Saturday, October 4, 2008

Shenyang Mandarin

Shenyang Mandarin is a variant of Northeastern Mandarin used by people in Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning province and the largest city in Northeast China. It is very close to the official dialect but has some very distinctive words that the official language doesn't have. In the main, the Shenyang Dialect is very similar to the other Northeastern Dialects. Some people prefer to think of it as a strong accent rather than a different dialect. Because of its similarity to Standard Mandarin, pinyin can be used to represent the pronunciation.

However as schools in Shenyang teach Standard Mandarin, usage of the local language is dwindling. Many now see it as a sign of bad education and something to look down upon.


The most distinctive part of the Shenyang Dialect is the different pitch of the first tone. It is lower in pitch than Standard Mandarin and would be positioned at 2, rather than 5, on this chart. As a result it can sound a little like the third tone.

Like Beijing Dialect, the Shenyang Dialect also uses a lot of erhua .

Some of the words in Shenyang Dialect come from other languages like Manchurian. One example is the word 旮旯兒 , meaning corner.

Examples of words in the Northeastern Dialect :

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