# Pronunciation: 慢慢



## yuechu

大家好！

I'm sorry in advance if this has been discussed before (but I couldn't find the thread if there was one).

Should 慢慢 (as in "慢慢学", etc) be pronounced man4man4 or man4man1? Are both common pronunciations?

Thanks!


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## retrogradedwithwind

Both are acceptable to me in real life.


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## yuechu

OK, thanks, retrogradedwithwind!


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## Messquito

I found man4man1 to be specific in Northern dialects whereas in Taiwan, which to the South, we use only man4man4.


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## yuechu

Thanks for your reply, Messquito!


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## fyl

A related thread was http://forum.wordreference.com/threads/读音：好好.3027540/


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## reer

baosheng said:


> Should 慢慢 (as in "慢慢学", etc) be pronounced man4man4 or man4man1? Are both common pronunciations?



The standard mandarin way of pronouncing 慢慢（+ verb）is "man4man1 r".
This rule goes to most other similar adverbs like 好好儿（学）hao3hao1r，（逃得）远远儿（的）yuan3yuan1r, etc.  And in this case, the 儿 （r）almost always tags along orally, even if it is not written out sometimes.


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## OneStroke

I agree, man4man1r is the standard one. When we said man4man4 in primary school, our teacher promptly corrected us.

I'm not sure if this is unique to the North. Even in Cantonese, we often say maan6maan1 (the second syllable changes from 陽去 to 陰平), although maan6maan2 (second syllable changes from 陽去 to 陰上) is also used.


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## yuechu

OneStroke said:


> I'm not sure if this is unique to the North. Even in Cantonese, we often say maan6maan1 (the second syllable changes from 陽去 to 陰平), although maan6maan2 (second syllable changes from 陽去 to 陰上) is also used.


Oh, I didn't realize that it was the case in Cantonese, too. Thanks, OneStroke!


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## Giuseppe Romanazzi

I'd like to add one more little detail:

Pinyin of 慢慢儿: mànmānr. Here 儿 is not pronounced as ér (an exception might be its pronunciation in lyrics for balance or euphony). It is just a phonetic notation suffix to indicate the retroflexion of the second 慢. In Chinese this rule is called 儿化. Its pinyin is mānr, but the consonant "n" is not pronounced, so the actual pronunciation is mànmār. In this case of reduplication of an adjective (形容词重叠，AA儿式), the second 慢 changes into the first tone (阴平). Other examples are 好好儿 (hǎohāor, pronounced hǎohār) and 长长儿的 (chángchāngrde, pronounced chángchārde). As I said in another post, despite being a rule of Standard Mandarin, in the south of China (including Shanghai) it is definitely unknown or completely ignored. It seems that a lot of people really don't like it!


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## SuperXW

I thought man4manr1 would be dialectical, as it had a clear Beijing accent, turned out it is the standard.


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## retrogradedwithwind

SuperXW said:


> I thought man4manr1 would be dialectical, as it had a clear Beijing accent, turned out it is the standard.



按儿化与否，可以有几种读法。

1，mànmān
2，mànmānr
3，mànrmānr

给人的感觉是不一样的。


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## SimonTsai

Most people around me pronounce both with the fourth, but it's okay (really) if you pronounce the first '慢' with the fourth and the second with the first. Pronounce it whichever of the two you find easier.


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