pronunciation of 削

[murrayjames]

他就拿镰刀削下一块来

 

In this sentence, should 削 be pronounced xuē or xiāo?

[Tomsima]

xiāo would be more normal from my experience, but xuē isn't wrong. If your 'should' relates to what is the correct standard pronounciation, I would presume xuē, as it is more literary. That being said, this sentence is pretty colloquial, so I would still go for xiāo.

[Shelley]

My understanding is xiāo is used on the mainland while xuē is used in Taiwan.  I could be wrong though.

[Dlezcano]

I will quote what is written in the definition of my 现代汉语规范词典

 

Quote

xuē是文读。xiāo是白读, 口语中可单指用刀去掉物体外皮, 如“削苹果”; 打乒乓球“削球”的“削”是一种比喻义, 也读xiāo。

 

I would choose xuē

[Dlezcano]

Sorry I do not know how to edit posts. I meant I would choose xiāo, not xuē

[889]

I was going to post that I've never heard of daoxuemian, but then found this Baidu post in which some say that's what it should be called.

 

http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/23867786

[Tomsima]

ordered this dish for years and have never heard it called daoxuemian either

 

interestingly it's pronounced dao 'xio' mian in where i am in Hubei, which seems to nicely hit the mid point between xiao and xue

[骏马的丕沿?]

做单字的时候，就读作“xiao”

 

跟其他字组成单词的时候，就读作“xue”，比如 “剥削”、“削弱”、“削减”、“瘦削”