Mandarin Chinese
Rhotacization in Mandarin
Play videoThis video explains when to use rhotacization in Mandarin. (Turn on English subtitles)
Chaoju Tang, Vincent J. van Heuven, 2009: Mutual intelligibility of Chinese dialects experimentally tested
a study on mutual intelligibility of 15 Chinese varieties, which the graph shown in the tiktok video is based on
Mutual Intelligibility between Chinese Dialects
@lisatalk_ talking about intelligibility between Chinese dialects on TikTok [Published on 02-28-2022]
Example of Sajiao vs "Standard" Mandarin
Play videoThe full video contains many examples of the sajiao or cutesy way of speaking as the members of girl group SNH48 take turns using it. At around 3:20, one member will say a phrase in sajiao, while another repeats the phrase in a more standard manner, highlighting the difference between the two.
erhua as a morpheme
A question about the usage of erhua in a morphological context instead of in the phonological context, asking if there are examples of times when it can be used to differentiate one word from another.
A reply to the message gives some examples of it, and a second reply gives a description of an encounter the author had about perceptions of what erhua is according to native Chinese speakers not from the Beijing area. [Published on 05-19-2015]
Beijing speech meme
"When you speak Chinese after a week in Beijing" - to complement the Zhang paper.
Instructional Video on Beijing Dialect
Play videoThis video is part of an instructional course on speaking "Beijing Dialect", presented by a young man with background music. This video focuses on a specific rhotacized word, but the presenter uses rhotacized speech throughout the video. I think this relates to our reading on rhoticity as relating to a "smooth" characteristic that goes in hand with other character traits to form a "smooth" persona.
Chinglish Phrases
Play videoThis video gives examples of Chinglish (Chinese and English) phrases found in everyday life.
Hip Hop Artists in China Add American Rap Language and Culture in Their Rap music
Play video“Made in China” is a Chinese rap music. The lyrics contain Chinese and English, and the singers add rhymes of both languages in some words and sentences. Meanwhile, the artists mix Chinese and American hiphop culture together. This song also represents a group of Chinese rappers try to break some traditional “rules” in mainstream culture.
Basic Chinese Character Parts - Movement Radicals
Play videoThis video talks about a development of Chinese character, and how these character become a word. In addition, it shows how same character have different pronunciation.
Different Chinese Accents - North v. South
Play videoWe are going to read Qing Zhang's Rhotacization and the ‘Beijing Smooth Operator’:The social meaning of a linguistic variable in class. I think that this video will showcase the differences in accents between North (closer to Beijing) and South China.
Cantonese v Mandarin: When Hong Kong languages get political
This article is about the language battle between Cantonese and Putonghua (Mandarin Chinese). Even though Hong Kong returned to China in 1997, the social rejection of Putonghua still takes place in Hong Kong. In this case, it illustrates the effect of language ideologies. People in Hong Kong reject to speak Putonghua because they question their Chinese identity. Their interpretation of language is that speaking Putonghua makes people lost the identity but speaking Cantonese could protect their culture and history. Importantly, this is the way to clarify the identity. People in Hong Kong believe that Hong Kong is not a part of China, and Cantonese is not one of the dialects of Chinese. Also, they argue Cantonese is the standard "Chinese."
[Published on 06-29-2017]
Mark Zuckerberg speaks fluent Mandarin during Q&A in Beijing
Play videoMark Zuckerberg, the creator and owner of Facebook, speaking fluent Mandarin in a Question and Answer forum. This clip shows how the ability to communicate with people from other parts of the world, in their native tongue can go along way and make a powerful connection.
Differences between English, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese
Play videoThe four speakers compare word pronunciations across languages with the general discourse held in Korean. Terms involving English morph to and from other languages depending on phonetic inventories. Also, note that the social practice of taboo words in Korean carries over when other languages a have a taboo Korean word in the comparisons leading to a humorous moment.
“Do You Understand the Words That Are Coming Out of My Mouth? - Rush Hour (1/5) Movie CLIP
Play videoThis is a clip from the movie Rush Hour where Agent Carter misunderstood that Jackie Chan (Lee) cannot understand English; therefore he got frustrated and started to change his tone and volume while talking to him. This clip touches on the issue of performativity, racial and linguistic ideologies, Standard Language Ideology and Language socialization.
Chris Tucker in the movie was expecting Jackie Chan to be able to speak English, and he also used forms like “speaka” and said “Mr. Rice-a-Roni don’t even speak American”. Based on this example and also the rising tone and increasing volume, it shows how Tucker had the linguistic ideologies of if he speaks louder and slower then the other person is going to understand him. He also used terms that shows his own identity such as “speaka”, and he also said, “speak American” to show his ideology of American equals English only.
MISS KO 葛仲珊 - CALL ME
Play videoMiss Ko is an American-Taiwanese rapper who code-switches in her lyrics, sometimes mid-sentence. It seems like the purpose of her code-switching is to create a "cool" identity. Most of the words or phrases in English are what I would associate with such an identity: references to American celebrities or slang like "main squeeze", "homie", or "holla at me". The bulk of the song is in Chinese, but she supplements English in order to (from my reading) present herself a certain way.
Language Log: A bilingual, biscriptal product designation in Taiwan
An ad on a food label in Taiwan can be read as either Mandarin or Taiwanese, and speakers' competency in each language influences their reading. [Published on 02-07-2014]