which chinese dialect(s) do you like most?

[赫杰]

Anyway is Wuhanese similar to any other dialect? I wanna have a feel of what is it like.

I am sure there are some people here that could answer this better than me. Knowing only the obvious differences in regional dialects, I am not knowledgable enough to compare them to the Wuhan dialect. My friends say it is very similar to the other regional Hubei dialects here. Which may explain why so many of the students who come from the surrounding Hubei areas are able to understand, but not speak it. While in Guilin, my friend said their dialect was understandable and somewhat similar to Wuhan's....but I remember the person from Guilin disagreeing with him...haha Afraid I only can compare it to standard mandarin.

Sorry

[amego]

Sorry

I forgive you. Muhahaha just kidding

Hmmm meanwhile we just have to wait a while...

[LiYuanXi]

I like Suzhou's dialect! I also like the dialect of Quanzhou. It is close to hokkien but it is still quite difficult to understand if they speak too fast. Have you heard of Quanzhou and Suzhou dialect before?

PS: My li Yuan Xi is performed based on Quan Zhou dialect.

[amego]

Have you heard of Quanzhou and Suzhou dialect before?

Hmmm I've never, but my dialect group is Hokkien.

You're also from Singapore! YoYo

[zixingche]

I'm surprised that people find Cantonese attractive sounding. I think It sounds horrible, with its glottal stops at the end of words (eg moon), nasal "ng"s (surname Wu-Ng) etc, to me it sounds unrefined, uncouth, just my personal opinion of course. Also it sounds different to all the other Chinese languages (I won't call them dialects), I think to non-speakers it sounds more like Vietnamese and Thai.

[amego]

Woo i'm one of them who finds Cantonese quite pleasing to the ears Anyway 各有所好 , to each his own. Hmmm so which Chinese language(s) do you like, zixingche?

[zixingche]

I like putonghua spoken with a fairly standard accent, eg without the "er" sound colouring like in Beijinghua, and with separation of c/ch, s/sh ,z/zh, n/ng, f/h, l/n.

I don't really know enough about the local dialects to make a comment about them.

[Quest]

Also it [Cantonese'] sounds different to all the other Chinese languages (I won't call them dialects)

Hmmm so which Chinese language(s) do you like, zixingche?

I don't really know enough about the local dialects to make a comment about them.

I thought you've heard all the other Chinese languages to come to that conclusion.

[ala]

I like Taiwan Mandarin (Guoyu), which sounds more natural and conversational.

Beijing Mandarin (Putonghua) sometimes sounds really pretentious in a communist/proletariat sort of way. Hard to explain.

American English is to Guoyu as British English is to Putonghua.

Shanghainese sounds really nice if the speaker is educated, I would say more pleasant than Mandarin since its more flowing, but it can also sound really crass though, as many have probably experienced listening in on arguments between old housewives on the bus, etc. Hence the manner in which it is spoken has a lot of bearing on how one perceives Shanghainese.

[bhchao]

I like Taiwan Mandarin (Guoyu), which sounds more natural and conversational.

Beijing Mandarin (Putonghua) sometimes sounds really pretentious in a communist/proletariat sort of way. Hard to explain.

I agree, not because of any bias of any sort, but because Putonghua's thickly accented flavor really makes it sound very unattractive.

When I speak to someone in Guoyu or hear others conversing with each other in Guoyu, the conversation really feels free-flowing, while a Putonghua conversation sounds more restrainful in speech patterns.

[amego]

Yea me too Beijing Mandarin's accent is just too "thick" for me. Anyway Taiwan Mandarin is close to Singapore Mandarin. Singapore Mandarin doesn't really have any accent (haha maybe that's an accent by itself).

Anyway, my 100th post !!! hehe

[atitarev]

I heard some people complaining Taiwanese couldn't clearly separate s/sh, c/ch, the Taiwanese person I knew had the same problem. Having said that, I heard sound recordings made in Taiwan, they sounded pretty standard to me.

to zixingche,

I don't think you should call any dialect bad, it's not very nice. I think songs in Cantonese sound great.

[wushijiao]

Shanghainese sounds really nice if the speaker is educated, I would say more pleasant than Mandarin since its more flowing, but it can also sound really crass though, as many have probably experienced listening in on arguments between old housewives on the bus, etc. Hence the manner in which it is spoken has a lot of bearing on how one perceives Shanghainese

Hehe. It seems that Shanghainese has two main purposes: arguing over things (usually prices) and cracking jokes. In both cases, the speed of conversation seems amazing (to someone who doesn't understand it).

My co-workers on my university bus (班车) always laugh their asses off in Shanghainese every morning. Whenever I talk to anyone, in Putonghua, the atmosphere always seems to take on a more serious tone.

[wai ming]

I totally agree with those who prefer Taiwanese Mandarin over Beijing-style Mandarin... Taiwanese Mandarin is "standard" enough without being so rough on the ears as all the -儿 in Beijing-style Mandarin. That said, it does seem to depend on who's speaking it: when I was in Beijing a few years ago, I found the accents of the students at the school I was staying in fine, but the Chinese dubbing on some of those Korean movies? I couldn't finish one, the accent hurt my ears too much

Same goes for Cantonese. When I was younger, I didn't really like the sound of it, maybe I heard too many "aunties" yelling at their kids in it But now, since I've started listening to Cantopop, and I've made some friends from HK who speak it pretty softly, I like the sound of it a lot more.

[zixingche]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zixingche

Also it [Cantonese] sounds different to all the other Chinese languages (I won't call them dialects)

Quote:

Originally Posted by amego

Hmmm so which Chinese language(s) do you like, zixingche?

Quote:

Originally Posted by zixingche

I don't really know enough about the local dialects to make a comment about them.

I thought you've heard all the other Chinese languages to come to that conclusion.

Well, Cantonese does sound different to other Chinese languages, just as Min nan, Shanghaiese, etc sound different. I just talking about the sounds, it’s how people recognize different languages even if they don’t understand a word of it. Don’t worry, Cantonese is definitely a Chinese language:mrgreen: .

I know some Chinese languages; Putonghua, Cantonese, Hakka/Kejia, SW Mandarin (Guizhou), but all at quite basic levels ranging from basic conversation to just understanding. What I meant to say was that I haven’t heard every local Chinese language, so I couldn’t say whether I liked one more than another because I have only heard a few (the question was: so which Chinese language(s) do you like?).

That’s why I just said I liked a certain type of putonghua, as it is a lingua franca used all over China.

to zixingche,

I don't think you should call any dialect bad, it's not very nice. I think songs in Cantonese sound great.

I didn't say it was bad, just that its sound is unattractive to my ears, it's a purely subjective judgement. In fact linguisticly, no language/dialect is good or bad, all languages/dialects are just as good or bad as any other.

[LiYuanXi]

Lots of people around me like Cantonese more than the other dialect. Hokkien is considered as a unrefined dialect here.

[amego]

Lots of people around me like Cantonese more than the other dialect. Hokkien is considered as a unrefined dialect here.

Ya lor, so sad. Those ah beng ah sengs (gangsters) polluted Hokkien with all those foul words. I must agree Cantonese sounds more 文雅 (elegant, refined) ultimately, however I still find Hokkien more 亲切 (affectionate), and if you speak properly it will be nice, like my Ah ma (Grandma).

[Ncao]

Ya lor, so sad. Those ah beng ah sengs (gangsters) polluted Hokkien with all those foul words. I must agree Cantonese sounds more 文雅 (elegant, refined) ultimately, however I still find Hokkien more 亲切 (affectionate), and if you speak properly it will be nice, like my Ah ma (Grandma).

Actually Cantonese also has many foul words. All Chinese dialect/languages has the share of foul language.

[amego]

Actually Cantonese also has many foul words. All Chinese dialect/languages has the share of foul language.

Yea true But Cantonese still sounds nicer.

[LiYuanXi]

There are many types of hokkien, so far I have heard 3-4 types. Some are very nice when spoken properly. My friend once heard a girl reading newspaper in an unknown dialect. He liked the dialect very much and told me that it was the nicest language he ever heard. He asked the girl which dialect it was and the girl told him it's hokkien.