<p>This is actually one example of a more general phenomenon. Mandarin, as spoken in Taiwan, uses weak stress (the neutral tone) much less often than Mandarin as spoken in northern areas. This is true not only of Taiwan speakers, but of other areas as well.  According to Jerry Norman's 1988 book, <em>Chinese</em> (p. 149):</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Weak stress (neutral tone) is an essential feature of the standard
  language, and of most northern dialects, but because its occurrence is
  lexically determined it is difficult for non-Peking speakers to
  master. Speakers of putonghua from many regions in South China,
  however, employ only a very small number of weakly stressed syllables,
  and these are chiefly limited to grammatical suffixes and particles.</p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-09-11T05:35:10.510Z
Great stuff. I had actually known about this a couple of years ago but forgot about it while I wasn't exposed to Chinese, or at least to Taiwan.
hippietrail
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-09-11T01:31:35.127Z
2016-09-11T01:31:35.127Z
wpt
<p>I dont know about taiwan, but both ways of pronunciation( tone, specifically) are natural in mainland China. And tou5 does sound native to people in many parts of China, but I myself barely notice.</p>

<p>Dictionaries can't tell you stuff like this.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-09-14T09:25:55.987Z
Well dictionaries *can* tell stuff like this if they are well made. But not all dictionaries actually *do*.
hippietrail
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-09-14T07:09:16.700Z
2016-09-14T07:09:16.700Z
Sheldon
<p>In my opinion, it is a regional pronunciation difference. I've checked the educational bureau dictionary of Taiwan, it is yùtou5.</p>

<p>However, it is often pronounced as yùtóu. And personally, I said this a lot too.</p>

<p>頭tóu:</p>

<ol>
<li>head ex.人頭</li>
<li>leader</li>
<li>top or end ex. 山頭</li>
<li>beginning of an event ex.從頭開始</li>
<li>measurement ex.一頭牛</li>
<li>using as adjective, beginning of, in the front ex.頭幾排</li>
<li>those just some common usages... and more you can check the dictionary (the dictionary which I used is called 萌典, a Taiwanese Mandarin dictionary)</li>
</ol>

<p>頭tou5:</p>

<p>suffix ex.舌頭、上頭</p>

<p>And most of the people just pronounce all as tóu here in Taiwan.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-09-20T11:05:30.523Z
2016-09-20T11:05:30.523Z
Ani
<blockquote>
  <p><a href="http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/83/" rel="nofollow">http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/83/</a></p>
</blockquote>

<p>There'are two different pinyin of 頭 in Mandarin: |tou2| tou5|</p>

<pre><code>頭|tou2|
[1] [n] head; hair; hairstyle
[2] [adj] first; top; start; end
[3] [n] chief; leader; boss
[4] [n] side; party; aspect
[5] classifier for certain domestic animals

頭|tou5
suffix for certain objects, location words, and adjectives (to form a noun)|

Example:
彩頭 cai3 tou2
頭髮 tou2 fa3  
風頭 feng1 tou2
鐘頭  zhong1 tou2 
</code></pre>

<p>All the example words contained 頭 has tone 2 reading. (I am wondering why they didn't include a tone 5 reading example.) It shows  |tou2| is the primary pinyin of 頭</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-09-09T06:56:58.420Z
I've only checked Wiktionary and Perapera so far. I'm sure Perapera gets its data from CEDICT. Of course both Wiktionary and CEDICT are community-edited projects. So they will contain errors and omissions but those can also be fixed by their communities.
hippietrail
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-09-09T06:19:03.913Z
2016-09-09T06:19:03.913Z
Tang Ho
<p>My friends in Kaohsiung just taught me the word for "taro" 芋頭.</p>

<p>I looked it up and found yu4 tou5 but my friends here insist it's yu4 tou2.</p>

<p>Is this a pronunciation difference between Taiwan vs the mainland?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-09-08T18:19:23.603Z
examples of nouns with suffix 头 tóu or tou (cf. ISBN 0-415-15174-0)  **tou** : 锄头、木头、**芋头** 、舌头、骨头、榔头、砖头、馒头、指头、浪头、念头、想头（colloq）、看头（colloq），甜头、奔头儿， **tóu**  ：年头、苦头、噱头（dial）、钟头
user6065
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-09-09T04:16:42.880Z
My popup dictionary (Perapera), which usually does show multiple pronunciations, only shows one for each of these. It shows only tone 5 for all of them except 年头, 噱头, and 钟头, for which it shows only tone 2. I haven't checked any other dictionaries yet. Thanks!
hippietrail
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-09-20T14:34:32.497Z
http://www.kinezika.info/pdf/ModernMandarinChineseGrammar_Textbook.pdf："In Beijing  and  northern  China,  certain  syllables  lose  their  original  tone  and  are pronounced as neutral tone. This tone change does not occur in Taiwan, where all syllables retain their original tones。"
user6065
<mandarin><pronunciation><tones><taiwan>
Does 芋頭 have a different pronunciation in Taiwan Mandarin vs Mainland?
# Does 芋頭 have a different pronunciation in Taiwan Mandarin vs Mainland?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-09-08)

My friends in Kaohsiung just taught me the word for "taro" 芋頭.

I looked it up and found yu4 tou5 but my friends here insist it's yu4 tou2.

Is this a pronunciation difference between Taiwan vs the mainland?

**Tags:** mandarin, pronunciation, tones, taiwan

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: examples of nouns with suffix 头 tóu or tou (cf. ISBN 0-415-15174-0)  **tou** : 锄头、木头、**芋头** 、舌头、骨头、榔头、砖头、馒头、指头、浪头、念头、想头（colloq）、看头（colloq），甜头、奔头儿， **tóu**  ：年头、苦头、噱头（dial）、钟头  
> **username_0**: My popup dictionary (Perapera), which usually does show multiple pronunciations, only shows one for each of these. It shows only tone 5 for all of them except 年头, 噱头, and 钟头, for which it shows only tone 2. I haven't checked any other dictionaries yet. Thanks!  
> **username_1**: http://www.kinezika.info/pdf/ModernMandarinChineseGrammar_Textbook.pdf："In Beijing  and  northern  China,  certain  syllables  lose  their  original  tone  and  are pronounced as neutral tone. This tone change does not occur in Taiwan, where all syllables retain their original tones。"  

---

## 4 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2016-09-11. Score: 3

This is actually one example of a more general phenomenon. Mandarin, as spoken in Taiwan, uses weak stress (the neutral tone) much less often than Mandarin as spoken in northern areas. This is true not only of Taiwan speakers, but of other areas as well. According to Jerry Norman's 1988 book, *Chinese* (p. 149):

> Weak stress (neutral tone) is an essential feature of the standard
> language, and of most northern dialects, but because its occurrence is
> lexically determined it is difficult for non-Peking speakers to
> master. Speakers of putonghua from many regions in South China,
> however, employ only a very small number of weakly stressed syllables,
> and these are chiefly limited to grammatical suffixes and particles.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Great stuff. I had actually known about this a couple of years ago but forgot about it while I wasn't exposed to Chinese, or at least to Taiwan.  

---

### Answer by username_3 on 2016-09-14. Score: 1

I dont know about taiwan, but both ways of pronunciation( tone, specifically) are natural in mainland China. And tou5 does sound native to people in many parts of China, but I myself barely notice.

Dictionaries can't tell you stuff like this.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Well dictionaries *can* tell stuff like this if they are well made. But not all dictionaries actually *do*.  

---

### Answer by username_4 on 2016-09-20. Score: 1

In my opinion, it is a regional pronunciation difference. I've checked the educational bureau dictionary of Taiwan, it is yùtou5.

However, it is often pronounced as yùtóu. And personally, I said this a lot too.

頭tóu:

1. head ex.人頭
2. leader
3. top or end ex. 山頭
4. beginning of an event ex.從頭開始
5. measurement ex.一頭牛
6. using as adjective, beginning of, in the front ex.頭幾排
7. those just some common usages... and more you can check the dictionary (the dictionary which I used is called 萌典, a Taiwanese Mandarin dictionary)

頭tou5:

suffix ex.舌頭、上頭

And most of the people just pronounce all as tóu here in Taiwan.


---

### Answer by username_5 on 2016-09-09. Score: 0

> <http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/83/>

There'are two different pinyin of 頭 in Mandarin: |tou2| tou5|

```
頭|tou2|
[1] [n] head; hair; hairstyle
[2] [adj] first; top; start; end
[3] [n] chief; leader; boss
[4] [n] side; party; aspect
[5] classifier for certain domestic animals

頭|tou5
suffix for certain objects, location words, and adjectives (to form a noun)|

Example:
彩頭 cai3 tou2
頭髮 tou2 fa3  
風頭 feng1 tou2
鐘頭  zhong1 tou2 

```

All the example words contained 頭 has tone 2 reading. (I am wondering why they didn't include a tone 5 reading example.) It shows |tou2| is the primary pinyin of 頭

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: I've only checked Wiktionary and Perapera so far. I'm sure Perapera gets its data from CEDICT. Of course both Wiktionary and CEDICT are community-edited projects. So they will contain errors and omissions but those can also be fixed by their communities.  

---

