Why does a Mandarin Chinese speaker often perceive a foreign accent when a non-native speaker consistently pronounces each word with its citation tone in a multi-syllable phrase?

💡 Explanation

The perception of a foreign accent arises because Mandarin employs tone sandhi, where tones change based on context; therefore, constant citation tones sound unnatural, rather than variations that reflect proper phrasal prosody and tone interaction. Other phonetic errors may be present, but tone sandhi is key.

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