# Pronunciation: 想什么



## yuechu

Hello/大家好，

I have a question regarding the tones in the following sentence:

你到底在*想什么*？

While watching a TV show today, I heard this sentence being clearly pronounced "你到底在想xiang2什shen3么me0"? (in a Mainland Chinese drama, pronounced by a Taiwanese actor) opposed to xiang3shen2me0.

http://tv.sohu.com/20120711/n347918320.shtml
11m20s

I have actually caught myself, in the following situation : [3rd-tone-verb + 什么], to pronounce the 什么 at a lower tone than the 3rd-tone-verb (in this case 想) and thought that I must be pronouncing it wrong (since independently, the characters are xiang3 + shen2 + me0). Despite not having seen a case of tone sandhi (变调) like this in any books before, is it common to pronounce it this way in a [3rd-tone-verb + 什么] pattern? Would you yourself also pronounce 什么 at a lower pitch?

Thanks/谢谢！


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## SuperXW

I think this is among the most typical differences between a Taiwanese tone and a Putonghua tone. Got to say whenever you hear "xiang2-shen3-me0", you know it's from a Taiwanese. To some Mainland Chinese, it's fun to imitate 台湾腔 and pretend to be a Taiwanese actors in this way...


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## Laurant

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzQzOTU3ODE2.html "是你们，你们要干什么？" (si4 ni3 men2, ni3 men0 yao3 gan4 sen3 mo2 ) The man in rouge is imitating the way of Taiwanese`s pronociation .   (00:03s-00:05s)


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## yuechu

Thanks to both of your for your replies! Ah, it looks like it is indeed a typical Taiwanese pronunciation. (什么 = sen3mo2)

@Laurant
Your video is funny. I didn't use to know what made Taiwanese Mandarin unique (or perhaps just because I haven't heard it for years), but that video identifies/demonstrates a lot of characteristics of the accent!


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## Laurant

I think the difference of mandarin between  Mainland and Taiwan just like the difference of english between US and Uk .


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## FRee^ARouND

Well, I think both tones are acceptable and even a native speaker could not judge where the person comes from simply by the tone in this case, or is it just me? Nevertheless I could tell that by the way one pronounce "什".

go Canada!


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## yuechu

I also didn't think that this was necessarily only characteristic of the Taiwanese accent... (for some reason, I thought I'd heard someone from Beijing say it before. but I probably misheard.. ). I asked a Chinese friend from Guangxi, and he said that he thinks "shen3me2" sounds 'weird and wrong' (in his words. I guess maybe he'd never heard it before. ha.. it looks like it is a very subjective (just like in English for "a historical" vs "an historical" and countless other cases.. ) I had predicted that the pronunciation was common to all 南方  but it looks like it is not)

Has anyone else heard this pronunciation in Mainland China before? Is it perhaps a pronunciation influenced from 闽南话？


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## FRee^ARouND

It really depends on the where that one comes from. Come on, it happens to every country which has more than one accent within. Some Canadians think Saskatchewan accent is strange/funny but it is the way they speak in their province. That's it. You can check the reason on-line but I think what you said is true. Plus, in PRC technically  we do not speak Mandarin; we speak Pu Tong Hua(Received Chinese Pronunciation) instead. I believe they made few changes to Mandarin when they set the standards for the pronunciations in Mainland.


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## SuperXW

It's not strictly 100% Taiwanese accent (nothing in a language is 100%, of course), but it's typical. Most Taiwanese would say "shen3 me0" and most Mainlanders say "shen2 me0".
You want a more obvious one? Try "xiang2 sen3 mo2~~~"


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## FRee^ARouND

SuperXW said:


> It's not strict 100% Taiwanese accent (nothing in a language is 100%, of course), but it's typical. Most Taiwanese would say "shen3 me0" and most Mainlanders say "she2 me0".


Interesting! At least in my home we speak shen3 me2. I am the minority! What's wrong with me


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## SuperXW

Come on you ARE the minority in that case and nothing is wrong with you. -.-

Do you only say shen3me0 or you also have accent (something that is different to pinyin standard) on other words?

Another reason why we got an instant Taiwanese feeling is because "你到底在想2什3么0" is a common Taiwanese expression while in Northern China it's usually "你到底想什么呢" etc.


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## FRee^ARouND

SuperXW said:


> Come on you ARE the minority in that case and nothing is wrong with you. -.-
> 
> Do you only say shen3me0 or you also have accent (something that is different to pinyin standard) on other words?


I grew up in a closed military university and believe I speak standard Chinese and have no/insignificant accent. It just might because I watched too many HK movies dubbed by Taiwanese when I was young. However,  "什么" is one of the words I speak most. No one ever told me I pronounce it in a strange way and I could not sense that everyone else were using a different pronunciation/tone either.


> Another reason why we got an instant Taiwanese feeling is because  "你到底在想2什3么0" is a common Taiwanese expression while in Northern China  it's usually "你到底想什么呢" etc.


I usually put "啊" at the end. I use "呢" when I want to play cute


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