Yeah, the south tends to use dan1che1 more. All of Guangdong pretty much uses danche, including ex-Guangdong areas like Hainan and Hong Kong.
That’s a good one. I’ve never heard of “big meat”. I’ll keep that in mind, even though I’m not going to Qinghai.
Do you mean “he1 shui3” (喝水, to drink water) or “he2 shui3” (河水, river water)? All three terms above are grammatically different, so it’s hard to compare. I believe kuang4quan2shui3 礦泉水 is also fairly common in Taiwan, non?
I often hear mainlanders over here use the term “gong1che1” 公車, although I did hear someone use “ba1shi4” 巴士 today as well. If they use “qi4che1” 汽車 for buses, what do they say for cars? Jiao4che1 轎車? Si1jia1che1 私家車?
Southerners use bo1luo2 菠蘿, but I wonder what Shanghaiites use, as they’re right in the middle, straddling north and south. MM, how much time did you spend in Shanghai and surroundings?
I’ve only ever heard “guai3” 拐 by Northerners, along with their super retroflexes, as in “you4 guairrrr3”. I’m betting the Shanghai colleagues that I’ll be seeing will probably keep the northern super-retroflexes to a minimum as I think the modern Shanghai accent is fairly neutral (to my ears at least).
This one I never quite understood properly. Apparently, there’s a rule for when to say “yao” and when to say “yi”. Something like if 一 is meant to denote quantity, then it’s “yi”. If it’s part of a series of numbers (i.e. ID number, telephone number, UPC code, bus number, etc.), then it’s “yao”. I’m not sure if that’s correct though so I welcome those in the know to jump in.
Oh, but isn’t that the fun part . Accents that I find annoying are the Cantonese and the super-retroflex Beijing accents. One of the more endearing accents, I find, is the Shangdong one. Quite pleasant to my ears. I say screw the retroflex if it doesn’t come naturally to you. Many, if not most, Chinese forgo the retroflex themselves anyway.
I’ve been asked to stay in Shanghai for 3 months :no-no: I plan to stay two weeks max and then maybe a weekend trip to Hualien (if direct flights into Kaohsiung or Songshan are not overbooked) before heading back over here.