth tone, but not quite the same. For example, compare:

 

十六

石榴

明白

 

I'd say “白” is most definitely a neutral tone in the above recordings, based on comparison with “六” vs. “榴”.

 

As for “一会儿”, interestingly enough both the pronunciations on forvo are [yíhuìr], although I can't honestly recall ever hearing it like this “in the wild” myself.

[xiaokaka]

I agree with you that 石榴 and 明白 both are T2-Ø in the above recordings, and I'm not sure if I've ever heard 明白 as míngbài myself, but I do not agree with on the reliability of Language Log, for example 端木三 who wrote the following paragraph in the blog has written a book on Standard Chinese phonology:

"Yes, this is called 轻声变去声 (T0 to T4). An example is pu2tao2 'grape', which becomes pu2tao0, and then pu2tao4. The rare thing about that speaker is that he uses all the three versions at the same time. T0 to T4 usually happens when the preceding tone is T2, and the change is probably phonetic at first, then reinterpreted as H spreading: LH-0 –> LH-L –> LH-HL"

From p. 242 in the above mentioned book, San Duanmu 端木三 (2007), 'The Phonology of Standard Chinese, 2nd Ed.':

"As observed by X. Wang (1992), when a weak syllable follows T1 or T2, it can sometimes become T4. For example, shi-liu ‘pomegranate' was originally T2-T2, which later became T2-Ø, but now it is often T2-T4. When a weak syllable takes T4, it also returns to a full syllable by being longer and without rhyme reduction."

[陳德聰]

Duanmu San is one of my heroes haha I loved citing them in research papers!

 

Edit: Also to actually contribute something perhaps, I definitely enjoyed the discussion of 本字 there at the end of the Language Log post, but I feel that if we compare the pronunciation of huǐ to the possible pronunciations of the same character in other Chinese languages you'll find it's not completely incongruent.

[Guest realmayo]

I like reading languagelog but it does sometimes have conversations like:

- noobs and textbooks say AAA but actually it's BBB

- native speaker: actually we do sometimes say AAA, and also CCC, as well as BBB.