Re: Pinyin can help you learning Mandarin Chinese
- From: Emungo <pytisma@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2008 06:19:23 -0700 (PDT)
On 17 Apr, 20:18, aim <aimin....@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
What is PinYin
Help you learn Chinese pronounciation
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 It superseded older romanization systems such as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:
b p m f
d t n l
g k h
j q x
z c s
zh ch sh r
* 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:
i u ü
a ia ua
o
uo üe
e ie
er
ai
uai
ei
uei (ui)
ao iao
ou iou (iu)
an ian uan üan
en in uen (un) üen
ang iang uang
eng ieng ueng
ong iong
* 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.
Tone Mark Description
1st dā High and level
2nd dá Starts medium in tone, then rises to the top
3rd dǎ Starts low, dips to the bottom, then rises toward the top
4th dà Starts at the top, then falls sharp and strong to the bottom
Neutral da Flat, 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
source:http://chineselearningdirect.com
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.
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