- Shenyang Mandarin
Shenyang Mandarin (瀋陽話) is a variant of
Northeastern Mandarin used by people inShenyang , the capital ofLiaoning province and the largest city inNortheast China . It is very close to the official Mandarin dialect but has some very distinctive words that the official language doesn't have. In the main, the Shenyang Dialect is very similar to the other Northeastern Dialects. Some people prefer to think of it as a strong accent rather than a different dialect. Because of its similarity toStandard Mandarin ,pinyin can be used to represent the pronunciation.However as schools in Shenyang teach
Standard Mandarin , usage of the local language is dwindling. Many now see it as a sign of bad education and something to look down upon.The most distinctive part of the Shenyang Dialect is the different pitch of the first tone. It is lower in pitch than
Standard Mandarin and would be positioned at 2, rather than 5, on this chart. As a result it can sound a little like the third tone.Like Beijing Dialect, the Shenyang Dialect also uses a lot of
erhua (兒化).Some of the words in Shenyang Dialect come from other languages like
Manchurian . One example is the word 旮旯兒 (gālár), meaning corner.Examples of words in the Northeastern Dialect (note that these words may not be specific to Shenyang):
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