In Mandarin Chinese, if a speaker shortens the duration of the second syllable in a sequence of two third-tone syllables, which consequence follows?

💡 Explanation

Mandarin third tones undergo tonal sandhi, where a third tone followed by another third tone changes to a second tone. The duration of the second syllable is shortened, and the pitch rises to a high tone, because of the interaction between tonal rules and phonetic implementation; therefore, the second syllable becomes high rather than maintaining its original low falling tone, which would happen in isolation.

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