How is "Tai Chi Chuan" pronounced in Cantonese?

Question

In the "lost interview" of Bruce Lee with Pierre Berton (1971) he says "Tai Chi Chuan" is Mandarin, but I don't fully get the Cantonese version when he tells it.

I hear "Tai te kuen" ... but I'm not sure at all.

(Any way you can think to pronounce it, there is probably a Chinese dialect in which it is correct—I've heard it said there are as many as 200. Over 30 years I've heard it pronounced in a dozen ways:) — DukeZhou, Dec 10 '20 at 01:11

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 26 '19 at 07:47

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I'm cantonese
It's pronounced: Tai 'cake' kuen
Taichi chuen is mandarin

answered Aug 26 '19 at 07:47

Kristina Lex

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'cake' like 'kek' or 'kejk' ? – YesThatIsMyName Aug 26 '19 at 08:37
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I'm not sure what is kejk but the "cake" ending sound of cake connects to the pronunciation of kuen – Kristina Lex Aug 27 '19 at 05:25

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 24 '19 at 02:38

The site mdbg has audio of native Mandarin and Cantonese speakers. See the entry for taijiquan. You need to click on the characters for taijiquan as below in the screenshot to access the audio, which is circled for Cantonese in red.

Unfortunately, the middle word is missing Cantonese audio.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 09 '19 at 12:58

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Hanzi: 太極拳
Cantonese: taai³ gik⁶ kyun⁴ _(Jyutping)
IPA: /tʰāːi. kìk̚. kʰy̭ːn/
IPA: /tʰaːi. kik̚. kʰyːn/ _{(without tone diacritics)}

answered Sep 09 '19 at 12:58

brazofuerte

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How is "Tai Chi Chuan" pronounced in Cantonese?

3 Answers3