Shenyang Mandarin

Shenyang Mandarin (Chinese: 沈阳话) is a dialect of Northeastern Mandarin used by people in and around Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning province and the largest city in Northeast China. It is very close to Standard Chinese but has some notably distinctive words. Some people think of it as a strong accent rather than a distinct dialect. Because of its similarity to the standard language, pinyin can be used to represent the pronunciation.

However, as schools in Shenyang teach only the standard language, usage of the dialect is dwindling.

Relative pitch changes of the four tones in Standard Chinese. Shenyang diverges the most with tone 1.

The most distinctive aspect of the Shenyang dialect is the much lower pitch of the first tone than in Standard Chinese. It would be positioned at 2, rather than 5, on the chart at right. As a result, it can sound rather like the third tone.

Like Beijing dialect, Shenyang dialect is characterized by erhua (儿化).

Some of the words in Shenyang dialect come from other languages like the Manchu language. One example is 旮旯儿 gālár 'corner'.

Examples of words in various Northeastern dialects (note that these are not specific to Shenyang):

References