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I hear people often say that Taiwanese Mandarin is as different from Mainland Mandarin as British and American English, but I'm not seeing it. I speak Cantonese and Mandarin, and I actually don't hear that much difference between Taiwanese Mandarin vs. Mainland Mandarin. I hear differences, don't get me wrong, but the difference is more subtle. It's kind of like the difference between a Canadian vs. an American accent, you hear the difference, but much more subtle than British vs. American accent.
I think people think of the Beijing accent is the stereotypical Mainland accent, so they remark on how different the Beijing accent is from the Taiwan accent. However, what about the difference between a guy from Xiamen vs. a guy from Kaohsiung speaking Mandarin? Can you tell the difference, since both these cities are Hoklo dominated?
It's kind of like how if by Canadian accent you're talking about the Quebec accent and by American accent you're talking about a Southern/Texas accent, then the difference between the two is very large. But if you're comparing a Vancouver, Canada accent with a Seattle accent, then the difference is there, but it's subtle.
People sometimes turn the "Taiwan-ness" on and off depending on the situation as it's generally been more prestigious to have as standard a Mandarin (very northern-inflected Mandarin) as possible. You'll see this in major news networks more often where it's pretty close to Mainland Mandarin. If you're talking on the streets, then it sort of runs a gamut that's almost like how far away from Taipei you are / how many recent (as in the last several decades) the family has been in Taiwan. It's a lot more noticeable than that difference between standard Canadian accents versus standard US accents especially if you're talking about a Seattle vs Vancouver accent even in Taipei. In media, you'll see it more often in film, television and variety shows. It does share similarities to Xiamen accent in some of its intonation, but the word choices can greatly differ.
It's possible that you don't speak Mandarin particularly fluently, so the nuances might be more lost on you than someone who does. Also, if you're talking about "seeing it", that's a massive difference in that the traditional characters can be very different from the simplified ones. There's overlap with traditional Mandarin "cursive" of sorts which is what a decent amount of simplified Mandarin writing stems from along with word choice differences, but generally it's quite different and far more different than the written differences between British and American English.
People sometimes turn the "Taiwan-ness" on and off depending on the situation as it's generally been more prestigious to have as standard a Mandarin (very northern-inflected Mandarin) as possible. You'll see this in major news networks more often where it's pretty close to Mainland Mandarin. If you're talking on the streets, then it sort of runs a gamut that's almost like how far away from Taipei you are / how many recent (as in the last several decades) the family has been in Taiwan. It's a lot more noticeable than that difference between standard Canadian accents versus standard US accents especially if you're talking about a Seattle vs Vancouver accent even in Taipei. In media, you'll see it more often in film, television and variety shows. It does share similarities to Xiamen accent in some of its intonation, but the word choices can greatly differ.
It's possible that you don't speak Mandarin particularly fluently, so the nuances might be more lost on you than someone who does. Also, if you're talking about "seeing it", that's a massive difference in that the traditional characters can be very different from the simplified ones. There's overlap with traditional Mandarin "cursive" of sorts which is what a decent amount of simplified Mandarin writing stems from along with word choice differences, but generally it's quite different and far more different than the written differences between British and American English.
I know about the difference between Traditional.and Simplified Chinese being far greater than the occasional difference between US and British English. I also know that word choice differs between Northern Chinese Mandarin and Taiwanese Mandarin, but a huge part of it is simply the difference between Northern Chinese and Southern Chinese Mandarin, and Taiwanese Mandarin is derived mostly from Southern Chinese Mandarin.
I think you're confirming that indeed, a Northern Chinese Mandarin accent is very different from a Taiwanese Mandarin accent. I knew that before. It's kind of like how a Quebec English accent is very different from an Alabama accent. But what about the difference between the Mandarin spoken in Xiamen vs. the Mandarin spoken by Hoklos in Kaohsiung? I imagine that difference would be kind of like Vancouver, Canada vs. Seattle, right?
it's actually more similar to the standard mandarin (where pronunciation is governed by "pingyin") than the mandarin being spoken by mainland chinese from beijing/shanghai/northeast/sichuan/south. It's almost identical to the mandarin being spoken in fujian.
you can pretty much tell where a chinese came from by the way they speak their mandarin
it's actually more similar to the standard mandarin (where pronunciation is governed by "pingyin") than the mandarin being spoken by mainland chinese from beijing/shanghai/northeast/sichuan/south. It's almost identical to the mandarin being spoken in fujian.
you can pretty much tell where a chinese came from by the way they speak their mandarin
Right, like what I thought. Taiwanese Mandarin spoken by the Benshengren is actually pretty similar to Mandarin in Fujian, with some differences, but nowhere as many as British vs American English. It would more be like Vancouver Canada vs Seattle English, correct?
Right, like what I thought. Taiwanese Mandarin spoken by the Benshengren is actually pretty similar to Mandarin in Fujian, with some differences, but nowhere as many as British vs American English. It would more be like Vancouver Canada vs Seattle English, correct?
the thing is, there is standard mandarin (pronunciation governed by pingyin), but there isn't standard "english". and when you say "mainland mandarin" there are many of them as I just explained. some of "mainland mandarin" isn't much different from the taiwan mandarin, while the others are very different like british vs american english.
The people who are very fluent in mandarin and have lived in Taiwan or southern Fujian can tell the difference, no matter he or she understand hoklo or not. The differences are more obvious if you compare mandarin spoken by female Taiwanese and mainlanders not from northern China.
Not all Taiwanese can speak Hokkien since mandarin is more used.
I know about the difference between Traditional.and Simplified Chinese being far greater than the occasional difference between US and British English. I also know that word choice differs between Northern Chinese Mandarin and Taiwanese Mandarin, but a huge part of it is simply the difference between Northern Chinese and Southern Chinese Mandarin, and Taiwanese Mandarin is derived mostly from Southern Chinese Mandarin.
I think you're confirming that indeed, a Northern Chinese Mandarin accent is very different from a Taiwanese Mandarin accent. I knew that before. It's kind of like how a Quebec English accent is very different from an Alabama accent. But what about the difference between the Mandarin spoken in Xiamen vs. the Mandarin spoken by Hoklos in Kaohsiung? I imagine that difference would be kind of like Vancouver, Canada vs. Seattle, right?
I just told you, the difference is lesser with Xiamen and people in Kaohsiung, but it's still noticeably different. The word choice is different in a lot of situations and some of the intonation is different, though similar. I literally just said that in the post of mine you quoted:
Quote:
It's a lot more noticeable than that difference between standard Canadian accents versus standard US accents especially if you're talking about a Seattle vs Vancouver accent even in Taipei. In media, you'll see it more often in film, television and variety shows. It does share similarities to Xiamen accent in some of its intonation, but the word choices can greatly differ.
Of course, if you're not very fluent in Mandarin, it'll be harder to pick up the differences. However, if you are fluent, the differences are almost immediately noticeable such as being able to walk down the street and overhear someone in NYC and know that they're likely from Fujian after half a sentence of Mandarin even though it sounds similar to Taiwanese Mandarin in many ways and that's where the differences are the smallest--meanwhile, there are dozens of odd dialect clusters and also entirely different languages within China that influence the Mandarin speaking of those regions so it just gets more and more different from there. The mandarin they teach in school in either place stays mutually intelligible, but there is a very noted difference when people speak colloquially.
Right, like what I thought. Taiwanese Mandarin spoken by the Benshengren is actually pretty similar to Mandarin in Fujian, with some differences, but nowhere as many as British vs American English. It would more be like Vancouver Canada vs Seattle English, correct?
Taiwan Mandarin vs Fujian Mandarin is more like Vancouver, BC English vs Seattle English.
Taiwan Mandarin vs Beijing Mandarin is more like Indian English(from India) vs American English.
Malaysian and Singaporean Mandarin are more similar to Mainland Chinese mandarin than Taiwan mandarin. The mandarin education in both countries are similar to mainland China including characters, words and pronunciation.
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