Phonetic Differences between Standard Mandarin (普通话Pǔtōnghuà) and Malaysian-Singaporean Mandarin (花语Huāyǔ)

The idea for this piece came about because while I’m taking Mandarin language courses from a Chinese cultural centre from mainland China, I live in Malaysia where the majority of local Chinese are schooled and brought up speaking Huayu, the local Malaysian dialect of Mandarin. There are differences such as the usage of certain words, grammatical deviations and even the pronunciation differences for many phonemes.


History had a hand in determining the variation in Malaysian/Singaporean Mandarin. First of all, when the Chinese settled in then Malaya in the 19th century, none of them were native speakers of the Mandarin dialect. Only when the Republic of China formed, the Chinese in Malaya gained a sense of Chinese nationalism towards the mainland. Mandarin was adopted as the Chinese people’s unifying language to be taught in local Chinese schools in Malaya, mirroring developments in China.


However, since the Malaysian Chinese were in a foreign land, they were heavily influenced by their original dialects (like Hokkien and Cantonese) as well as Malay and English. This was exacerbated when the Communists took over China and implemented a closed door policy. The cultural link to China had been all but severed. Hence, the local variety of Mandarin was free to evolve on its own.


Personally, if I were creating a new universal language, it would sound nothing like Mandarin. The problems that I have with Mandarin, as do so many people in the world have, are that so many consonants sound so similar. I compiled a list that compares between Standard Mandarin, what Malaysians think they know about Mandarin and how Malaysian Mandarin speakers really sound like. This is following my exasperating attempt to make sense of all the indecipherable chatter I hear.


Understanding of the pinyin system is needed to understanding the following list. In addition, there are a few concepts to introduce for the table to make sense:

*Aspirated means that a strong puff of air accompanies the consonant when it is sounded. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, you can hold a tissue up to your mouth. The tissue flutters with aspirated consonants while it doesn’t flutter with unaspirated ones.

Fricatives	Affricate
Consonant sounds produced by forcing air through a narrow channel in the mouth. In English s (sing) and z (zoom) are examples.	Consonants sounds that comprise of two stages. First, vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. Next, that restriction is loosened a little, while air is blown, resulting in a frication sound. In English, j (juice) and ch (choose) are examples.

Tongue Position	Description
Blade-alveolar	Roll up the tip of the tongue (blade) against the bony ridge behind the front teeth at the top of the mouth (alveolar ridge)
Blade-palatal	Roll up the tip of the tongue (blade) against the centre of the roof of the mouth (hard palate).
Palatal	The tip of the tongue is pressed against the back of the lower teeth, the rest of the tongue is against the roof of the mouth (hard palate)

The Phonetic/Pronunciation Differences between Standard Mandarin and Malaysian Mandarin

Initial Consonant	Standard Mandarin(普通话Pǔtōnghuà)	Malaysian Mandarin(花语Huāyǔ)	Malaysian Mandarin(Fast & Lazy Speech)
ch	Blade-palatal position, aspirated, affricate. Sounds not too dissimilar from the English ‘ch’	Very much like the English ‘ch’. Malaysians do not grasp concept of aspiration	Same as left
zh	Blade-palatal position, unaspirated, affricate. Has slight buzzing quality to sound.	Sound similar to Standard Mandarin, but tongue not rolled back enough.	Very much like the English ‘ch’.
sh	Blade-palatal position, fricative. Sounds similar to English ‘sh’ but with tongue rolled up	Very much like the English ‘sh’.	Sound like the English ‘s’.
c	Blade-alveolar position, aspirated, affricate.	Very much like the English ‘ch’.	Same as left
z	Blade-alveolar position, unaspirated, affricate. Has slight buzzing quality to sound.	Same as left	Very much like the English ‘ch’.
x	Palatal position, fricative. Not too dissimilar from the English ‘sh’	Sound like the English ‘s’.	Same as left
q	Palatal position, aspirated, affricate. Pursed lips help the aspiration process.	Same as left	Very much like the English ‘ch’.
j	Palatal position, unaspirated, affricate	Same as left	Same as left
s	Blade-alveolar position, fricative.	Same as left	Same as left

Malaysians narrow down the number of consonants when they speak fast. Five distinct consonants end up sounding like the English ‘ch’. Mandarin uses a lot of aspiration as a means to differentiate between different consonants. That’s an issue when people speak fast because no one can produce that puff of air in such short time. Aspirated consonants therefore sound unaspirated.

A good resource: ChinesePod 

Mandarin is so hard. Cantonese is a walk in the park by comparison. Just watch Hong Kong dramas/movies, and you’re speaking like the locals. For Mandarin, it’s been a hundred years and we still couldn’t get it. For me personally, I find that the written characters much easier than spoken Mandarin despite the number of characters to remember.