<p>I tried the 漢語方言大辭典, and there are many places with the fu pronunciation in the southwest mandarin area, for example 佛豆 (= 蠶豆, fava bean) is pronounced fu tou in 畢節; 佛瓜 (瓠瓜 gourd) is pronounced fu gua in 自貢, etc. Not really surprising; 弗 is fu in Mandarin.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-07-08T08:48:49.633Z
瓠瓜 in 自貢 generally called "硌兜(儿)", tender ones can be food and the old ones were used as a container in old days.
fu gua may be 葫瓜(called 伏瓜).
chilau
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-07-07T10:20:17.860Z
2015-07-07T10:20:17.860Z
wpt
<p>I'm living in Zigong, Sichuan now.</p>

<p>There's no fixed pronunciation of many characters among Sichuan. When mentioned 佛山(A city in Guangdong), young people may say fo2, because Mandarin was spoken in more and more occasions. When referring to a local place, food, ancient things, people prefer to speak fu2 (佛教,大佛,牛佛烘肘).</p>

<p>In addition, experts thought Pinyin has many defects, such as</p>

<ul>
<li>It's designed for Mandarin, zh ch sh and cacuminal actually only apply to Mandarin</li>
<li>It's designed to take place Chinese Characters in the special days(A 'great' people proposed that), but failed.</li>
<li>Some pronunciations are confusing, especially for foreigners.</li>
</ul>

<p>So, it's not scientific to speak 四川话 in Pinyin. Maybe Wade–Giles system is a better choose.</p>

<p>In daily practice, 佛 is spoken as fo2.5.</p>

<p>四川话 cannot be simply expressed by Mandarin or a book, so it's normal for dictionary to be riddled with errors.
In different context pronunciations differ.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-07-08T17:13:58.877Z
Thanks! Very interesting to hear from the field. As a matter of vocabulary, 'cacuminal' is very rarely used nowadays, the word 'retroflex' is much more common. I'm still puzzled about the pronunciation of 佛. You say 'in daily practice' it is fo, but that for things like 佛教,大佛 etc. it is pronounced fu. What other daily uses does 佛 have besides talking about Buddhism, fava beans, and gourds?
wpt
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-07-08T08:41:06.940Z
2015-07-08T08:41:06.940Z
chilau
<p>The 1986 edition of《四川方言词典》has the following entry:</p>
<p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/R8ZqP.png" alt="乐山的大佛——老石人" /></p>
<blockquote>
<p>乐山的大佛——老石人</p>
<p>Lo2 san1 ni1 da4 fu3——nao3 si2 ren2</p>
<p>乐山大佛距今已有一千多年历史, 所以是“老石人”。谐“老实人”。 ▷你以为他是～嗦? 他才阴倒不老实。</p>
</blockquote>
<p>佛 is given the pronunciation of fu3</p>
<p>The 2014 edition of the same dictionary gives 佛 the pronunciation fu2</p>
<p>/note: this dictionary is riddled with errors(!)/</p>
<p>Logically I would have assumed the pinyin to have been written <code>fo2</code> - which is pretty much how it is pronounced, as far as I can tell.</p>
<p>《四川方言词典》has <code>fu3</code> and <code>fu2</code></p>
<ul>
<li>Are Either <code>fu3</code> or <code>fu2</code> correct pronunciations for 佛 in 四川话?</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-07-03T05:37:45.250Z
This might be interesting for you, but I think it's not spoken in "pure" SIchuanese: http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/w3EKGjEeZ3E/ It's quite long, I guess '佛' is mentioned a few times.
imrek
<pronunciation><topolect>
Pronunciation Of 佛 in 四川话
# Pronunciation Of 佛 in 四川话

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-07-03)

The 1986 edition of《四川方言词典》has the following entry:

![乐山的大佛——老石人](https://i.sstatic.net/R8ZqP.png)

> 乐山的大佛——老石人
>
> Lo2 san1 ni1 da4 fu3——nao3 si2 ren2
>
> 乐山大佛距今已有一千多年历史, 所以是“老石人”。谐“老实人”。 ▷你以为他是～嗦? 他才阴倒不老实。

佛 is given the pronunciation of fu3

The 2014 edition of the same dictionary gives 佛 the pronunciation fu2

/note: this dictionary is riddled with errors(!)/

Logically I would have assumed the pinyin to have been written `fo2` - which is pretty much how it is pronounced, as far as I can tell.

《四川方言词典》has `fu3` and `fu2`

* Are Either `fu3` or `fu2` correct pronunciations for 佛 in 四川话?

**Tags:** pronunciation, topolect

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: This might be interesting for you, but I think it's not spoken in "pure" SIchuanese: http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/w3EKGjEeZ3E/ It's quite long, I guess '佛' is mentioned a few times.  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2015-07-07. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

I tried the 漢語方言大辭典, and there are many places with the fu pronunciation in the southwest mandarin area, for example 佛豆 (= 蠶豆, fava bean) is pronounced fu tou in 畢節; 佛瓜 (瓠瓜 gourd) is pronounced fu gua in 自貢, etc. Not really surprising; 弗 is fu in Mandarin.

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: 瓠瓜 in 自貢 generally called "硌兜(儿)", tender ones can be food and the old ones were used as a container in old days. fu gua may be 葫瓜(called 伏瓜).  

---

### Answer by username_3 on 2015-07-08. Score: 1

I'm living in Zigong, Sichuan now.

There's no fixed pronunciation of many characters among Sichuan. When mentioned 佛山(A city in Guangdong), young people may say fo2, because Mandarin was spoken in more and more occasions. When referring to a local place, food, ancient things, people prefer to speak fu2 (佛教,大佛,牛佛烘肘).

In addition, experts thought Pinyin has many defects, such as

* It's designed for Mandarin, zh ch sh and cacuminal actually only apply to Mandarin
* It's designed to take place Chinese Characters in the special days(A 'great' people proposed that), but failed.
* Some pronunciations are confusing, especially for foreigners.

So, it's not scientific to speak 四川话 in Pinyin. Maybe Wade–Giles system is a better choose.

In daily practice, 佛 is spoken as fo2.5.

四川话 cannot be simply expressed by Mandarin or a book, so it's normal for dictionary to be riddled with errors.
In different context pronunciations differ.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: Thanks! Very interesting to hear from the field. As a matter of vocabulary, 'cacuminal' is very rarely used nowadays, the word 'retroflex' is much more common. I'm still puzzled about the pronunciation of 佛. You say 'in daily practice' it is fo, but that for things like 佛教,大佛 etc. it is pronounced fu. What other daily uses does 佛 have besides talking about Buddhism, fava beans, and gourds?  

---

