<p>No, <a href="https://www.iso.org/standard/13682.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this is not standard Pinyin</a>, if this form of tone sandhi is written out. The author is simply trying to convey what it <em>would</em> look like if written out (instead of retranscribing it with Chao-style tone letters).</p>

<p>This type of sandhi ("Mandarin T2 Sandhi", for <em>Tone 2 Sandhi</em>), is mentioned only rarely, because it is a <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HztsDwAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PA6" rel="nofollow noreferrer">"prosodic-driven process"</a>, i.e. it happens because the syllable is not in a strong position in the overall 'rhythm and melody' ( = prosody) of the utterance.</p>

<p>However, T2 sandhi is not an ingrained feature of standard Mandarin or even any one dialect of Mandarin (unlike T3 sandhi), but a "<a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=YWWYBgAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PA16" rel="nofollow noreferrer">variation</a>", and one that is far from universal. </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-01T16:36:25.393Z
2019-10-01T16:36:25.393Z
Michaelyus
<p>According to Wiedenhof's <em>A Grammar of Mandarin</em>, page 25,</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>When following a frst or a second tone, and simultaneously preceding a
  non-neutral tone, a second tone is pronounced with a high level pitch
  55 (high to high), i.e. as a frst tone. <strong>This diference can be represented in  Pinyin</strong>: ānmián yào ~ ānmiān yào ‘sleeping pills’.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Does "represent" here mean that, instead of the citation/lexical tones, the new tones after tone sandhi can be used as well? </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-01T18:17:55.957Z
With all due respect to the author, I do found a lot of description in the mentioned book quite inaccurate and sometimes quite misleading. For example `ānmiān yào` is never a valid pronunciation in any authoritative mandarin text book that I ever read. `ānmián yào` is the only pronunciation. So called `tone sandhi` do exist in everyday Mandarin but this specific case is highly likely to be just some very localized accent that's been misinterpreted by the author.
tweray
<pinyin><sandhi>
tone sandhi represented in Pinyin
# tone sandhi represented in Pinyin

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-10-01)

According to Wiedenhof's *A Grammar of Mandarin*, page 25,

> When following a frst or a second tone, and simultaneously preceding a
> non-neutral tone, a second tone is pronounced with a high level pitch
> 55 (high to high), i.e. as a frst tone. **This diference can be represented in Pinyin**: ānmián yào ~ ānmiān yào ‘sleeping pills’.

Does "represent" here mean that, instead of the citation/lexical tones, the new tones after tone sandhi can be used as well?

**Tags:** pinyin, sandhi

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: With all due respect to the author, I do found a lot of description in the mentioned book quite inaccurate and sometimes quite misleading. For example `ānmiān yào` is never a valid pronunciation in any authoritative mandarin text book that I ever read. `ānmián yào` is the only pronunciation. So called `tone sandhi` do exist in everyday Mandarin but this specific case is highly likely to be just some very localized accent that's been misinterpreted by the author.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2019-10-01. Score: 4

No, [this is not standard Pinyin](https://www.iso.org/standard/13682.html), if this form of tone sandhi is written out. The author is simply trying to convey what it *would* look like if written out (instead of retranscribing it with Chao-style tone letters).

This type of sandhi ("Mandarin T2 Sandhi", for *Tone 2 Sandhi*), is mentioned only rarely, because it is a ["prosodic-driven process"](https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HztsDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA6), i.e. it happens because the syllable is not in a strong position in the overall 'rhythm and melody' ( = prosody) of the utterance.

However, T2 sandhi is not an ingrained feature of standard Mandarin or even any one dialect of Mandarin (unlike T3 sandhi), but a "[variation](https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=YWWYBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA16)", and one that is far from universal.


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