Why do I hear Chinese say "ying-yang"?

[Owledge]

It's written yin-yang in the system, but several times now I have heard a Chinese say it, and yin sounded much more like "ying". Or maybe "yiñ" would be more accurate.

Why is this so? Dialect? Flaw in the transliteration system?

[Shubin]

Most likely it was a dialect, because there are eight major dialects in China, and some sub dialects under the 8 major dialects.

 

For example, you can hear the sound of "Yin" in Cantonese and Shanghainese at:

http://www.yueyv.cn/?keyword=%D2%F5&submit=%B2%E9+%D4%83

https://wu-chinese.com/minidict/search.php?searchkey=阴&searchlang=zaonhe&category=

 

Hope it could help.

[Owledge]

3 hours ago, Shubin said:

Most likely it was a dialect, because there are eight major dialects in China, and some sub dialects under the 8 major dialects.

 

For example, you can hear the sound of "Yin" in Cantonese and Shanghainese at:

http://www.yueyv.cn/?keyword=%D2%F5&submit=%B2%E9+%D4%83

https://wu-chinese.com/minidict/search.php?searchkey=阴&searchlang=zaonhe&category=

 

Hope it could help.

Those linked pages are giving me a hard time, but at least one Chinese I heard saying 'yiñ' is Cantonese.

 

It is mindboggling how with a language like that where subtle intonation changes the meaning they then also have dialects that make one word sound like another.

 

Today I heard that Vietnam managed to boost literacy vastly by switching the Vietnamese script to roman letters. (And apparently Vietnamese also has six different intonations, and that's not even the maximum among languages.)

Edited March 18, 2019 by Owledge

[Rocky Lionmouth]

Sifu is native cantonese speaker and he’s always said Yam-yong, except for when he says it in Mandarin by way of English and the he pronounces it Yim-Yan and the final g is almost silent. However the times i’ve witnessed him speak with strangers in chinese young folks have trouble understanding his dialect and he expresses himself in a pretty old fashioned way apparently, kids today huh?

[Shubin]

18 hours ago, Owledge said:

Those linked pages are giving me a hard time, but at least one Chinese I heard saying 'yiñ' is Cantonese.

 

If open the second link with Chrome, and then right click on the page, you can pick "Translate to English", so you would be able to hear the sound by clicking on the icon of  a small yellow speaker.

 

[Rara]

When I say Pu'er or Sichuan to the Chinese people that I know, they get so puzzled. I end up going further with my descriptions until they understand and correct me.

 

It's all good us saying yin yang to each other, being western and having our own "dialect" for these things, if you will. I've given up trying to pronounce things correctly when speaking with the Chinese for now haha.

 

I'll be over in the country in a few weeks. That should be even more fun!

[Owledge]

1 hour ago, GSmaster said:

Because people say things however they want, words are there for our comfort.

Today I could say Tao, tomorrow Dao, next day It is Ciao

 

Linguistic laziness breeds misunderstandings. Some of them with severe consequences much-deserved.

 

BTW, did you realize that typical blue-collar accents often came about due to actual physical laziness (or energy saving if you want to call it that)? You take the language and speak it while pretending that your face muscles are half-paralyzed and you're getting the accent. (Works with English.)

Edited April 11, 2019 by Owledge

[Owledge]

@GSmaster Blnc brngs hlth.

 

I believe that doing things well is worthy. It requires effort that brings us to a better place. Mediocrity rule created the world as it is. And when I say mediocrity, I do not mean a healthy balance, but people succumbing to the difficulties spawned by fear.

Edited April 11, 2019 by Owledge

[Owledge]

1 hour ago, GSmaster said:

 

Mediocrity does not come out of effort or lack of effort.

 

It is in our nature, we are born as monkeys.

 

 

What is worthy, is always relative.

 

For me some things are worthy, for others other things are worthy.

 

In global scale, none of us are worth anything, even our planet as whole is smaller that a piece of dust in boundless space.

 

Living whole life understanding this simple truth, its harsh, but its true.

 

There's lots of personal choice of belief and viewpoints in that, too.

Harnessing the creator power comes with responsibility, but I prefer it over comparing myself to everything else in existence. Seems very ego-affirming by torturing it. I am a part of the whole and as such also everything.

[Rocky Lionmouth]

Working class dialect is not born out of laziness, thats just not very owlducated or intowligent as a statement.