# Pronunciation: 寻思



## yuechu

Hello/大家好，

I have a question concerning the expression "寻思". I seem to have heard it pronounced (in a TV show: 瞧这一家子) xin2si1. Online dictionaries give both xun2si1 and xin2si1. Are both equally common? Is one better than the other? (or is it regional/level of formality/dialect?)

Thank you in advance!


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## SuperXW

Hi. The word is more like a northen dialect. Native speakers usually pronounce it xin2si0. Since it's colloquial, the sound of 寻 doesn't follow its norm, xun2.


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## xiaolijie

I believe that in careful speech, it's  "xun2si1" but in fast speech, it's "xin2si1".


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## SuperXW

xiaolijie said:


> I believe that in careful speech, it's  "xun2si1" but in fast speech, it's "xin2si1".


Actually, my grandpa would say xin2si0 anyway.  I didn't even know it uses the character 寻 until later I saw it in some TV drama.


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## yuechu

Thank you all for your replies!
Would these be considered literary vs colloquial readings? 文白异读
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_and_colloquial_readings_of_Chinese_characters
.. or are they both considered colloquial readings? (in that classification system)


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## 南島君

This is interesting. 

I can't answer your question directly baosheng. But I just checked with 《廣韻》 that 尋 is a word "supposed" to have -in final（韻母） in the Mandarin just like 林浸侵 under the Middle Chinese(Mid.C) to Mandarin Chinese regular sound change rule (i.e. -in < *-iən < *-jəm). Today, Cantonese 林浸侵尋 is still pronounced with the same final -ɐm.

But what is happening here, to my believe is that there could be an analogy process overwriting the rule and eliminating the correspondence, when 
northern Chinese dialect like Mandarin having lost of final consonant -m to -n, in our dicusssion, 深攝字（深 group of words, with -m final consonant historically）, words with 邪 initial（聲母） in the 臻攝 (words with Mid.C -n final origin) only have the 合口音 (segments having *-u- in it) that the words with 深攝、邪 initial which also happened to have only the 開口音(segments without *-u- in it), has been pronounced same as 臻攝、邪 initial in standard Mandarin when the analogy kicks in.



邪母、臻攝(*-n > -n)邪母、深攝 (*-m > -n)邪母、臻攝(*-n > -n)邪母、深攝 (*-m > -n)開
*-j-
　　　　　YesAnology>>合
*-ju-
　　　　　Yes　　　　　Yes　　　　　Yes



As consequence, standard Mandarin do not have ɕin(xin) with 邪母origin, but only  ɕyn(xun).

Apparently other dialects and even colloquial or variants of Mandarin do not undergo this process and still treat them differently.  
The language spoken by SuperXW's granddad shows retention on the distinction of these two classes in which standard Mandarin takes as a single class.

My two cents.

lc


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## yuechu

Thanks for your reply, 南島君! It is quite fascinating to see how the language's phonetics has evolved. I am also impressed at your understanding of the history of the Chinese language!
(I didn't understand the whole thing actually, but will look up some of those characters when I get home and have my electronic dictionary)

I have the feeling that the "文白异读" distinction does not seem to be very pertinent in modern Mandarin. Am I right? Or.. even if it is there (in some Mainland/TW variant pronunciations), I think it is not a difference that most speakers are very aware of.

Once my Mandarin is better, I will perhaps look more into this. Thanks again!


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## SuperXW

I don't know. There's a similar dialectic word 寻么 (not sure it's 么 or 摸)...seems pronounce xin2me0. Meaning same as 寻思.


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## verastar

I think "寻么" should be “踅摸”, pronounced as xue2mo0
踅摸 is a northern dialect, and has two meanings: one is the same as 寻思, the other one means "look for sth"
e.g. 你在踅摸什么呢？ What are you looking for?


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## SuperXW

verastar said:


> I think "寻么" should be “踅摸”, pronounced as xue2mo0
> 踅摸 is a northern dialect, and has two meanings: one is the same as 寻思, the other one means "look for sth"
> e.g. 你在踅摸什么呢？ What are you looking for?


 Yah, it seems so. Thanks!


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## serious008

Well, I've also considered this question before. I found out that in most city "xin2si1" is pronounced way, in offical way it's pronounced as "xun2si1", but on paper they are both written as "寻思". And for the other question... I think you are talking about "琢磨", which is pronounced as "zuo2mo0". Also in some city it is pronouced as "zhuo2mo0", but written in the same way.


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## SuperXW

serious008 said:


> I think you are talking about "琢磨", which is pronounced as "zuo2mo0". Also in some city it is pronouced as "zhuo2mo0", but written in the same way.


 No, it's xue2mo0, as verastar explained. It's a northern dialect.
现代汉英综合大辞典
踅  [xué]  动 
（来回走; 中途折回） go around; go back and forth.
踅摸 has two meanings, "thinking" or "looking for". "别瞎踅摸了，不就在那儿么？" You can't use 琢磨 for "looking for".


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## serious008

呃。。没看清楚，以为是跟"寻思"相同意思的词呢。对的，，那个“踅摸”我也听过，我有些北方的朋友。
But yes, indeed, "踅摸" means "looking for".


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## shily

你是不是很喜欢汉语？
“寻思”普通话读音为“xun2si1”
而“xin2si1”是中国东北的地方方言。
在中国是以普通话为标准的，所以 “xun2si1”才是正确的读音。
Good luck！


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