<p>As I know, Hunan folks can't/don't differentiate the pronunciation of F and H, even when they speak mandarin. One of my roommates who was from Fujian can't/don't differentiate R and L. So, it's not unusual to see this kind of things in other regions in China.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-07T06:07:18.223Z
2018-04-08T10:15:24.153Z
2018-04-08T10:15:24.153Z
dan
<p><strong>It's topolect</strong>.</p>
<hr />
<p>Here's page 27 of《长沙方言词典》:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/eaTAv.png" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/eaTAv.png" alt="Yup" /></a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>As you can see 湖 is consistently pronounced: fu (rising tone).</p>
<p>It doesn't have anything to do with being a proper noun or anything else, this is the Xiang language.</p>
<p>If we look at this table, also from《长沙方言词典》</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/lF9oj.png" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/lF9oj.png" alt="table" /></a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>you can see that Changsha has absolutely zero <code>hu</code> pronunciations.</p>
<hr />
<p>This has been commented on before on Chinese SE: <a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/2244/4136">here</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>h merges with f (conditioned on following vowel):</p>
<p>Some Sichuan?, Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing</p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-06T14:06:50.370Z
2018-04-06T14:19:59.540Z
2020-06-17T09:50:11.587Z
Mou某
<p>I traveled to Hunan province and stumbled across something interesting.</p>

<p>I was speaking to a taxi driver and asked him, 'where are you from'? He responded, 'Funan'. I then realized he actually meant 'Hunan' (湖南). I thought, perhaps he had a lisp or accent.</p>

<p>Upon conversing with a hotel receptionist and a porter, they both referred to Hunan as <strong>F</strong>unan. </p>

<p>That's not all, there is a city in Hunan called Huaihua (怀化). They referred to it as <strong>F</strong>uaihua.</p>

<p>Do Hunanese (?) pronounce cities beginning with 'H' with an 'F'?  Why is this? Does this pronunciation rule apply only for cities inside Hunan (including the Hunan province?). Does this only apply to place names?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-06T18:35:05.607Z
users are reminded of Japanese which has no hu, although it has ha,hi,fu,he,ho,and of 夏洛克·福尔摩斯, Sherlock Holmes
user6065
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-08T10:14:59.797Z
I've heard native speakers of Cantonese pronounce /hu/ as /fu/ when speaking Mandarin, eg 會所 /hui4 suo3/ coming out as *fuiso*. /hu-/ is spirantised to /f/. This is reflected in Cantonese in words like 花 faa vs hua.
dda
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-09T01:48:54.643Z
@dda yes, I've also noticed various differences in pronunciation- such as 上网 (soeng mong5 vs shang wang3). The W's in Mandarin come off as M's in Cantonese. In my opinion this is a language difference and not really an accent. But I understand what you mean in that the difference in pronunciation kicks in when Cantonese speak Mandarin words. In terms of accent, I noticed that native Cantonese speakers cannot or seldom pronounce 'sh' as in 是 shi, they usually say 'si' because that's how it's meant to be pronounced in Cantonese.
udidosa
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-09T02:02:23.173Z
Yes, that's what I meant: influence of a language when pronouncing another.
dda
<mandarin><pronunciation><topolect>
Why is Húnán pronounced with an F?
# Why is Húnán pronounced with an F?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-04-06)

I traveled to Hunan province and stumbled across something interesting.

I was speaking to a taxi driver and asked him, 'where are you from'? He responded, 'Funan'. I then realized he actually meant 'Hunan' (湖南). I thought, perhaps he had a lisp or accent.

Upon conversing with a hotel receptionist and a porter, they both referred to Hunan as **F**unan.

That's not all, there is a city in Hunan called Huaihua (怀化). They referred to it as **F**uaihua.

Do Hunanese (?) pronounce cities beginning with 'H' with an 'F'? Why is this? Does this pronunciation rule apply only for cities inside Hunan (including the Hunan province?). Does this only apply to place names?

**Tags:** mandarin, pronunciation, topolect

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: users are reminded of Japanese which has no hu, although it has ha,hi,fu,he,ho,and of 夏洛克·福尔摩斯, Sherlock Holmes  
> **username_2**: I've heard native speakers of Cantonese pronounce /hu/ as /fu/ when speaking Mandarin, eg 會所 /hui4 suo3/ coming out as *fuiso*. /hu-/ is spirantised to /f/. This is reflected in Cantonese in words like 花 faa vs hua.  
> **username_0**: @username_2 yes, I've also noticed various differences in pronunciation- such as 上网 (soeng mong5 vs shang wang3). The W's in Mandarin come off as M's in Cantonese. In my opinion this is a language difference and not really an accent. But I understand what you mean in that the difference in pronunciation kicks in when Cantonese speak Mandarin words. In terms of accent, I noticed that native Cantonese speakers cannot or seldom pronounce 'sh' as in 是 shi, they usually say 'si' because that's how it's meant to be pronounced in Cantonese.  
> **username_2**: Yes, that's what I meant: influence of a language when pronouncing another.  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2018-04-06. Score: 5 | Accepted answer

**It's topolect**.

---

Here's page 27 of《长沙方言词典》:

> [![Yup](https://i.sstatic.net/eaTAv.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/eaTAv.png)

As you can see 湖 is consistently pronounced: fu (rising tone).

It doesn't have anything to do with being a proper noun or anything else, this is the Xiang language.

If we look at this table, also from《长沙方言词典》

> [![table](https://i.sstatic.net/lF9oj.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/lF9oj.png)

you can see that Changsha has absolutely zero `hu` pronunciations.

---

This has been commented on before on Chinese SE: [here](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/2244/4136):

> h merges with f (conditioned on following vowel):
>
> Some Sichuan?, Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing


---

### Answer by username_3 on 2018-04-07. Score: 0

As I know, Hunan folks can't/don't differentiate the pronunciation of F and H, even when they speak mandarin. One of my roommates who was from Fujian can't/don't differentiate R and L. So, it's not unusual to see this kind of things in other regions in China.


---

