妈妈幸福地笑了

[Larry Language Lover]

In this sentence,  is the 地 pronounced more with a "de/duh" sound or a "di/dee" sound?   I had a Taiwanese guy tell me here it has more of a "dee" sound but the pinyin is "de".

[Shelley]

When used as a structural particle it is de, when used to mean earth it is dì.

So in your example i would expect it to be pronounced de.

[Larry Language Lover]

In these two example sentences, Pleco writes it as "de" but pronounces it as "di"

 

实事求是地处理问题

 

天渐渐地冷了

[abcdefg]

1 hour ago, Larry Language Lover said:

实事求是地处理问题

 

天渐渐地冷了

 

Both of those are said sort of like "duh" (a soft Pinyin "de," without emphasis.) Not "dee."   

[Geiko]

2 hours ago, Larry Language Lover said:

Pleco writes it as "de" but pronounces it as "di"

 

You're right, Pleco does pronounce it as "di" in both sentences, but it's not the right pronunciation. For the first sentence the text-to-speech tool parses the sentence in the wrong way, it understands 地处 as the word dìchu and not （实事求是）地（处理问题）. In the second sentence it chooses the first option for the character 地, which happens to be dì, but it's not the right option in this case.

[Larry Language Lover]

I've always understood it as de.  I sure don't understand why my language partner from Taiwan would correct me and say it is pronounced di or people would not understand me.     On this youtube video pronunciation site I did hear "di" sometimes.   I don't know if each time it is a variation of the "earth" meaning:

 

https://youglish.com/pronounce/地/chinese/tw?

[889]

I've always considered 的/得/地 sounded di to be an old-fashioned variant. Maybe particularly used in some traditional forms like opera? And by older people in some parts of the country? Foreigners using it would sound quaint.

 

Here's Puyi, at 0:30. There's a couple des and a couple dis in there.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIMIWjV6Mck

[oceancalligraphy]

The sound is de when it is used as a structural particle, and its usage is the same as 的. That's what's taught in Taiwan, as shown at https://www.moedict.tw/地

[Jim]

You do hear the pronunciation "dee" but often as an exaggerated comic effect or to mimic dialect. See the character 滴 substituted online to achieve the same and I presume emphasise the intended pronunciation, here's one example: http://sndrc.shaanxi.gov.cn/html/100281/1022926.html 

[Lu]

That's how I know di, as an old-fashioned or very formal way of saying the word. I think I've heard it in Deng Lijun songs (Goodbye my love, wǒ di àirén zàijiàn...) It's nonsense that people wouldn't understand you with de, de is the normal, regular Mandarin pronunciation. You need to know that 地 or 的 can be pronounced di, but you never need to use that pronunciation.