Mandarin Chinese
Smart light does not recognize Ningbo Putonghua
A video on Douyin of an older woman speaking Ningbo variety Putonghua (standard Mandarin). She has difficulty making a smart light change color (变颜色) because it does not recognize her accent. We discussed Ningbo Putonghua in Ling 212. This is an example of the interplay between technology and standard language ideology since a speaker of "standard Putonghua" (as opposed to regional Putonghua) would have an easier time using the speaker.
Citation: Zhao and Liu. 2021. (Standard) language ideology and regional Putonghua in Chinese social media: a view from Weibo. [Published on 11-14-2022]
North vs South Chinese Accent
Play videoInstructional video showing how erhua is characteristic of the Beijing accent
Speak Mandarin Campaign marks 40 years
Play videoVideo from a Singaporean news channel discussing the 40 year anniversary of the Speak Mandarin Campaign.
Speak Mandarin Campaign Song
Play videoA pro-Mandarin song from Singapore's Speak Mandarin Campaign. "Starting today, everyone is speaking (Mandarin) Chinese."
Conan O'Brien Welcomes the Oscars' International Audience
Play videoA clip from the Oscars 2025, where host Conan O'Brien greets the Spanish-speaking audience, wishes the Indian audience an enjoyable breakfast, and then begs the Chinese audience to hire him and help him out of his financial debt (I think... between myself and three native speakers we could not figure out what exactly he's trying to say).
The Clever Bilingualism of Everything Everywhere All at Once
Play videoThis video analyzes the usage of Cantonese, English, and Mandarin in the 2022 film Everything Everywhere All at Once, as well as how language use affects the main characters' familial dynamics.
Discussion of "Sajiao" and gender
Example of discussion of online sajiao usage in Chinese webnovel "Guide on How to Fail at Online Dating"/"网恋翻车指南." Warnings for implied sexism, homophobia, transphobia.
For context, the narrator's friend Lu Wenhao has been catfished by an older man pretending to be a young woman using a voice changer, who convinced him to spend money buying him items in an online game. Part of the scammer's persona is using sajiao. There's discussion of what sajiao is, characters' emotional response to it, and how they feel about a man using it. Relevant passage from linked translation below, with instances of the term "sajiao" in original Mandarin indicated.
"He had heard Lu Wenhao chatting with his online girlfriend through voice messages before. The girl’s voice was all sickly sweet; each sentence would even be followed by a ~, and it always sounded like it was wrapped up in sugar. During this cute act [sajiao], Jing Huan could get goosebumps all over his body.
'Voice changer.' Gao Zixiang said, 'In the morning, his girlfriend probably forgot to open that thing and asked him for new clothes in a male voice. I almost died on the spot after listening to him act cute [sajiao]… That voice was even more boorish than Old Yan’s, and he sounded like someone who’s over 30.'"
American Comic in China Comparing Northeastern Accents
Jesse Appell, an American comic, performs a standup routine speaking Mandarin Chinese, comparing the Northeastern Boston accent in English with the Northeastern Shandong accent in Chinese. Particularly, he jokes about the rhotics in Boston are almost completely omitted, whereas the Shandong accent emphasizes and adds rhoticization.
"I just turned 18" Sajiao Girl
The full video of the "I just turned 18" girl. She engages in sajiao language and behavior. [Published on 11-08-2023]
Men Imitating a Sajiao TikTok “刚满十八岁”
Two men attempt to imitate a viral TikTok of a young woman using using sajiao, but without the use of full tone realization and instead placing full emphasis on heightened pitch.
How Different is Cantonese from Mandarin?
An article pertaining to the debate about Mandarin and Cantonese being dialects or languages. Somewhat similar to the discussion of AAL vs AAVE.
Hong Kong must overhaul Chinese-language learning to give ethnic minorities a fair chance
This article discusses the changes being made to the Hong Kong education system to give minority students a better chance at scoring well on Chinese language exams in Hong Kong's hyper-competitive educational environment. [Published on 03-21-2023]
Linguistic Diversity in China
Play videoThis video centers on how people across Guilin would say a common Chinese greeting: ('Have you eaten yet?). As China's linguistic diversity is changing rapidly, this video shows how people in incredibly close proximity can show so much linguistic variation.
Rhotacization in Mandarin
Play videoThis video explains when to use rhotacization in Mandarin. (Turn on English subtitles)
Chaoju Tang, Vincent J. van Heuven, 2009: Mutual intelligibility of Chinese dialects experimentally tested
a study on mutual intelligibility of 15 Chinese varieties, which the graph shown in the tiktok video is based on
Mutual Intelligibility between Chinese Dialects
@lisatalk_ talking about intelligibility between Chinese dialects on TikTok [Published on 02-28-2022]
Example of Sajiao vs "Standard" Mandarin
Play videoThe full video contains many examples of the sajiao or cutesy way of speaking as the members of girl group SNH48 take turns using it. At around 3:20, one member will say a phrase in sajiao, while another repeats the phrase in a more standard manner, highlighting the difference between the two.
erhua as a morpheme
A question about the usage of erhua in a morphological context instead of in the phonological context, asking if there are examples of times when it can be used to differentiate one word from another.
A reply to the message gives some examples of it, and a second reply gives a description of an encounter the author had about perceptions of what erhua is according to native Chinese speakers not from the Beijing area. [Published on 05-19-2015]
Beijing speech meme
"When you speak Chinese after a week in Beijing" - to complement the Zhang paper.
Instructional Video on Beijing Dialect
Play videoThis video is part of an instructional course on speaking "Beijing Dialect", presented by a young man with background music. This video focuses on a specific rhotacized word, but the presenter uses rhotacized speech throughout the video. I think this relates to our reading on rhoticity as relating to a "smooth" characteristic that goes in hand with other character traits to form a "smooth" persona.
Chinglish Phrases
Play videoThis video gives examples of Chinglish (Chinese and English) phrases found in everyday life.
Hip Hop Artists in China Add American Rap Language and Culture in Their Rap music
Play video“Made in China” is a Chinese rap music. The lyrics contain Chinese and English, and the singers add rhymes of both languages in some words and sentences. Meanwhile, the artists mix Chinese and American hiphop culture together. This song also represents a group of Chinese rappers try to break some traditional “rules” in mainstream culture.
Basic Chinese Character Parts - Movement Radicals
Play videoThis video talks about a development of Chinese character, and how these character become a word. In addition, it shows how same character have different pronunciation.
Different Chinese Accents - North v. South
Play videoWe are going to read Qing Zhang's Rhotacization and the ‘Beijing Smooth Operator’:The social meaning of a linguistic variable in class. I think that this video will showcase the differences in accents between North (closer to Beijing) and South China.
Cantonese v Mandarin: When Hong Kong languages get political
This article is about the language battle between Cantonese and Putonghua (Mandarin Chinese). Even though Hong Kong returned to China in 1997, the social rejection of Putonghua still takes place in Hong Kong. In this case, it illustrates the effect of language ideologies. People in Hong Kong reject to speak Putonghua because they question their Chinese identity. Their interpretation of language is that speaking Putonghua makes people lost the identity but speaking Cantonese could protect their culture and history. Importantly, this is the way to clarify the identity. People in Hong Kong believe that Hong Kong is not a part of China, and Cantonese is not one of the dialects of Chinese. Also, they argue Cantonese is the standard "Chinese."
[Published on 06-29-2017]
Mark Zuckerberg speaks fluent Mandarin during Q&A in Beijing
Play videoMark Zuckerberg, the creator and owner of Facebook, speaking fluent Mandarin in a Question and Answer forum. This clip shows how the ability to communicate with people from other parts of the world, in their native tongue can go along way and make a powerful connection.
Differences between English, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese
Play videoThe four speakers compare word pronunciations across languages with the general discourse held in Korean. Terms involving English morph to and from other languages depending on phonetic inventories. Also, note that the social practice of taboo words in Korean carries over when other languages a have a taboo Korean word in the comparisons leading to a humorous moment.
“Do You Understand the Words That Are Coming Out of My Mouth? - Rush Hour (1/5) Movie CLIP
Play videoThis is a clip from the movie Rush Hour where Agent Carter misunderstood that Jackie Chan (Lee) cannot understand English; therefore he got frustrated and started to change his tone and volume while talking to him. This clip touches on the issue of performativity, racial and linguistic ideologies, Standard Language Ideology and Language socialization.
Chris Tucker in the movie was expecting Jackie Chan to be able to speak English, and he also used forms like “speaka” and said “Mr. Rice-a-Roni don’t even speak American”. Based on this example and also the rising tone and increasing volume, it shows how Tucker had the linguistic ideologies of if he speaks louder and slower then the other person is going to understand him. He also used terms that shows his own identity such as “speaka”, and he also said, “speak American” to show his ideology of American equals English only.
MISS KO 葛仲珊 - CALL ME
Play videoMiss Ko is an American-Taiwanese rapper who code-switches in her lyrics, sometimes mid-sentence. It seems like the purpose of her code-switching is to create a "cool" identity. Most of the words or phrases in English are what I would associate with such an identity: references to American celebrities or slang like "main squeeze", "homie", or "holla at me". The bulk of the song is in Chinese, but she supplements English in order to (from my reading) present herself a certain way.
Language Log: A bilingual, biscriptal product designation in Taiwan
An ad on a food label in Taiwan can be read as either Mandarin or Taiwanese, and speakers' competency in each language influences their reading. [Published on 02-07-2014]