John over at Sinosplice recently published a screenshot of the Google Pinyin IME showing the options for the fuzzy pinyin feature. It allows Mandarin speakers with questionable understanding of Pinyin to get close enough and still end up with the right result.
As a Mac user I’m stuck in a word without the Google IME, though fortunately QIM works as a nice substitute and also supports fuzzy pinyin. I bring this all up because I couldn’t help noticing that 8 of the 12 options are right in line with the way Wu speakers speak Mandarin, and 2 more fit right in for neighbouring Nanjing, though it’s certainly not the only area for which these apply.
In the past I’ve not enabled the fuzz, instead going through a couple steps of trial and error to get the right word when I wasn’t sure on the presence of a g or an h. Seeing it now I may end up having to put this to work. The only reason not to, of course, is it will further push my Mandarin into the inescapable realm of the Wu accent. I already can’t say 对 right.
OK, you made me ask: what’s the Wu pronunciation of 对?
Along the lines of (i.e. probably exactly) “dei” using pinyin vowels. In Changzhou it’s more like “dai”. 对不对 is like “dei v’ dei” in Shanghai and “dai f’ dai” in Changzhou.