Although the Beijing dialect and Standard Mandarin are extremely similar, there are some differences that make it easy for Chinese people to tell between a native of Beijing speaking homegrown Beijing dialect, and a non-native of Beijing speaking Standard Mandarin.
Distribution
The term "Beijing dialect" usually refers to the dialect spoken in the urban area of Beijing only. However, linguists have given a broader definition for Beijing Mandarin that also includes some dialects extremely akin to that of Beijing.
For example, the local speech of Chengde, a city north of Beijing, is considered sufficiently close to Beijing dialect to be put into this category. Standard Mandarin is also put into this category, since it is based on the local dialect of Beijing. Other examples include the local speech of , Inner Mongolia; Karamay, Xinjiang; and Shenzhen, Guangdong. Many of these cities are populated by recent Han Chinese immigrants from diverse linguistic backgrounds or their descendants. As a result, the residents of these cities have adopted standard Mandarin as the de facto common language.
Phonology
In phonology, Beijing dialect and Standard Mandarin are almost identical. See Standard Mandarin for its phonology charts; the same charts apply to Beijing dialect.
However, there are some striking differences. Most prominently is the proliferation of rhotic vowels. All rhotic vowels are the result of - , a noun , except for a few words pronounced as that do not have this suffix. In Standard Mandarin, these also occur, but nowhere near the ubiquity and frequency in which they appear in Beijing dialect. This phenomenon is known as .
Moreover, Beijing dialect has a few phonetic reductions that are usually considered too "slangy" for use in Standard Mandarin. For example, in fast speech, initial consonants go through lenition if they are in an syllable: pinyin become r , so "don't know" can sound like ; j q x become y /j/, so "go quickly" can sound like ; pinyin b d g /p t k/ go through to become ; similar changes also occur on other consonants. Also, final /-n/ and can fail to close entirely, so that a nasal vowel is pronounced instead of a nasal consonant; for example, ends up sounding like "" , instead of "" in Standard Mandarin:
The tones of Beijing dialect tend to be more exaggerated than Standard Mandarin. In standard Mandarin, the four tones are high flat, high rising, low dipping, and falling; in Beijing dialect, the first two tones are made higher, the third one dips more prominently, and the fourth one falls more.
Vocabulary
Beijing dialect has a lot of words that are considered slangy, and therefore occur much less or not at all in Standard Mandarin. Non-Beijing natives often have trouble understanding what most of these mean. Many of these slangwords have the rhotic -r. Examples include:
* — very, especially
* — do not; usually followed by if used as an imperative
* — to be angry
* — to leave; to run away
* — a person with limited abilities, klutz
* — interjection indicating surprise or doubt
* — to an extreme extent; used of tastes
* — stingy, spendthrift
* — excuse me; heard often on Beijing buses
* — to stroll about; equivalent to standard Mandarin or
* — to let go on feet, to go, leave.
* / — no backbone, spiritless
* — to finally and thankfully become quiet and calm
* — way ; equivalent to standard Mandarin
* — ruined
Note that some of the slang are considered to be , or "base language", that are carryovers from an older generation and are no longer used amongst more educated individuals, for example:
* — since a young age
* — to be disoriented
Others, still, can be construed as expressions that are used amongst "trendier" crowds:
* — cool *in relation to a matter*; compare with *describes a person*
* — to toss into the hoop; used of basketball
* — special female friend *negative connotation*
Grammar
As with phonology and vocabulary, the grammar of the colloquial Beijing dialect utilizes more colloquial expressions than does Standard Mandarin. In general, Standard Mandarin is influenced by Classical Chinese, which makes it more condensed and concise; Beijing dialect is not influenced in this way, and can therefore seem more longwinded — though this is made up by the fact that Beijing dialect is spoken faster and has phonetic reductions .
An example:
*Standard Mandarin:
**
**
*Beijing dialect:
**
**
*After having gone through Beijing dialect's phonetic reductions:
**
*''It is going to rain today, so remember to bring an umbrella when you go out.''
The Beijing dialect sentence would sound too long-winded if used in a context that requires Standard Mandarin , though it sounds fine if used among Beijing locals . The Standard Mandarin pronunciation sounds fine if it is used in a context that requires it , but it is too stilted and short to be able to accommodate all the phonetic reductions of Beijing pronunciation and may be rendered incomprehensible as a result.
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