2nd Tone Confusion

[walter100]

This Say it Right series is a good job by all! It clarified several things that I did not understand. Can you clear up my confusion about the second tone?

In the Tones 2 video, 徐老师 teaches the 2nd tone as a short “grace note” which rapidly changes to a higher, flat tone at higher volume, but what I hear in the lesson drill and in the recordings of my text book is a more gradual change in tone from low to high. What’s more, in my text, it starts quite low.

Am I just hearing it wrong? Should I make efforts to get the sound 徐老师 teaches, or just emulate the recordings of my text?

BR,
Walter

[daxulaoshi]

Hi Walter,

As what we’ve talked about in our program, the most important point of the 2. tone in Mandarin is the rising pitch variation, which is a high rising, narrower than 4 semitones in speaking flow, and the ending pitch stronger than the beginning. But many teachers use to widening the pitch range as an emphasizing strategy, while it could be different from the authentic way in daily conversation. Another situation is, some Chinese speakers use to adapting the rising tone in their mother tongue (other Sino-language) to speak Mandarin’s 2. Tone. In those Sino-languges, rising tone could be a low ring (normally front stronger) instead of a high rising (normally back stronger), which could be very similar to the emphasis pattern of the 3. tone in Mandarin.

Since I have not yet listened to the recordings you mentioned, I can not tell what situation you have met. But I strongly recommend you to follow our way in our program!

Frederic Xu

[walter100]

Thanks!

I definitely try to pronounce 2nd tone your way, but the rate of success is not high.
More practice…

Walter

[daxulaoshi]

Tips:
Quick pitch switching and Crescendo