Talk:一

變調 Sandhi
Tone sandhi unique to 一

In Mainland China, there are tone sandhi rules specific to the pronunciation of this character which are influenced both by the tone of character following after the character yi (一) in a given text and by the meaning of yi (一) in a given text.

see also xiandaihanyucidiandiqiban 1532 ye

from Tone sandhi

 * 一 (yī) is 1st tone when it represents the ordinal "first". Examples: 第一个 (dìyīgè). It changes when it represents the cardinal number "1", following a pattern of 2nd tone when followed by a 4th tone, and 4th tone when followed by any other tone. Examples: (for changing to the 2nd tone before a 4th tone) 一次 (yī + cì > yí cì), 一半 (yī + bàn > yí bàn), 一会儿 (yī + huìr > yí huìr); (for changing to the 4th tone before another tone) 一个 (yī + ge > yì ge), 一般 (yī + bān > yì bān), 一毛 (yī + máo > yì máo).

from Standard Chinese phonology
For 一 yī:
 * 1) 一 is pronounced with second tone when followed by a fourth tone syllable.
 * Example: 一定 (yī+dìng) becomes yídìng
 * 1) Before a first, second or third tone syllable, 一 is pronounced with fourth tone.
 * Examples：一天 (yī+tiān) becomes yìtiān, 一年 (yī+nián) becomes yìnián , 一起 (yī+qǐ) becomes yìqǐ.
 * 1) When final, or when it comes at the end of a multi-syllable word (regardless of the first tone of the next word), 一 is pronounced with first tone. It also has first tone when used as an ordinal number (or part of one), and when it is immediately followed by any digit (including another 一; hence both syllables of the word 一一 yīyī and its compounds have first tone).
 * 2) When 一 is used between two reduplicated words, it may become neutral in tone (e.g. 看一看 kànyikàn).--Geographyinitiative (talk) 01:27, 17 January 2018 (UTC)


 * Please do not add anything to the main page anymore until it's discussed. Your last edit violates the layout set by WT:EL by introducing a new heading. I think this can go under a usage note, but I also feel that pointing to the Wikipedia article should suffice., any thoughts? — justin(r)leung { (t...) 13:51, 18 January 2018 (UTC)


 * I feel this is a bit long for the entry - we can summarise the key points and point to the Wikipedia article. Wyang (talk) 13:56, 18 January 2018 (UTC)


 * I'm a rookie on wikipedia and wikitionary. But I think that there really needs to be something about the rules for the 'yi' tone sandhi on the page about 'yi'. I believe we should compose a clear and accurate English language statement (with good examples) about the tone sandhi rules of 'yi' that that covers all the various possible uses of 'yi'. We should incorporate any variations in the tone sandhi between the PRC, ROC, HK etc. But, if a full-force examination of the rules for the pronunciation of this character is not acceptable to the community, then I think at the very, very least that the word 'sandhi' needs to appear on this page somewhere. zheshiwogerende lijie, yexu budui :) --Geographyinitiative (talk) 14:41, 18 January 2018 (UTC)


 * It's incorporated in the pronunciation template. Just click expand and it's there (with the word sandhi). If we want more details, we could possibly put them at Appendix:Mandarin pronunciation. In terms of standard Mandarin spoken in Mainland China and Taiwan, the rules for 一 tone sandhi are the same; HK wouldn't have different rules because Mandarin is not really spoken in HK, and if it is spoken, it's generally following the rules of Mainland China. I know that Mandarin in southeast Asia doesn't usually apply this rule, but their Mandarin has so many quirks (e.g. 讀 could be read as dù with glottal stop) that our template probably can't handle them well. — justin(r)leung { (t...) 14:52, 18 January 2018 (UTC)

Minor issue, help please
Can you fix the first section so that the Wikipedia and Ancient Forms boxes don't collide with each other? Johnny Shiz (talk) 19:32, 26 January 2019 (UTC)
 * They're not colliding for me. Maybe take a screenshot of it and show me? — justin(r)leung { (t...) 20:04, 26 January 2019 (UTC)
 * 
 * Hmm... which browser/OS are you using? I checked Chrome and Firefox, and they both look fine to me (unlike your screenshot). — justin(r)leung { (t...) 22:40, 2 February 2019 (UTC)
 * Chrome. Johnny Shiz (talk) 22:43, 2 February 2019 (UTC)

Disastrous proposal: divide the compounds by Standard Mandarin sandhi result
I think that the compounds list for 一 should be divided up by the theoretical pronunciation after the official version of the tone sandhi rule is implemented. For instance, all of the 一 that are read in the second tone should be in one list, all that are read in the fourth tone in one list, and all that are read in the first tone (no sandhi change) in one list. It might be chaotic at first, but the potential clarity would be useful to the readers (in my opinion). Some words might be in more than one list based on differing opinions. Of course, if 一 is always read in the second tone in Beijing dialect, then that should be mentioned. --Geographyinitiative (talk) 21:49, 3 July 2019 (UTC)
 * We already have categories for this: Category:Mandarin words containing 一 undergoing tone sandhi to the fourth tone, Category:Mandarin words containing 一 undergoing tone sandhi to the second tone and Category:Mandarin words containing 一 not undergoing tone sandhi. Splitting them on the page doesn't make sense because it makes it Mandarin-centric and leaves certain dialectal compounds without a bucket to be put in. — justin(r)leung { (t...) 21:56, 3 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Is there some way to mention (on this page) the fact that the categories you bring up above are part of this website?  To have the categories is good, but they may be difficult to find without some kind of mention here- some kind of note? I know you may say "it's not necessary", but I'm trying to bring you the idiot's perspective: I wanted to know about those lists, but I couldn't find them until you mentioned them. --Geographyinitiative (talk) 22:15, 3 July 2019 (UTC)
 * I've linked to the two main categories under the Usage notes. — justin(r)leung { (t...) 22:20, 3 July 2019 (UTC)
 * I like this edit. It may seem obvious that those categories exist, but to me it wasn't. This type of edit will increase the 'findability' and hence the usefulness of the lists. --Geographyinitiative (talk) 22:50, 3 July 2019 (UTC)

Tone sandhi in usage examples
Would it be better to include the actual pronunciation of such as  rather than  in the usage examples? KevinUp (talk) 10:35, 21 August 2019 (UTC)


 * As a recall, the standard practice is to not indicate tone sandhi in any situation. Why make an exception for 一? ---&#62; Tooironic (talk) 23:14, 22 August 2019 (UTC)


 * This might be true for dictionary headwords, but usage examples are not lemmas, they are example sentences to demonstrate usage of the word . Mandarin phrasebooks often indicate tone sandhi in example sentences to help learners grasp the concept.
 * One more thing, is the neutral tone indicated in usage examples for words such as and, which only uses the neutral tone under specific circumstances? I noticed that the neutral tone is applied for  in usage examples. KevinUp (talk) 00:08, 23 August 2019 (UTC)

yí in
Is yí (?) a contraction of (see )? --沈澄心✉ 13:24, 16 July 2020 (UTC)

Numbers
What are those little numbers in dialectal info? How do they work? Art3mist6 (talk) 16:18, 15 July 2023 (UTC)