A deck for learning Sichuanese - here's a primer:
These differences from Mandarin are not universal, but let you guess how a word you haven't heard before may be pronounced. You may not remember all of these straight away but it's good to be aware of them before you hit up the anki deck.
(Note: Especially amongst young speakers the pronunciation has gotten closer to putonghua for a lot of words).
1. There are no retroflex (tongue curly) sounds in Sichuanhua - that is to say, the "h" sound in Mandarin pinyin is dropped when it is in the "sh", "ch" and "zh" form. For example, "shi" is pronounced sort of like "si" in Sichuanese.
2. The "ue" pinyin sound in pinyin forms like "jue" are pronounced like the "ol" sound in the English word "whole". For example, "jue" is pronounced as "jol", "xue" as "xol".
Reminder: young speakers might not do this.
3. Chengduhua only:
The pinyin "an" sound is pronounced like the "an" in the word "can" in American english without the final "n" sound.
So sort of like how "air" is pronounced in a non-rhotic (say British) but with the nasality of an American saying "can".
4. Sometimes the "e" in "ge", "re", "de" and "ke" change to an "ei" sound. For example, the character for hot, rè 热，pronounces as "rěi" in Sichuanese Mandarin. This is not 100 percent consistent; see number five below. [of course the r changes to a "z" sound too, so it's actually zei]
5. Sometimes "ge", "re", "le" and "ke" sound close to "go", "ro", "lo" and "ko". Note that the "o" there is pronounced like the "o" in the pinyin sounds "po" and "mo".
6. Chinese characters with the Mandarin pinyin pronunciation of "guo" take on the pronunciation of "gui" in Sichuanese Mandarin. For example, America, meiguo，is said as meigui
7. If "h" starts a certain pinyin sound, like "hu", it is pronounced as an "f". For example, passport, hùzhào 护照, has the sound of fùzào. Note how the zhao loses the "h" sound. (also Huang -> fang)
8. If "n" starts a certain Mandarin pinyin sound, it is pronounced as a subtle and slurred "ln" combination. Closer to l.
9. Sometimes -ai sounds become -ei: see: 百 which sounds like mandarin's bei4
A way to guess how a tone will change between the two languages:
putonghua sichuanhua
mā má
má ma*
mǎ mà
mà Mǎ
2nd tone: you'll just have to get used to this, as it is a new tone compared to putonghua.
Again, THESE ARE NOT UNIVERSAL - a lot of words don't follow these tone change 'rules'.
In the Anki deck, under "sichuanese pinyin" the numbers correspond to their order in the sichuanhua column above.
These are some common sound changes:
ZH–>Z
CH–>C
SH–>S
W–>VW
–O–>–OE
–E–>–OE / -E->OH
–UO–>–OE
–UE–>–UOE
R–>RZ
Chengduhua notes:
AN–>AH
–UAN–>–UAH
–IAN–>–IAH
In Chengduhua wo is changed to 'ngo' (this is hard sound to make unless you already speak a language that has it)
Syllables that are JUST 'an' in pinyin become ngan 安 -> "ngair" (don't pronounce that -r north american folks!!)
爱 ai becomes ngai
Not sure if this is Chengduhua or Sichuanese:
着 undergoes the same sound changes as 喝， but 这 doesn't.
这 instead undergoes the same changes as 片. Weird innit.
The ng- sound is made at the back of the throat, with your tongue flat. Honestly you should just YouTube this sound.
Update history:
Last update: 26th/July/2020: Added a some more 口语 words and sentences.
Before then: forgot