Beijing dialect

As Beijing dialect (北京 话Chinese /北京 话, pinyin Běijīnghuà ) or Beijing Mandarin (Chinese北京 官 话/北京 官 话, pinyin Běijīng Guanhua ) refers to the language spoken in and around Beijing variant of the Chinese language.

On the Beijing dialect, the high Chinese -based ( also called Mandarin ) which is the official language of the People's Republic of China, the Republic of China ( Taiwan ) and Singapore, where it is spoken by over 880 million people. However Beijing dialect and Mandarin Chinese are not identical. Some features allow native speakers to distinguish one from a non- Beijing Beijing by its pronunciation.

Dissemination

The term Beijing dialect in the narrower sense of the dialect spoken in Beijing and the surrounding area. In contrast, the term preferably used by linguists Beijing Mandarin refers other similar dialects with.

The dialect of approximately 300 km north of Beijing Chengde City is seen linguistically the Beijing dialect so close that it can be described as a variant of Beijing Mandarin. Other dialects that can be seen as part of the Beijing Mandarin are dialects of Hailar in Inner Mongolia and Karamay in Xinjiang. Also in the city of Shenzhen and Guangdong Province is Beijing Mandarin becoming the lingua franca. The reason is that more and more Han Chinese to immigrate there and has established itself as a common language, the Beijing Mandarin, since the dialect diversity would be too great otherwise.

Phonology

Seen Phonologically Mandarin and Beijing Mandarin are almost identical. The Phonology of Mandarin can be viewed on the page Mandarin Chinese. However, there are some striking differences. The most striking difference is probably the most widespread distribution of rhotic vowels. All rhotic vowels are the result of -儿/ ɹ /, a suffix of nouns, with the exception of only a few words that are / ɑɹ / pronounced. This speech habit can also be observed in Mandarin, but not nearly as often as in the Beijing Mandarin. This expression is also known under the name of Chinese儿 话/儿 化, pinyin Erhua.

In addition, the Beijing Mandarin are some syllables "swallowed", but what is considered very colloquial and therefore in Mandarin is not common. This phenomenon can be observed in the Lenition following examples:

• From the sounds zh ch sh / tʂ tʂ ʰ ʂ / can r / ɻ /, so is Chinese不 知道, Pinyin bùzhīdào to bùrīdào (I do not )
• From the sounds jqx / tɕ tɕ ʰ ɕ / can y / j / are, so is Chinese赶紧 去, Pinyin gǎnjǐnqù to gǎnyǐnqù ( go fast)

The table may contain other particularities are taken:

In Beijing Mandarin you tend to pronounce the sounds pronounced than in Mandarin. In Mandarin, there are the following four tones: high tone, rising tone, low - falling - rising tone and the falling tone. In Beijing Mandarin, the first two sounds are pronounced slightly higher, the third is more pronounced and the fourth sinks deeper.

Lexicon

Some differences between the Beijing dialect and the standard Chinese are also found in the area of the lexicon, not least in the area of basic vocabulary. So called " today " in standard Chinese Chinese今天, Pinyin JinTian, in Beijing dialect but Chinese今儿/今儿, Pinyin JINR.