Petrichor wrote: Feiren wrote:
Petrichor wrote:Can anyone clear up how the 'e' sound such as for example in zhenni 珍妮 should be pronounced? I've had people correct me one way then other people correct me back again! Some say it should be like the schwa /ə/ and then others correct me and say it should be /e/. I think this may be a Taiwanese Mandarin/mainland Mandarin thing. PAVC pronounces it /e/ but it uses mainland pronunciation for other sounds for sure. Don't know about this one.
I'm surprised to hear that you are being corrected on this, I wonder if it is something else. What do you think the tones are?
Thanks Feiren, but is it /e/ as in egg or /ə/ as in the?
It's definitely the sound of the 'e'. I've also been corrected on ben (stupid). I've pronounced it /e/ as in egg and corrected to /ə/. Another example is wenti (problem).
It should be more like the /e/ as in egg. The /e/ in Jen is the same as the e in the English 'Jenny'. But by itself. 'e' is like the /ə/ as in the. For example, e4 'hungry, starving' is quite different from the 'e' in Zhen, Wen, or Ben.
I notice that all of these problem words end in 'n'. The Mandarin 'n' ends earlier than the English n. The tongue stays on the palate and is not released.
Mandarin speakers with Taiwanese-inflected Mandarin pronounce these differently. But these speakers very rarely correct others since (a) they know their Mandarin is 'non-standard' and (b) they are either (1) proud of their non-standard pronunciation or (2) don't care.