Talk:朝鮮語

Tone

This article claims that 鮮 “is read as xiǎn with a falling-rising contour tone, which is a special reading of this character that is used only when pronouncing the name of Cháoxiǎn (Joseon)”. HanDeDict says the same. Could it be that many people don't know about the special reading or dropped it so xiān has become acceptable?

I noticed that the article does not cite its source. I'd be curious as to where the information comes from. In any case, I just did a quick check of a couple of dictionaries. It is Cháoxiān in all three of the following dictionaries:

• “朝鮮”, in Guoyu Cidian On-line Mandarin Dictionary (國語辭典)‎^[1] (in Mandarin), 2008 April 23 (last accessed)
• 1985, Jingrong (ed.) Wu, The Pinyin CHINESE-ENGLISH DICTIONARY, Beijing, Hong Kong: The Commercial Press, →ISBN:

• 1994, Dictionary of Modern Chinese (現代漢語詞典), Hong Kong: The Commercial Press, →ISBN:

I'll try to do some further checking for you. -- A-cai 13:09, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

You have convinced me, thanks! Dustsucker 20:12, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

BTW, I think I've also found two different tones for 高麗's second syllable in different online dictionaries. Dustsucker 12:37, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

When used to denote the country, the tones should be Gāolí. I confirmed this in the following two dictionaries:

• “高麗”, in Guoyu Cidian On-line Mandarin Dictionary (國語辭典)‎^[2] (in Mandarin), 2008 April 23 (last accessed)
• 1994, Dictionary of Modern Chinese (現代漢語詞典), Hong Kong: The Commercial Press, →ISBN:

Interestingly, Guoyu Cidian On-line Mandarin Dictionary also mentions that 高麗 has an alternate meaning. It is also an adjective (a contraction of 高美華麗: elegant and beautiful). When used as the adjective, it should be read as gāolì. However, I would like to attempt to find at least one other reliable dictionary to confirm the reading of the alternate meaning. -- A-cai 13:27, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Oh, don't bother to further look it up – I must have mistaken the adjective for the country name (which may appear slightly less silly if you bear in mind that I don't understand Chinese) or used an unreliable dictionary. Dustsucker 20:12, 23 April 2008 (UTC)