Characters with different pronunciations on Mainland / Taiwan

[atitarev]

Copying from my post in China, Taiwan - to use the same language?

Pineapple:

PRC: trad. 菠蘿, simpl. 菠萝 (pinyin: bōluó)

Taiwan: trad. 鳳梨, simpl. 凤梨 (pinyin: fènglí)

Kindergarten:

PRC: 幼兒園 / 幼儿园 (yòu'éryuán)

Taiwan: 幼稚園 / 幼稚园 (yòuzhìyuán)

[Hofmann]

About 誼, one would expect yi4 in Mandarin. Homophones with 誼 in Middle Chinese are all yi4 in Standard Mandarin.

擊, looks pretty random, but ji2 would be what I would expect out of ji2 and ji1.

期, one would expect qi2.

企, one would expect both qi4 and qi3, but more likely qi4.

灸, one would expect jiu4 and jiu3. No support for jiu1.

肖, one would expect xiao4.

跌, one would expect die2.

鄙, one would expect bi3.

[doezeedoats]

In Taiwan you hear 說服 pronounced shui4fu2 as well as shuo1fu2. Any mainland takers for the shui4 pronunciation?

Also, why is there sometimes a different "讀音" in dictionaries? Why would you generally read a word one way but say the same thing another way?