which chinese dialect(s) do you like most?

[amego]

There are 68 or so dialects and sub-dialects in the 闽min3 (Hokkien) language family, see here.

Yea it really depends on the speakers. Anyway YuanXi, go listen to the 95.8 FM Capital radio, the Hokkien news is really nice, I couldn't understand much though, i'm not used to formal Hokkien .

Well, lets take a look at the word 猪 zhu1 (pig), the Hokkien variants i know of in Singapore are ter (the most common, used by my Ah Ma), tu and tee.

There are still tons other more.

[Ncao]

Yea it really depends on the speakers. Anyway YuanXi, go listen to the 95.8 FM Capital radio, the Hokkien news is really nice, I couldn't understand much though, i'm not used to formal Hokkien

I thought Singapore doesn't allow dialects to be use in the media?

[LiYuanXi]

Ncao: The 95.8Fm used dialects only in specially allocated time slots which is maybe 1 hour.

Anyway, I heard lots of formal hokkien in my daily life as I am learning to sing Nanyin.

[amego]

I thought Singapore doesn't allow dialects to be use in the media?

Now they are slowly opening up. Little dialect phrases and words and be found in variety shows and serials. It'll sad if dialects are lost in Singapore.

[Ferno]

sorry amego, but do you understand the purpose of the smiley ??? it's meant to show sarcasm, that you don't really believe what you said. its kind of confusing when you use it in every post

[amego]

Ooo oops, I interpret it as a glum and gloomy expression. Well I use very often. This's the 1st time i'm using ,

[serpentino]

Shanghaise is fun to listen, but hell when you try to speak it. I agree with the notion that this dialect/language is "economical" - well, what is NOT in Shanghai? ;-) It is economical up to the point when mere knowledge of a word "tso-pyo" (chaobiao in Mandarin, "money") and numbers enables you to follow some two thirds - humble guess - of all conversation..

[zhenhui]

I'm half Hakka/Hokkien but I can speak neither.　Ｗｉｓｈ　Ｉ　ｃａｎ　ｔｈｏｕｇｈ． Does vulgarities in Hokkien count?

Ｄｉａｎａ／贞慧

[trooper]

Try us!

[zhenhui]

LOL, will get kick out of this forum!

[amego]

Yea please don't, the Hokkien's 7-word holy phrase is really potent.

[Mark Yong]

Coming back to the original question in this thread...

I generally have a preference for the Southern dialects, on the basis of their conservatism. To cite some examples:

• Shanghainese 上海話 has preserved the most number of consonant initials, both voiced and unvoiced.
  
• Cantonese 廣東話 has preserved the most number of voiced finals, and has the largest selection of tones among all the dialects. This feature is particularly apparent when reciting the Tang poems, and also means that the Cantonese dialects suffers the least from the problem of homonyms 異義同音字.
  
• The Min 閩 dialects (e.g. Hokkien 福建話 福州話, Hockchew) have preserved many archaic and literary terms in speech, which are now only used in very formal writing (e.g. 免 for 不用/不必).
  

These are features that have been lost in Mandarin.

If I had to single out one dialect as my favourite, it would have to be Cantonese 廣東話. I admit I am partly biased, because Cantonese 廣東話 happens to be my first acquired dialect. But I do find its good balance of flexibility and colour as a spoken language, coupled with its congruence to the written language (both Classical and modern) as very strong features for a working language.

[xiaocai]

Hmm, so it seems many people think it will sound better if you ignore the zh, ch and sh in mandarin and only say z, c and s... Quite interesting.

[bhchao]

which chinese dialect(s) do you all like most? sounds the best?

My preferences (from most pleasant to least pleasant):

1) Shanghainese (sounds more refined than Cantonese. I hear Shanghainese dialect used a lot in Flushing, NY)

2) Taiwanese Mandarin

3) Cantonese

4) Hokkien or Minnanhua (sounds the most annoying)

[Mark Yong]

xiaocai wrote: ...so it seems many people think it will sound better if you ignore the zh, ch and sh in mandarin and only say z, c and s...

I would not say it would sound better. Actually, it is the z-/zh-, c-/ch- and s-/sh- initials in Mandarin that makes it unique. The problem for a native Cantonese speaker like me, making these distinctions is difficult.

[Mark Yong]

bhchao wrote:

1) Shanghainese (sounds more refined than Cantonese. I hear Shanghainese dialect used a lot in Flushing, NY)

2) Taiwanese Mandarin

3) Cantonese

4) Hokkien or Minnanhua (sounds the most annoying)

Haha... it seems mine is the reverse of yours:

1. Cantonese (on the basis of its conservatism in terms of endings and tones)

2. Hokkien (on the basis of its preservation of many archaic terms)

3. Shanghainese

4. Mandarin (the limited number of tones and the loss of many finals has resulted in so many homonyms 異義同音字 that I have a lot of trouble when listening to someone speaking it fast)

[Pravit]

Mine has to be whatever the Lao Gao character in 炊事班的故事 speaks. Although I guess his is more of a funny accent than a proper dialect, but all the same...(sample attached for your listening enjoyment) 黑好！

To any Shandong natives: is his accent authentic or just exaggerated for the show?

laogao.mp3

[Lawrence]

Like someone else said earlier, I'm actually quite surprised that people think Cantonese is pleasant to the ears. I've always made the analogy of Mandarin and Cantonese to French and German. Mandarin and French seem like they can flow a lot easier and is not as... violent(?) whereas the other two seem like you are having a go at someone, using a lot more gutteral, harsh sounds.

Having said that, I somehow get the impression that Cantonese is a lot more unrefined, an idea which was strengthened in me when I learned that it retained sounds from older chinese. However, this sort of thing means homelyness and friendlier people, whereas refined languages strike me as.. (not sure if this is a right way of putting it) sort of arrogant and posh.