Perceptions Of The Chinese About The North And South Accents

Name: Huang Xinyi Instructor: Chunsheng Yang Course: CHIN 3275 Date: 4/26/2018 Perceptions of the Chinese about Accents of the North and the South China China is one of the largest countries on the globe and there exist several dialects. Therefore, there is little surprise in the way people from different parts of China sound when communicating using Mandarin (Standard Chinese). There are major differences in accents between Mandarin spoken in North China (Shijiazhuang Mandarin) and that spoken in South China (Nanjing Mandarin). It is important to note that it is only when speaking Mandarin that these differences are seen. Whereas the Northerners speak in a high pitched tone, the Southerners are known to speak slowly in an audible manner. Therefore, it is normally difficult to understand the Northern dialect for a person hearing the language for the first time. Even though Northern Mandarin is closer to official pronunciation that is the standard, those from the South actively refuse to adopt it. They believe that the Southern accent is better and the one used by the Northerners is ugly. This is something that Northerners never agree with. It is a disagreement that has been fought and talked about on several platforms, including social media and international news agencies. And despite the extensive coverage the debate has received, there has never been a clear winner and there is little doubt that any winner will ever emerge from the debate. The linguistic variation between North and South china is an evidence of its diverse ethnic culture, history, and geography (Cao et. al. n.p). The choice to maintain one’s pronunciation can be attributed to regional rivalries in China that started way back. Most uprisings that were witnessed in China during the 1800s were deeply rooted in regional ties. The Chinese government has attempted to ensure that there is linguistic standardization in the country. The core language of Chinese people today is “Putonghua” which is based on the Northern dialect (Junying 3). But even this has not encouraged the Southerners from stopping using their own accent. Even though the government has been able to suppress several regional ideologies, nothing has been achieved to harmonize the dialect between the North and the South and there is little hope that the debate will be brought to rest any time soon. The belief that the northern dialect is better is something that has been going on for ages and yet there are some people that believe that it is the other way. Historically, Cantonese lost narrowly to Putonghua in the vote to decide which language should be the official language. Perhaps it is this perceived narrow loss that has made the Southerners bitter, making them feel that their dialect bears the same level of importance as the northern dialect. The situation would not have been different even if it had been Cantonese that was made the official language of the mainland China. The South normally has more varieties in languages. Anyone who has lived in the south, then comes to the North would find it hard to get used to the “rhotic” pronunciation (Gong et al. 224). In fact, most of the languages spoken in the South have little resemblance to Mandarin. The Southern language normally never tries to...