Shenyang Mandarin

Shenyang Mandarin (Chinese: 沈阳话) is a dialect of Northeastern Mandarin used by people in and around Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning province and the largest city in Northeast China. It is very close to Standard Chinese but has some notably distinctive words. Some people consider it a strong accent rather than a distinct dialect. Because of its similarity to the standard language, pinyin can be used to represent its pronunciation. Its usage is dwindling as schools in Shenyang teach only the standard language.

Relative pitch changes of the four tones in Standard Chinese. Shenyang diverges the most with tone 1.
Shenyang dialect
瀋陽話 / 沈阳话
Shěnyánghuà
Native toChina
RegionShenyang
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
cmn-she
Glottologshen1252

The most distinctive aspect of the Shenyang dialect is the much lower pitch of the first tone than in Standard Mandarin. It would be positioned at 2, rather than 5, on the chart shown (right). As a result, it can sound rather like the third tone.

Like the Beijing dialect, the Shenyang dialect is characterized by erhua (儿化).

Some of the words in Shenyang dialect come from other languages like the Manchu language. One example is 旮旯儿 gālár 'corner'.

Examples of words in various Northeastern dialects (not necessarily specific to Shenyang) include:

Northeastern MandarinpinyinStandard MandarinpinyinTranslation
不赶趟儿bù gǎntàngr来不及lái bù jítoo late
波楞盖儿bōlingàr膝盖xīgàikneecap
疙瘩、圪塔gāda地方dìfangplace (noun)
得瑟dèse卖弄màinòngto show off
老鼻子（了）lǎobízi(le)很多hěnduōa lot
驲驲地rírídi（象声词：车速度快）N/Aonomatopoeia: fast car
埋汰máitai脏zāngdirty, filthy
嘎哈gàhá干什么 、干嘛gànshénme, gànmáWhat are you doing?
砢碜kēchen, kēzhen丑、难看chǒu, nánkànugly, hideous
老lǎo很hěnvery
贼zéi特别tèbiéexceedingly
毙bì棒bànggood, excellent
蚂蛉māling蜻蜓qīngtíngdragonfly
嘎赌gàdu打赌dǎdǔto bet

Phonology

Shenyang dialect has 19 initial consonants, as opposed to the 21 in Standard Mandarin. Notably, the retroflex consonants [ʈ͡ʂ], [ʈ͡ʂʰ] and [ʂ] in Standard Mandarin are pronounced as [t͡s], [t͡sʰ] and [s], respectively, while [ɻ] is omitted. While lost in Standard Mandarin, Middle Chinese [ɳ] is preserved in the Shenyang dialect. [v] also exists in the Shenyang dialect.[1]

Initial consonants, Shenyang dialect
Labial Alveolar Dental sibilants Palatal Velar
Stops unaspirated ptt͡st͡ɕk
aspirated pʰtʰt͡sʰt͡ɕʰkʰ
Nasals mnɳ
Fricatives fvsɕx
Approximants l

Standard Mandarin diphthongs tend to be pronounced as monophthongs in the Shenyang dialect. For example, [ai] becomes [æ], and [au] becomes [ɔ].[1]

References
  1. 孟祥宇 (2011). "沈阳方言音系概说". 语文学刊 (1).
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