<p>Yes. It is not unusual for native Chinese to have difficulties distinguishing between nasal vs non-nasal or alveolars vs retroflexed, but I have never met someone who has difficulties distinguishing between the 4 tones in Mandarin. Though I am learning Cantonese right now and for me, a native Mandarin-speaking Chinese the 6 tones of Cantonese is a little bit tricky. I can't answer if this is true with regards to all tone languages, just my observation. Hope it helps</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-02-03T15:41:40.543Z
2019-02-03T15:41:40.543Z
jxhyc
<p>It seems like people are more sensitive to tones instead of phonemes. People may not notice some vowels/consonants are wrong but will immediately find that  tones are weird. Does this apply for all tonal languages?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-02-03T11:02:59.100Z
This sounds like a question that might be more appropriate for https://linguistics.stackexchange.com/
Mou某
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-02-03T22:27:01.840Z
Even as a beginner I have noticed while listening in a noisy car that tones remain distinguishable even when it becomes hard to hear things like -n vs -ng or some similar initials.
Ben Jackson
<pronunciation>
Are Chinese native speakers more sensitive to tones or phonemes?
# Are Chinese native speakers more sensitive to tones or phonemes?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-02-03)

It seems like people are more sensitive to tones instead of phonemes. People may not notice some vowels/consonants are wrong but will immediately find that tones are weird. Does this apply for all tonal languages?

**Tags:** pronunciation

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: This sounds like a question that might be more appropriate for https://linguistics.stackexchange.com/  
> **username_2**: Even as a beginner I have noticed while listening in a noisy car that tones remain distinguishable even when it becomes hard to hear things like -n vs -ng or some similar initials.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2019-02-03. Score: 5

Yes. It is not unusual for native Chinese to have difficulties distinguishing between nasal vs non-nasal or alveolars vs retroflexed, but I have never met someone who has difficulties distinguishing between the 4 tones in Mandarin. Though I am learning Cantonese right now and for me, a native Mandarin-speaking Chinese the 6 tones of Cantonese is a little bit tricky. I can't answer if this is true with regards to all tone languages, just my observation. Hope it helps


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