What is PinYin
Help you learn Chinese pronounciation

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Pinyin is one of the most important tool you should use to learn speak Chinese. But it also has limitations.


1.History of Pinyin
Pinyin, short for Hanyu Pinyin, which means "phonetic notation" or "phonetic symbols" while Pin means "spell(ing)" and Yin means "sound(s)"), is a system of romanization (phonemic notation and transcription to Roman script) for Standard Mandarin. Pinyin was approved in 1958 and adopted in 1979 by the government in the People's Republic of China. It superseded older romanization systems such as Wade-Giles (1859; modified 1912) and Postal System Pinyin, and replaced zhuyin as the method of Chinese phonetic instruction in mainland China.
Since then, Pinyin has been accepted by the Government of Singapore, the Library of Congress, the American Library Association, and most international institutions as the preferred transcription system for Mandarin. In 1979 the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) adopted pinyin as the standard romanization for modern Chinese (ISO-7098:1991).
Pinyin is a romanization and not an anglicization; that is, it uses Roman letters to represent sounds in Standard Mandarin Chinese. The way these letters represent sounds in Standard Mandarin Chinese will differ from how other languages that use the Roman alphabet represent sound. For example, the sounds indicated in Pinyin by b and p are distinguished from each other (by aspiration) in a manner different from that of both English (which has voicing and aspiration) and of French (which has voicing alone). Other letters, like j, q, x or zh indicate sounds that do not correspond to any exact sound in English. Some of the transcriptions in Pinyin such as the ang ending, do not correspond to English pronunciations, either. Pinyin has also become a useful tool for entering Chinese language text into computers.
When learning Chinese Pinyin, you shall be aware of certain limitations:
  • Pinyin does not represent English pronunciation and should not be pronounced according to English conventions. You are advised to learn Pinyin phonetic conventions, bearing in mind that many sounds have no equivalents in Englishss.
  • Since Pinyin is based only on the sounds of Mandarin Chinese, Pinyin is unsuitable for use for speakers of some other Chinese spoken dialects, because the sounds do not correspond to their speech.
  • The phonotactics of spoken Mandarin Chinese dictate a relatively small set of possible syllables and there is a potential for homonyms. Because of this, Pinyin can be ambiguous, especially when transcribing Standard Written Chinese, which uses formal constructions not often found in speech. However, this should not be an issue in the transcription of normal spoken Mandarin conversation since speakers would not use such ambiguous constructions in speech.
2. Basics of PinYin
In general, A syllable(PinYin of a chinese character) in Chinese is composed of an initial, which is a consonant that begins the syllable, and a final, wich covers the rest of the syllable.

2.1 Initials
There are 21 posible initials in PinYin:
bpmf
dtnl
gkh
jqx
zcs
zhchshr

  • m, f, n, l, h and sh are pronounced as in English.
  • d like "d" in "bed" (unaspirated)
    j like "g" in "genius" (unaspirated)
    z like "ds" in "beds"
    zh like "j" in "job"
    b like "p" in "spin" (unaspirated)
    g a soft unaspirated "k" sound
    x like "sh" in "sheep" but with the corners of the lips drawn back
    r somewhat like "r" in "rain"
  • Particular attention should be paid to the pronunciation of the so-called "aspirated" consonants. It is necessary to breath heavily after the consonant is pronounced.
    p like "p" in "pope"
    t like "t" in "tap"
    k like "k" in "kangaroo"
    q harder than "ch" in "cheap"
    c like "ts" in "cats"
    ch (tongue curled back, aspirated)
  • Distinction between certain initials:
    b / p   d / t   g / k   j / q   z / c   zh / ch
2.2 Finals
In modern Chinese, there are 38 finals:

iuü
aiaua
ouoüe
eie
er
aiuai
eiuei (ui)
aoiao
ouiou (iu)
anianuanüan
eninuen (un)üen
angianguang
engiengueng
ongiong
  • ie like "ye" in "yes"
  • e like "e" in "her"
  • er like "er" in "sister" (american pronounciation)
  • ai like "y" in "by" (light)
  • ei like "ay" in "bay"
  • ou like "o" in "go"
  • an like "an" in "can" (without stressing the "n")
  • -ng (final) a nasalized soung like the "ng" in "bang" without pronouncing the "g"
  • uei, uen and iou when preceded by an initial, are written as ui, un and iu respectivly.
2.3 Tones
Mandarin Chinese has four pitched tones and a "toneless" tone.

ToneMarkDescription
1stHigh and level
2ndStarts medium in tone, then rises to the top
3rdStarts low, dips to the bottom, then rises toward the top
4thStarts at the top, then falls sharp and strong to the bottom
NeutraldaFlat, with no emphasis




Please note, When a 3rd tone immediatlely followed by another 3rd tone, the first one should be pronounced as a 2nd tone.
for example:
Nǐ hǎo = Ní hǎo


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