How Do You Pronounce 哪里 nǎli (where) Correctly?
calkins
February 21, 2008 at 03:42 AM posted in General DiscussionI've seen "where" written in pinyin as "nǎli" and "nǎlǐ". Nǎli seems to be used more often. My question is how do you pronounce it correctly?
If it's "nǎli", then it's 3rd tone, neutral tone.
If it's "nǎlǐ", then it's 2nd tone, 3rd tone (first 3rd tone turns into a second tone).
Please clarify...thank you!
Brent
azerdocmom
February 22, 2008 at 07:11 PM
Arrggghh! My secret identity reVEALED!! MUUUWAAHAAAAA!!! I'll get you, turtle, AND your little dog too!
(Lunetta, I graduated 6th grade a LONG time ago; it was like, umm, like last year or somethin' )
calkins
February 22, 2008 at 02:22 PM
Lunetta, I wish I could go back to 6th grade......knowing what I know now:)
Wait, I guess it's not a whole lot more!
lunetta
February 22, 2008 at 12:51 PM
Brent and Alice, are you sure you're not in 6th grade? Because it sounds just like something that the kids tried to pull on me today. ;-)
calkins
February 21, 2008 at 09:25 PM
Par for the course...that's Mandarin for ya! Thanks for the additional info. Alice. 你真聪明 :)
azerdocmom
February 21, 2008 at 08:41 PM
Brent, let me just add a tiny point. As I thought about this I realised that the above is true when asking a question with na3li3. But, when nali is used as a response to deflect a complement, the li may sound like a neutral tone, but it's most natural sounding when said with just the first portion of the third tone i.e. the downward stroke. So, for instance, one might say, 你真聪明! One might respond with 哪里,哪里 to mean, "not really." Hope this doesn't confuse you.
calkins
February 21, 2008 at 03:25 PM
Thanks everyone! Alice, I will go with your explanation since I'm going for the Taiwan dialect. Thanks thanks thanks!
azerdocmom
February 21, 2008 at 02:13 PM
Brent, your question merely illustrates another example of the differences in pronunciation of Mainland Mandarin Chinese and Taiwan Mandarin Chinese. Since I'm from Taiwan originally, I can tell you for certain that over there, they say, "na3li3" and not "na3li"; the "na" follows the two third tone rule i.e. na2li3.
bababoo
February 21, 2008 at 11:14 AM
AuntySue, I think you are right. Li of nali is strown up as a high squeak. I think that's the kid pronounced it excitedly.
and I also think almost all the kid will pronounce like that in that situation.
that pronunciation is very not standard but is vivid and based on life.
AuntySue
February 21, 2008 at 10:56 AM
I've always wanted to ask about the child's inaccurate pronunciation in this lesson http://chinesepod.com/lessons/where-children-come-from/discussion where the li of nali is thrown up as a high squeak. Is that something kids do to neutral tones when they're excited, or just to this word, or just this kid this time?
johnb
February 21, 2008 at 06:39 AM
In my experience, the 'li' is almost always pronounced with the neutral tone for both 哪里 and 那里.
cassielin
February 21, 2008 at 05:36 AM
Calkins,
哪里na3li3=where
那里na4li3=over there
请问公交站在哪里？qing3wen4 gong1jiao1zhan4 zai4 na3li3?
Where is the bus station please?
在那里。zai4 na4li3
It is over there.
pulosm
June 24, 2008 at 05:14 PMAuntieSue:
It was my understanding that the neutral tone is a high pitched squeak (i.e., end high) when it follows a third tone. This is what I was taught in school and this is what I observed. I must admit though, I speak Chinese with a Taiwanese inflection, so I don't use neutral tones that often and may have a blurred memory of this, but for words like "yi3zi" (chair), I would pronounce the "zi" in a higher tone than I would if the word were "you4zi" (pomelo).