LingoDrop
Chinese · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "姐姐" in Chinese?
JYEH-jyeh: a low sagging first syllable with an unaspirated j, then a weak toneless echo.
jiějie
Reduplication with neutralisation, and the neutral second syllable has a structural benefit: because jie carries no tone, jiě is never adjacent to a following dipping syllable, so it keeps its full descent even in contexts where a bare jiě would convert. The suffix insulates it.
Listen: 姐姐
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
我有一个姐姐。
Wǒ yǒu yí ge jiějie.
I have an older sister.
Listen: 我有一个姐姐。
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我有一个姐姐。 opens with wǒ and yǒu adjacent, both dipping, so wǒ rises. Then yí is the converted 一 before the underlyingly-falling ge, ge itself is toneless, jiě dips, and jie fades. The sentence therefore contains a third-tone conversion and a 一 conversion within four syllables of each other.
Where English speakers slip
If air escapes on the j you get qiě. The vowel is often reduced to "juh", losing the "ee" glide and the open "eh" that follows it. And as with the whole kinship set, learners give the second syllable a full dipping tone, producing two laboured low beats where the word should be one heavy syllable followed by a light one.