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Soundbites: is it easier for Zhonglish speakers?

… easier for Zhonglish speakers to understand the accents of wàidìrén (外地人 = Chinese from outside the big city), that is. The hypothesis would be something like this:

Since the first thing to vary in non-Beijing Mandarin is often the tone on a word [unsubstantiated impression -- it would be cool to know of an actual study on this], and since Zhonglish speakers are not as naturally clued into tones as native speakers, they might have an easier time with wàidìrén accents.

Granted, it’s a highly dubious proposition. But before answering an emphatic No, consider how easy it is to understand some of what this Nǎinai says (as she picks her grandson up from PBS’s school) regardless of her very non-Beijing tones.

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Nǐ de běizi ne? … nà huíjiā suǎn le ma
你的被子呢？ … 那回家算了嘛
What about your blanket? …then go home and it’s settled.

[Update: see comments below for full translation from "doctor" -- and thanks for corrections]

[red indicates non-standard pronunciation for what should be bèizi(被子) and suànle(算了)]

Would natives be confused? Almost definitely not by suànle — context is too strong. But bèizi maybe?

Comments 6

  1. Kellen wrote:

    I’d be thrown by beizi but only if there were absolutely no contextual clues.

    Alternatively I find foreigners with decent Mandarin do much better understanding Wu than 外地人 who’ve lived in the area for quite a while.

    Posted 17 Oct 2009 at 12:49 pm
  2. doctor wrote:

    She is 四川(province) people,
    women:你的被子呢？被子呢？赶快给老师打个电话.拿出来算了.给老师打个电话.
    kids: 放在那儿,其他作业?(同学)也放那儿了.
    women:把它拿回家算了嘛.

    Posted 20 Oct 2009 at 5:47 am
  3. doctor wrote:

    I spend 3 years in chengdu, so i understand >
    I agree you that foreigners do much better understanding some dialect very different than Mandarin,like Wu,Cantonese.

    Posted 20 Oct 2009 at 6:00 am
  4. syz wrote:

    @kellen and doctor: I wonder if the foreigners from outside China might have an easier time with fangyan because they simply view it as a language in its own right and don’t try to map it onto Mandarin

    @doctor: Nice transcription. Just say the word and you can join the full-time editorial staff here at the studios. The pay is, to put the best face on it, low — but work is about more than that, right? Seriously, thanks a lot for the full transcription. I wanted to do that but it would have taken me WAY more than my alloted 30 minutes for a “soundbites” entry.

    Posted 24 Oct 2009 at 6:09 pm
  5. DKwan wrote:

    Don’t know about Zhonglish speakers understanding waidiren accents better, but I do know my friends from China tend to understand other accents (English) better than me. Eg Indian and Singaporean accents, which I sometimes can’t follow at all.

    Posted 03 Nov 2009 at 8:31 am
  6. syz wrote:

    hi Daniel, good to hear you’re still around! (Remembering a comment from you from way back when…)

    I should have thought of the parallel situation in English myself. Great point. I think I’ve had conversations with other people about this as well, that non-native speakers (even of dissimilar languages) have an easier time understanding each other. I wonder if anyone has ever tried to prove this in a quantitative way.

    Posted 03 Nov 2009 at 1:32 pm