Tones, Then and Now

[This is a guest post by Don Keyser]

I was relieved/reassured to read this in Language Log yesterday:

VHM:  I myself remember very clearly being taught to say gongheguo 共和國 ("republic") and gongchandang 共產黨 (Communist Party) with the first syllable of each being in the first tone, then being surprised later when the PRC started pushing fourth tone for those first syllables.  This sort of thing happened with many other words as well, with, for example, xingqi 星期 ("week"), which I had been taught as first tone followed by second tone, becoming  two first tones.

My first Chinese language instructor, Beverly (Hong Yuebi) Fincher, used Chao Yuan-ren's Mandarin Primer.  Later I studied a couple years, full-time, at the "Stanford Center" (Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies) hosted by National Taiwan University.  Subsequent to that, a half decade later, I spent a year in Mandarin interpreter training at the government's Foreign Service Institute Branch School in Taiwan. In my "spare time" during that program, I studied daily an hour of Shanghainese and "Taiwanese" (i.e., Hoklo, or southern Min, or whatever). 

So when I arrived in Beijing spring 1976 on the first of my three postings there, and encountered what you describe, on something as basic and oft-heard as gongchandang 共產黨, I concluded that my memory and/or learning and/or articulation skills were horribly deficient.  (They probably were, but that's another story.)  I convinced myself that I must have a real issue in distinguishing adequately between first and fourth tones. 

Very parenthetically, I found peculiarly useful for tone-learning/reinforcement the necessity to listen "solemnly" to the guógē 國歌 ("national anthem") in movie theaters prior to the showing of the film.  The characters were printed on screen as patriotic images floated by, and the tones in each of the four-character sets were pronounced in the purest Beijing-style Mandarin (i.e., not with the distinctive southern Mandarin pronunciation heard in Taipei at the time).  

[VHM:  I had the same experience with regard to solemnly singing the national anthem of the Republic of China before the film was shown, though, in addition, I also couldn't help but think of Sun Yat-sen (who penned it) and his Three People's Principles, plus Abraham Lincoln's "government of the people, by the people, and for the people".]

—–

During my two years at the Stanford Center, I commuted via motorcycles (a Suzuki 125 and a Honda 150).  They were fairly reliable beasts, but of course needed maintenance and minor repairs from time to time.  So I early learned my share of "motorcycle-repair" vocabulary to be deployed when I took in my noble steed to one of the local shops. I still remember vividly that the workers at one "complimented" me on my Mandarin … but added the observation that "However, you foreigners do not seem able to pronounce correctly the word 是 … none of you say 'si'/szu' but make some very foreign sound."  By which they meant 'shi.' I then did my rendition of 44 stone lions, all using "si" instead of "shi" where needed, which duly impressed them.  And puzzled them.  "So why if you CAN make that sound, do you not do so when speaking Guóyǔ 國語 ('Mandarin')?" Reflecting my youth and lack of good sense, I told them that Mandarin, which we were taught to speak in its northern/Beijing pronunciation, has both the "si" and the "shi" sounds.  To their disbelief, I countered by asking if they had not been taught the zhùyīn fúhào 注音符號 or ㄅ, ㄆ, ㄇ,  ㄈ ("bo po mo fo"; "Mandarin Phonetic Symbols") system in their schools.

[end of guest post]

Selected readings

• "A Hainanese mystery" (8/21/24)
• "Hypercorrect Mandarin tones" (10/15/23)