http://www.rubinghscience.org/language/pinyin1.html
July 2000


[ Note: This document uses EUC-GB encoding (i.e., Extended Unix Code encoding of the Guo Biao GB2312-80 Chinese character set) to show the Chinese words used as examples not only in Pinyin but also as Chinese characters.  This encoding represents each Chinese character as two successive bytes each with its most significant bit equal to 1. ]



PINYIN     拼 音

Pinyin and Mandarin Chinese pronunciation primer
(covering also the Wade romanization)



Menno Rubingh (c) 2000
Contact me
http://www.rubinghscience.org/



Contents:



1 - Introduction

It is often useful to have a method for writing Chinese not in Chinese characters but in a phonetic notation which exactly specifies the way in which the words are pronounced.  For this purpose, in the course of the last few centuries a number of phonetic notation methods have been invented, by Westerners as well as Chinese, to render spoken Chinese in Latin characters.  Because of the fact that it is the Latin alphabet that is used in them, these phonetic notation methods are called ``romanizations''.  That is, a ``romanization'' is nothing else than the use of Latin characters to record the phonetic pronunciation of Chinese. 

``Pinyin'' is the romanization method for Mandarin Chinese that is currently used in the People's Republic of China, and which is also beginning more and more to be used as the preferred romanization method for Mandarin Chinese in Western scientific circles.  The word 拼音 pi-n yi-n, from 拼 pi-n ``to combine'' and 音 yi-n ``sound'' or ``syllable'', means ``to phoneticize''.  The term ``Pinyin'' is short for  汉语 拼音 字母 Ha\n yuv   pi-n yi-n   zi\ muv   which means ``Chinese phonetic letter(s)'', or for  汉语 拼音 文字 Ha\n yuv   pi-n yi-n   we/n zi\   which means ``Chinese phonetic writing''.  Pinyin is heavily used in the People's Republic of China itself, for example in dictionaries and in language teaching.  Pinyin, in the form as currently used, dates from 1958. 

An older, but still widely-used, European romanization method for Chinese is the ``Wade-Giles'' romanization, invented by the English diplomat (``Sir'') Thomas Francis Wade and used in his 1859 Peking Syllabary, and later modified by the English (Cambridge university) professor Herbert Allan Giles and used in his 1912 Chinese-English Dictionary.  In this text I'll call the Wade-Giles romanization simply briefly ``Wade''.  Wade is still used much in Western popular books, newspapers, and so on.  However, Pinyin is more regular and insightful, and as a consequence also clearer and more lucid, than Wade. 

Whatever ``romanization'' method is used, the Chinese words written with Latin characters in Western books and periodicals tend to be almost always solely in the so-called ``northern dialect'', which is the Chinese dialect that is generally called ``Mandarin Chinese'' by Westerners.  All kinds of Chinese, i.e., all dialects, are (normally) written with the same Chinese characters, and when written in Chinese characters the ``dialects'' are 99% the same.  However, the pronunciation of these Chinese characters in the different dialects is, despite frequent slight resemblances, for most characters nevertheless quite significantly different.  The different dialects even use different kinds of tones.  As soon as Chinese is written down phonetically, the issue of dialects therefore becomes hugely important. 

This northern, ``Mandarin'', dialect is the kind of Chinese spoken in the largest portion of China, namely in most of the northern half of the People's Republic, including Peking (北京, Bevi ji-ng, ``North Capital''); plus in the south-western region including all of the province of Szechwan (四川, Si\ chua-n, ``Four River(s)'').  About 70% of all people using the Chinese language speak this northern dialect.  Pinyin notation is predominantly targeted towards writing northern ``Mandarin'' Chinese; and, in the Western world at least, Pinyin notation is used almost exclusively for this Mandarin Chinese.  All Chinese in the present text is Mandarin Chinese. 

One of the other Chinese dialects prominent in the West, and which is spoken in Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore, and many ``overseas'' Chinese communities, is the Canton (广东, Guavng do-ng) dialect.  The Canton dialect, in contrast to Mandarin Chinese, has many syllables ending in -p, -t and -k, and in some ways seems nearer in pronunciation to Thai languages.  Normally, for the different Chinese dialects, different phonetic notation systems are used, which are geared more towards the sounds and tones occurring in the specific dialect.  For example, the Canton language (or ``dialect'') is often phoneticized not in Pinyin or Wade, but in (various versions of) the American ``Yale'' romanization (which is not covered by this text).


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A NOTE ON NOTATION :

In this text, which is after all precisely about notation systems, we use the following textual representation method in order to hopefully to keep all the various notation systems a bit ``untangled'' : Bold upright font is used for what is in Pinyin notation, and bold italic font is used for Wade notation.  The auxiliary phonetic notation used only in this document is written inside square brackets. 
                Tone signs and other diacritics (auxiliary signs) like Umlauts, French accent signs, etc., which are, when used, normally placed straight vertically above a letter, in this document are placed as superscripts to the upper right of the letter the diacritic is applied to.  In other words, the diacritic sign which should sit straight on top of the letter is in this text written a little to the right of where it should be.  This is done here in this way to avoid depending on differences between various character sets in encoding of the non-ASCII characters. 

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2 - The structure of Chinese syllables

Each syllable in (Mandarin) Chinese speech consists of an initial consonant, followed by the ``rest'' of the syllable.  This ``rest'' part basically consists of a vowel pronounced in a specific ``tone'', possibly terminated with one of the consonants n, ng or r. The technical term for the initial consonant part of the syllable is 声母 she-ng muv, or ``sheng'' for short; and the technical term for the ``rest'' part is 韵母 yu..\n muv, or ``yun'' for short. 

In Pinyin, the sheng part of a syllable is always spelled with Latin letters which in Western languages also denote consonants. The yun part is spelled in Pinyin with one more of the the six vowel letters a, e, i, o, u, u.. which may be followed by n, ng or r.  However, a Chinese syllable may also consist of a yun part only; in that case, the syllable is sometimes written with an initial y or w (as will be discussed further below), which is not so much considered to be an initial consonant in its own right but instead is regarded rather as an integral part of the yun.  The six vowel letters and the letters y or w in Pinyin are never used in the sheng part of a syllable. 

Except for the single odd case of the Chinese character 儿 e/r (which is pronounced not as an independent syllable but as a kind of suffix or ending -r tacked on to the preceding syllable), each syllable in Chinese speech always corresponds exactly with one Chinese character, that is, each syllable of Pinyin always corresponds exactly with one Chinese character.  However, in Chinese, as in other languages, very very many words consist of more than one syllable (and, yes, therefore also of more than one Chinese character).  In such polysyllabic words, the syllables of Pinyin are normally written without a space between them (see the examples).  In most cases, the structure of syllables as explained above makes that the individual syllables can be easily unambiguously recognized.  Only for syllables beginning with a vowel letter (which might be wrongly considered as the final vowel of the preceding syllable) and/or for syllables ending with -n, -ng or -r (where it might be wrongly thought that the last letter of the ending is the first letter of the next syllable) is there confusion possible; in those cases, if necessary, an apostrophe is written in between the syllables as a dividing mark.  (Examples: Chang ' an / chan ' gan ; xin ' en / xi ' nen ; shuan / shu ' an.)


3 - Initial consonants (sheng)

3.1 - ``Retroflexion'' and palatization

The most important item of knowledge about Pinyin is that Pinyin ch is actually not pronounced as ``ch'' in English ``chocolate'' (nor as ``ch'' in French ``chocolat''); and also that Pinyin sh is not pronounced as ``sh'' in English ``ship''. 

[ Wade ch in some cases -- namely when before u.. or i (but not when before ih) -- does denote a sound similar to ``ch'' as in English ``chocolate'', but in all other cases denotes a consonant similar to Pinyin ch.  Wade sh always means exactly the same as Pinyin sh. ]

In Pinyin, the Latin character h when placed immediately after a Latin letter which in Western languages normally indicates a consonant, is used to indicate that the preceding consonant is pronounced in a so-called ``retroflex'' way.  This is the phoneticians' way of saying that the consonant is pronounced with the tip of the tongue curled a bit backward and upward, thereby changing the resonance qualities of the mouth cavity, and thereby affecting the overtone quality (the ``formants'') and therefore the ``sound'' of the consonant. 

[ ``Palate'' :  The ``hard palate'' is the hard bone in the mouth cavity above the tongue which forms what is called in English idiom ``the roof of the mouth'', extending from immediately back of the upper teeth to backward in the mouth where the hard bone stops and the ``soft palate'' begins. ]

In English, this ``retroflexion'' is present in the English pronunuciation of the consonant ``r'' as in ``rat'', ``rice'', ``rock''.  (This ``English r'' is the same as the ``r'' used in Danish.)  Note how while pronouncing the ``English r'' in these words, the tongue is not in a ``straight'' position firmly against the hard palate just immediately back of the upper teeth, as it is when pronouncing ``d'', or as it is when pronouncing the ``r'' of a lot of other languages such as Italian, Spanish, Arabic, and Russian (where ``r'' is a ``trilled r'' pronounced with the tongue in the same position as when pronouncing ``d'').  Instead, in the English ``r'', the tip of the tongue is curled backward, causing the tip of the tongue to be in a position significantly further back, near the middle of the hard palate.  Note, too, that it is almost only the ``tip'' (the first approximately 3 to 5 centimeter) of the tongue which changes position.  Try pronouncing alternately a few times pairs of words with ``d'' and the English ``r'' in it which are otherwise the same (e.g. ``dock-rock'', ``dice-rice''); then try pronouncing alternately the the consonant ``d'' and the English ``r'' by themselves, and try to ``feel'' what's happening to the position of the tip of the tongue as the tongue position is shifted between the position for ``d'' and the position for ``r''.

This shifting of the tongue from the ``d'' position to the ``English r'' position is called ``retroflexion''.  Changing the sound quality of the consonant by changing the tongue position in this way is said to be the action of applying ``retroflexion'' to that consonant.  That is, ``retroflexion'' is seen as an extra that can be mingled into a ``normal'' (non-retroflexed) consonant.  This is similar to for example aspiration or voicing of a consonant, which both are ``extras'' that can be mingled into a consonant too. 

In the Mandarin Chinese sound system, the ``opposite'' process of retroflexion is ``palatization''.  Palatization is a change of the normal quality or sound of a consonant by pronouncing the consonant with the forward part of the tongue a bit upward thereby creating a larger ``bubble'' with that part of the tongue in the front of the mouth than usual, and thus again affecting the resonance qualities of the mouth cavities and thereby the sound of the consonant. 

Palatization, unlike retroflexion, is quite common in European languagues.  Almost every European language uses palatization, i.e., uses both the normal version of a consonant and a palatized version, where the difference in pronunciation can make a difference in meaning.  In English, the palatized version of ``s'' is notated consequently as ``sh'', and pronounced as in ``ship''.  Try to ``feel'' the difference in position of the tongue and in the general shapes of the resonance chambers formed by the mouth/throat by alternately pronoucing similar words which differ only in having either ``s'' or ``sh'' in them, e.g. ``sip''-``ship'' / ``sop''-``shop'', and so on.  Experimenting like this, one feels that when one changes e.g. ``sip'' to ``ship'', the forward part of the tongue (just behind the tip) is ``brought in'', as an additional feature to the normal ``s''.  This ``bringing in'' of the additional raising of that part of the tongue is exactly what makes the ``palatization''. 

Palatization can also be very plausibly said to bring a limited amount of ``i''-quality into the consonant.  The palatized consonant is a mixture of the normal consonant and of a weakly simultaneously pronounced ``i'' (i.e., ``ea'' as in ``ear'') or ``y'' (as in ``year'').  Another way to explain the pronunciation of English palatized ``sh'' in ``ship'' is to start with ``s'' (as in ``sip''), then slowly mixing in more and more of a ``y'' -- ``s-yip'', ``syip'', ... -- until one arrives at the full palatized ``sh'' pronounced not as a distinct ``s'' plus a ``y'' but instead as one amalgamated unit. 

Palatization, similarly to retroflexion, is a change or an ``extra'' that can be applied to (or ``mixed in to'') many types of consonants.  However, in a way, considering the position changes of the tongue, palatization is the ``opposite'' process of retroflexion.  In retroflexion, the tip of the tongue is curled backward, that is, the ``point of contact'' between the tongue and the hard palate remains to be the tip of the tongue as it is in pronouncing the ``normal'' (non-retroflexed and non-palatized) consonant, only this point of contact is shifted bacward in the mouth.  In palatization, the ``point of contact'' between the tongue and the hard palate is also backward in the mouth from the ``point of contact'' in the normal (non-retroflexed and non-palatized) consonant, only in this case this point of contact is formed not by the tip of the tongue but by the forward portion of the tongue back of the tip.  If there is any curling of the tongue in palatization, then that curling is in the opposite direction as with retroflexion. 

Note that it is not considered possible to apply both palatization and retroflexion to the same consonant.  In Mandarin Chinese, a consonant is either: (1) both non-palatized and non-retroflexed; or (2) only palatized; or (3) only retroflexed. 

Note also that this ``retroflexion'' in the Mandarin Chinese sound system is something different than ``velarization'' (= the bringing-up of the back part of the tongue towards the hard palate, which can also be regarded as a mixing-in of a small amount of ``u'' (``oo'') quality into the vowel, as e.g. in Arabic.)  Retroflexion, like palatization, is done with the forward part of the tongue, not with the back part of the tongue as is velarization. 

The consonant ``s'' (as in ``sack'') is probably the most appropriate one to demonstrate retroflexion and palatization in action in Mandarin Chinese pronunciation.  Mandarin Chinese has three versions of ``s'', namely a ``normal s'', and both a retroflexed and a palatized version of ``s''. 

Note carefully here how Pinyin sh does emphatically not correspond with English ``sh''. 

The pronunciation of the retroflexed Pinyin sh [s<] can be arrived at by applying retroflexion, as described above, to the normal ``s'' [s].  That is, we start with normal ``s'', then -- all the time keeping the air stream of the ``sibilant'' or ``fricative'' ``s'' sound going -- we change the position of the tip of the tongue to the ``retroflex'' position as in ``English r''.  The result should be a sound different from normal ``s'' where the manner in which the difference is sounding different from normal ``s'' [s] is somewhat like the way in which English ``sh'' [sy] as in ``ship'' is different from normal ``s'' [s].  Similarly to palatization, retroflexation of ``s'' adds a kind of ``rustling leaves'' quality to the sound.  But nevertheless Pinyin sh [s<] sounds distinctly different from the palatized ``s'' [sy] in that it does not clearly have an ``i'' quality mixed in as in the palatized ``s'', but instead sounds a bit ``stopped up'' or ``retracted''. 

Chinese makes use of a quite full set of both normal, retroflexed and palatized ``versions'' of consonants.  A large part of the consonants used in (Mandarin) Chinese in fact consists of three parallel sets of consonants, in which in a thoroughly regular and systematic way those consonants have their ``normal'' (non-retroflexed and non-palatized), retroflexed, and palatized counterparts.  The consonants in (Mandarin) Chinese which are part of this ``three-versions'' set contain all consonants in which there is an ``s'' sound.  (However, Pinyin r is an odd exceptional case in here, as we shall see below.)  All the consonants in Chinese in which there is no ``s''-like sound (including ``f'', ``t'', ``d'', ``l'', ``m'', and ``n'' (Pinyin f, t, d, l, m, n)) fall outside of this three-way retroflexion/palatization scheme and have only ``normal'', that is non-retroflexed and non-palatized, versions.  This is the cause why to Western ears, (Mandarin) Chinese has an astonishingly full array of different ``s''-like sounds.  However, this apparent complexity need not worry a person trying to learn to pronounce (Mandarin) Chinese, for once the process of retroflexion (and the to Westerners much easier palatization) is grasped, everything becomes easy because the (Mandarin) Chinese set of ``s'' sounds form a completely logical and regular system of application of retroflexion and palatization to the same basic ``normal'' (non-retroflexed and non-palatized) sounds.

This ``retroflexion'' and ``palatization'' of the ``s''-like sounds is, after of course the ``tones'' (the change or shift in the pitch of the sound while the sillable is pronounced), the most significant hurdle to learning to pronounce (Mandarin) Chinese.  The full set of normal/retroflexed/palatized ``s'' consonants reflects the fact that these changes in sound quality obtained by retroflexion and palatization are often significant in (Mandarin) Chinese to distinguish between two words with different meaning but which except for retroflexion or palatization have the same pronunciation. 

The other ``s''-like consonants in Mandarin Chinese, apart from those already discussed above, are as follows. 

The consonant written in Pinyin as z is pronounced as a ``dz'' which is only weakly voiced, or, equivalently, as a non-aspirated ``ts''.  (See the section below for more on aspiration.)  In our auxiliary notation system, we'll write this as [dz].  The Pinyin c is the aspirated version of this -- therefore, Pinyin c is pronounced as a clearly aspirated ``ts''.  In our auxiliary notation system, we'll write this as [tsh], the subscript ``h'' denoting the extra aspiration mixed in.  Note that Pinyin z [dz] and c [tsh], as well as x [sy] are single units of pronuncation, instead of a short-hand for two or more successively pronounced consonants (``t-s-h'', ``d-z'' or ``s-y'').  Pinyin c is an amalgam of our Western European (aspirated) ``t'' and ``s'', pronounced in a single ``explosion'', similarly as Pinyin x [sy] is the single English consonant ``sh'' as in ``ship'', pronounced not as successive ``s-y'' but as one single unit.

Pinyin c is also found (in a non-aspirated variant [ts], however) in Eastern European languages like Russian and Czech.  (As discussed below, many Western-European languages, like English and Italian, however do have consonants in them that equal the palatized versions of Pinyin c or z.)  However, for people new to pronouncing these amalgamated ``ts''-consonants (which are called ``affricates'' by phoneticians), it seems very viable to just temporarily start with pronoucing them as a sequence of ``d'' plus ``z'' (for Pinyin z) or as a sequence of aspirated ``t'' plus ``s'' (for Pinyin c). 

As already noted at the beginning of this section, in Pinyin, the Latin character h, when written after a consonant, denotes that the consonant preceding it is pronounced retroflexed.  (In other positions, Pinyin h is pronounced as a clearly aspirated (breathed) ``h'' much like English ``h'' as in ``house''.)  Pinyin uses the Latin character h in a quite regular way, to denote retroflexion.  What is written in Pinyin as zh is therefore a retroflexed ``dz'' ( = [dz<] ).  Similarly, Pinyin ch is retroflexed aspirated ``ts'' ( = [ts<h] ).  (Wade does not at all use h in this consequent a way.) 

Unfortunately, palatization, which occurs nearly as frequently in (Mandarin) Chinese as retroflexion, is not notated in Pinyin by a similar method as retroflexion is.  Instead of denoting palatization in a similar fashion as retroflexion by means of a separate ``add-on'' Latin character, Pinyin uses an entirely different set of Latin characters to denote the palatized versions of the consonants.  This unfortunate aspect of Pinyin makes for about 90% of the apparent ``compicatedness'' of the notation (romanization) system.  (Wade is still more confusing in its notation of retroflexed consonants.) 

Palatized ``s'' ( = [sy] ), pronounced like English ``sh'' in ``ship'', is witten in Pinyin as x.  Palatized z ( = [dzy] ) is pronounced as English ``j'' in ``jeep'' and as Italian ``g'' in ``giorno'', and -- fortunately for us English readers -- is written in Pinyin as j.  Finally, palatized c ( = [tsyh] ) is pronounced like ``ch'' in the English pronunciation of ``chocolate'' and like Italian ``c'' in ``certo'', and written in Pinyin as q

A queer ``odd one out'' in both the phonetic system of Mandarin Chinese and in the Pinyin notation system is Pinyin r.  When it is written as the first letter of a syllable, it is pronounced as a voiced version of Pinyin sh; in our auxiliary notation, we can therefore write this as [z<].  At the end of a syllable, however, Pinyin r is pronounced as the ``weak'', non-rolled, English or Danish ``r'' (that is, not as e.g. the French or Italian ``r'').  Note that the sibilant beginning-of-syllable Pinyin r ( = [z<] ) does not have any non-retroflexed ( [z] ) or palatized ( [zy] ) counterparts in the Mandarin Chinese phonetic system. 

Summarizing :

Normal Retroflexed Palatized
r [z<]
s [s] sh [s<] x [sy]
z [dz] zh [dz<] j [dzy]
c [tsh] ch [ts<h] q [tsyh]

Table 1 : Pinyin retroflexed/palatized consonants notation.
Within square brackets [ ], our own auxiliary phonetic notation (as
explained in the above paragraphs). At the end of a syllable,
Pinyin r is pronounced as English ``r''.

Looking at a passage of text or even a collection of people's or place-names notated in Pinyin, it is immediately obvious that the retroflexed versions (Pinyin sh/zh/ch) of the above consonants do not at all occur less frequently in Mandarin Chinese than the palatized ones (Pinyin x/j/q).  Unlike the first impression which a person familiar with English or French but unfamiliar with Pinyin notation inevitably gets from the multitude of ``sh'' and ``ch'' springing at his eye, actually there are relatively surprisingly few occurrences of the sounds [sy] (= ``sh'' as in English ``ship'') or [tsy] (= ``ch'' as in English ``chip'') in Mandarin Chinese.  Instead of it being the spitting ``tsying-tsyang-tsyong'' affair of the popular image of Chinese language in ``the West'', Mandarin Chinese tends on the contrary to sound rather ``retracted'' and ``muted''.  It is rather a curious circumstance that the use of the Latin character h in Pinyin (as well as in Wade) is counter-intuitive to a person used to reading English or French. 


3.2 - Aspiration

``Aspiration'' is the pronunciation of a consonant together with a simultaneous strong puff of breath.  Aspiration is present in languages like German, Danish, Swedish, and also a little in English.  In German and Danish, all consonants ``k'', ``t'' and ``p'' when they are the first letter of a word are normally pronounded with a certain amount of aspiration.  German ``kalt'' and Danish ``kold'' are pronounced as if there were a breathed ``h'' just after the ``k''; or more accurately, the ``k'' itself is exploded forcefully and the breath of the ``h'' is mixed into the ``k'' itself.  We will write such aspirated consonants in our auxiliary phonetic notation with a subscript ``h'' attached to the basic letter, aspirated ``k'' thus becoming [kh].  In English, a little aspiration is present in initial ``k'', ``t'' and ``p'' when English is prononounced in an ostentatious, pedantic, ``upper class'', ``My Fair Lady'' kind of way, the sentence ``a cup of coffee'' becoming something like [a khap av khaffi]. 

Aspiration, like retroflexation and palatization, is thought of as an ``extra'' that can be mixed into certain consonants.  The consonants in which it can be mixed in are those which are the so-called ``explosives'', that is, ``p'', ``t'' and ``k'', and consonants like Pinyin c [ts] in which these explosives are an element. 

In (Mandarin) Chinese, aspiration is quite important, and serves as an important factor which helps distinguish between similar consonants which are the same except for aspiration.  In (Mandarin) Chinese, all consonants which possess an element of ``p'', ``t'' or ``k'' can be pronounced in two ways: (1) Non-aspirated; (2) Aspirated.  In a similar way as retroflexation and palatization, this thus gives rise to parallel sets of consonants, the one set containing the ``normal'', non-aspirated versions of these consonants, the other set containing precisely the same consonants but this time each with the extra of aspiration added to them. 

The process of ``voicing'' of consonants is of very little importance in (Mandarin) Chinese.  ``Voicing'' is the pronunciation of a consonant in such a manner that the vocal chords trill while pronouncing the consonant.  This can be observed while alternately pronouncing pairs of voiced and non-voiced consonants in their normal English pronounciation, e.g. ``t'' and ``d''.  ``T'' is non-voiced, and while pronouncing it the vocal chords are at rest; ``d'' is the voiced equivalent of ``t'', and differs from ``t'' only in that as an extra it has the effect added that the vocal chords are active during the pronunciation of ``d''.  Similar pairs of non-voiced/voiced consonants in English are: 

Non-voicedVoiced
p as in ``pet'' b as in ``bet''
t as in ``tip'' d as in ``dip''
k as in ``kill'' g as in ``gill''
s as in ``sip'' z as in ``zip''

In (Mandarin) Chinese, all consonants that are aspirated are also always non-voiced.  Also, all consonants in (Mandarin) Chinese that are non-aspirated tend to get pronounced with have a little weak amount of voicing blended in -- however, in non-aspirated consonants it is never important whether they are in fact pronounced with or without this (weak) voicing.  It is the presence or absence of aspiration that is important in the (Mandarin) Chinese sound system, not the presence or absence of voicing.  However, bringing in a small amount of voicing into non-aspirated consonants helps to enlarge the difference between aspirated and non-aspirated versions of the same consonant.  This (weak) voicing of non-aspirated consonants is therefore an effect instead of a cause, and can be said to happen almost automatically or unconciously.  In this way, the less important or ``extraneous'' element of voicing completely automatically follows the important element of aspiration. 

Parallelling English ``p/b'', ``t/d'' and ``k/g'', Mandarin Chinese has the set of consonants written in Pinyin as p, b, t, d, k, g.  Pinyin p, which we'll write in our auxiliary phonetic notation as [ph], is a clearly aspirated ``p'' as in English ``pet''; Pinyin b, which we'll write in our auxiliary notation as [b], is its non-aspirated counterpart, which may be pronounced as a non-aspirated ``p'' as in ``pet'' or as a (non-aspirated) voiced ``b'' as in English ``bed'' or anything in between.  Similar to p, Pinyin t (=[th]) and k (=[kh]) are emphatically aspirated versions of English ``t'' as in ``tea'' and English ``k'' as in ``kit'', respectively; while similarly to Pinyin b, Pinyin d (=[b]) is anything between non-aspirated English ``t'' as in ``tea'' and non-aspirated English ``d'' as in ``dime''; and Pinyin g (=[g]) is anything between non-aspirated English ``k'' as in ``kit'' and non-aspirated English ``g'' as in ``girl''. 

As it is the aspiration that is the factor that makes the difference between these pairs of (Mandarin) Chinese consonants, it is very important to pronounce p [ph], t [pt] and k [pk], with a very clear emphatic aspiration.  Contrary to our ingrained intuitive automatisms as people used to Latin characters only in the context of Western languages in which the difference between p/b, t/d and k/g is mostly in voicing, it is important to note that in Pinyin, while it uses these same Latin characters, these character pairs are used to denote presence or absence of aspiration instead of presence or absence of voicing.  The Pinyin use of these Latin characters is identical to the use of p/t, t/d, k/g as the first letters of Danish words, where, exactly as in (Mandarin) Chinese, not the voicing but instead the aspiration is the factor that is significant. 

This same aspiration aspect is present also in many of the consonants discussed in the previous section.  The difference between Pinyin z [dz] and c [tsh] is much more the aspiration (present in c and absent in z) than the voicing.  Pinyin c is felt to be simply the aspirated version of Pinyin z.  Pinyin c is always prnounced non-voiced, but whether Pinyin z is pronounced voiced or not is not felt to be very important: what is important in pronouncing z however is to pronouce the consonant clearly without any aspiration.  The same holds for the contrast or difference between the retroflexed and palatized versions of these two consonants: Pinyin ch [ts<h] and q [tsyh] are simply the aspirated versions of Pinyin zh [dz<] and j [dzy], respectively. 

Summarizing, the consonants in Mandarin Chinese in which the presence or absence of aspiration plays a part, are as follows:

Voiced and non-aspirated Non-voiced and aspirated
b [b] p [ph]
d [d] Sibilant (s-like) versions of d: t [th] Sibilant (s-like) versions of t:
z [dz] c [tsh]
zh [dz<] ch [ts<h]
j [dzy] q [tsyh]
g [g] k [kh]

Table 2 : Pinyin aspirated/non-aspirated consonants counterparts.

The one single exception to the rule in Mandarin Chinese that voicing is not important to distinguish between similar consonants, is the odd-one-out consonant Pinyin r = [z<] at the beginning of a syllable, where the voicing is important to distinguish it from [s<] which is Pinyin sh.


3.3 - Other consonants

The Pinyin consonants l, n, m, and f are simply pronounced exactly as in English. 

Pinyin h when in any other position than immediately after another consonant is pronounced as a very clearly aspirated (breathed) voiceless ``h'', very much like ``H'' in Arabic ``Habi-b''.  It is basically a very emphatically prounounced ``h'' as in English ``house'', but pronounced even ``throatier'', nearing in sound quality to ``ch'' as in Scottish ``loch'' and German ``ach''.  But one is also perfectly clear to the listener when one simply pronounces h as ``h'' in English ``house''. 


4 - The yun part of syllables

4.1 - Internal structure of yun, and transitional sounds

Each yun always consists of a single main vowel, which may or may not be preceded and followed by a transitional sound.  Schematically:

Yun = T1 + main vowel + T2 .

The main vowel is always present, and is the part of the syllable to which the ``tone'' is applied.  T1 or T2, or both, may be missing. 

T1 is one of the following sounds (denoted with our auxiliary phonetic notation):

[y]
= ``i'' as in Italian ``giorno''
= ``i'' as in French ``fier''
= much like ``y'' as in English ``yuppie''.
[y..]
= ``u'' as in French``fuite''
= a short, fleeting, transistional, almost ``consonantal'', version of Pinyin u.. when used as a main vowel (see below).
[w]
= ``u'' as in Italian ``buono''
= ``ou'' as in French ``oui''
= much like ``w'' as in English ``water''.

These sounds [y], [y..] and [w] are technically called ``half-consonants'', but are basically just quickly pronounced, transitional vowels. 

T2 is either one of [y] or [w] (as above); or one of the following:

n   [n]
= ``n'' as in English ``bean''.
ng   [ng]
= ``ng'' as in English ``long''.
r   [r]
= ``r'' as in English ``car''.

The following Latin characters are used as vowels in Pinyin: a, e, i, o, u, u...  [Note that this u.. here is intended to denote an u-Umlaut (= u with two dots above it like in German); see the ``note on notation''.] Each of these six vowel letters can be used as the main vowel of a syllable.  The pronunciation of these letters when used as main vowels is explained further below.

However, apart from their use as main vowels, the letters i, o, u and u.. are used in Pinyin for an additional purpose as well, namely for the purpose of writing the transitional sounds [y], [w] and [y..].  When used to write transitional sounds, i denotes [y], both o and u denote [w], and u.. denotes [y..]. 

To remove the apparent confusion arising from this ``double use'' of these vowel letters, it is helpful to classify the six Pinyin vowel letters into three groups of increasing ``weakness'', as follows:

A syllable can only contain one main vowel.  Therefore if the syllable contains a ``strong'' vowel letter, then this means immediately that all the other vowel letters in the syllable denote transitional sounds.  Note especially that when o is next to a, then this o is the transitional sound [w]; but when o is next to u, then the o in that case cannot be otherwise than the main vowel of the syllable.  Pinyin spelling operates in such a way that, with the above in mind, in each Chinese word written in Pinyin it is completely unambiguously specified what is the main vowel and which letters denote transitional sounds.  To make everything completely clear, there follows below a complete list of all possible yun that can occur in Mandarin Chinese.  The table shows how these yun are spelled in Pinyin and how they break down into their elemental parts. 

Yun               T1 main
vowel
T2
a a
ao a [w]
an a [n]
ang a [ng]
ia [y] a
iao [y] a [w]
ian [y] a [n]
iang [y] a [ng]
ua [w] a
uai [w] a [y]
uan [w] a [n]
uang [w] a [ng]
u..an [y..] a [n]
e e
ei e [y]
en e [n]
eng e [ng]
er e [r]
ie [y] e
uei [w] e [y]
uen [w] e [n]
ueng [w] e [ng]
u..e [y..] e
i i
in i [n]
ing i [ng]
o o
ou o [w]
ong o [ng]
iou [y] o [w]
uo [w] o
u u
u.. u..
u..n u.. [n]

Table 3 : The yun of Mandarin Chinese.

The yun as listed in the leftmost column of the above table are the basic forms of the yun as they are written in Pinyin.  However, together with the above table, two remarks need to be immediately made concerning their exact spelling in Pinyin in actual complete words.  First, in a syllable without an initial consonant (sheng), then if the yun begins with i, u or u.., the syllable is not spelled exactly as in the table above but instead is spelled with an initial y or w, as explained in the next section.  Second, when the syllable does contain a sheng, then the following three yun are spelled not as in the table above but in a slightly more concise or ``economic'' way, thus:

``Theoretical'' form of the yun,
showing its correct pronunciation
Spelled instead as
iou iu
uei ui
uen un

This ``economic'' way of spelling does not affect the pronunciation.  The letter combinations iu, ui and un in Pinyin are always pronounced as if they were written in the longer way as in the leftmost column of the above table, i.e., as [y]o[w], [w]e[y], and [w]e[n], respectively.  Note the rather remarkable fact that in these three cases it is the main vowel, which is the one which gets the ``tone'', which is dropped in spelling.  The tone diacritic, in these cases where the main vowel is not written in spelling, is put on the last (or only remaining) vowel letter in the syllable. 


4.2 - Syllables consisting of yun only

In Pinyin, syllables as written never start with any of the letters i, u.. or u.  In the table in the preceding section, we have seen that many yun, in their ``theoretical'' or ``ideal'' form, begin with one of these letters.  Syllables with zero sheng (initial consonant) and with one of these yun in pronunciation are always introduced with an initial short and weakly pronounced transitional ``y'' as in English ``year'' or ``w'' as in English ``water'' to facilitate proununciation.  This is reflected exactly in Pinyin spelling. 

A syllable with zero sheng and with a yun beginning with i or u.. gets an initial y in Pinyin spelling and is pronounced with a short initial transitional ``y'' as in English ``year''; and a zero-sheng syllable consisting of a yun beginning with u gets an initial w in Pinyin spelling and is pronounced with a short initial transitional ``w'' as in English ``water''. 

This is the only way in which in Pinyin the Latin characters y and w are used: they only ever occur as the first letters of syllables, never in other positions.  As we have seen in the preceding section, the ``half-consonant'' sounds of ``y'' as in English ``year'' and ``w'' as in English ``water'' also frequently occur in Mandarin Chinese as transitional sounds before the (main) vowel of the syllable in syllables with zero sheng (and which are therefore written in Pinyin without any y or w) -- i.e., in syllables with a yun written in Pinyin as a groups of vowel letters such as e.g. iao [yaw] and uo [wo].  The use of the letters y and w in Pinyin is therefore purely a matter of orthography. 

The Pinyin spelling rule regarding y and w for syllables without an initial consonant (sheng) is as follows.  We always use the ``ideal'' or ``theoretical'' form of the yun (according to the table in the preceding section) as the basis for deciding how to spell the syllable. 

For example:  the Chinese word for the number ``one'', 一, is written in Pinyin as yi- and not as i-;  and the Chinese word for ``also'', 也, is written in Pinyin as yev and not as iev

The only vowel letters in Pinyin that can stand at the beginning of a syllable are a, e and o.  Syllables in Mandarin Chinese beginning with these vowel sounds are pronounced in the same way as words beginning with vowels are pronounced in English and Italian, that is, without a heavy glottal stop introducing the vowel as is the practice in e.g. Arabic.  (Precisely as with most Western languages, the heavy emphatic glottal stop is not a sound that occurs in the Mandarin Chinese sound system as an independent or important sound in its own right.) 


4.3 - Main vowels

Each of the six vowel letters in Pinyin (a, e, i, o, u, and u..) has its ``basic'' pronunciation when used as the main vowel of a syllable, but sometimes the actual pronunciation of the main vowel as it occurs in a word is slightly affected by the neighbouring letters. 

These slight shifts in the pronunciation are introduced rather automatically as an effect of the quality of the neighbouring sounds ''blending in'' into the vowel.  These slight changes in vowel sound quality always make pronunciation of the whole word easier: it is as if the greatest ''bumps'' are ironed out.  The vowel sound changes almost occur automatically and unconsciously when one pronounces the words rapidly.  Therefore, getting a good idea about what is the basic pronunciation of the vowels is much more important than to acquire a ''pure'' pronunciation of each of the variant pronunciations of the vowels when near other letters.  The exact way in which these slight variations in vowel sound quality are precisely pronounced also varies much more between different speakers than other aspects of the pronunciation of (Mandarin) Chinese. 

Below, we'll discuss one by one all Pinyin main vowels, and for each first explain its basic pronunciation, followed by a brief discussion of the sound changes in that vowel caused by the proximity of neighbouring letters. 

Pinyin u and u.., as main vowels, are easy and are pronounced very much like these letters are pronounced in European languages.  Pinyin u is pronounced as ``u'' in Italian and Spanish ``gusto'', as ``u'' in German ``mutter'' and as ``oo'' in English ``cool''.  Pinyin u.. is pronounced as German u-Umlaut, that is, as ``u'' in French ``pur'', as ``uu'' in Dutch ``vuur'' and as ``y'' in Danish ``ny''. In contrast to the other vowel letters, the pronunciation of u and u.. as main vowels is not subject to any noticeable changes in sound quality caused by neighbouring letters. (These two main vowel sounds we'll write as simply as [u] and [u..] in our auxiliary phonetic notation.) 

When immediately following y or any of the palatized consonants (that is, x, j or q), the letter u.. is mostly written without the Umlaut dots.  This is purely an ortography or spelling matter, a kind of ``economy'' in writing the dots in situations where in the Chinese perception it is very clear that they are intended.  The u in the combinations xu, ju, qu and yu is thus always intended to be u-Umlaut, and pronounced as such, and is never the ``oo'' as in English ``zoo''.  Note however that after all other letters, including in the combination iu, the letter u does denote ``oo'' as in Zoo and not u..

The basic pronunciation of Pinyin o as a main vowel is somewhere between on the one hand (1) ``o'' as in English ``stop'' and French ``sortie''; and on the other hand (2) the French word ``eau'' and ``o'' in Scottish or American ``open''.  In practice, Pinyin o is often pronounced more like ``o'' in English ``stop'' when it is the last letter of a syllable; and more like French ``eau'' when it is followed by -u or -ng.  In the latter case, it is rather close in sound to Pinyin u.  (In fact, you often see Pinyin words with o in them spelled in other romanization systems with ``u'' instead.) However, distinguishing between these various shades of ``o'' is not important for a clear pronounciation of Mandarin Chinese.  (In our auxiliary phonetic notation, we'll write the basic ``generic'' Pinyin ``o'' sound simply as [o].) 

The basic pronunciation of Pinyin a and is exactly as ``a'' in Italian and Spanish ``papa'' and ``carta''.  (We'll write this sound as [a] in our auxiliary notation.) 

However, in yan or in -ian at the end of syllables (note: not in yang or -iang), the letter a takes on a bit of the ``i''-like quality of the preceding letter, and is pronounced like ``a'' in English ``man'' or ``apple'', instead of its normal pronunciation like ``a'' in Italian ``papa''.  That is, the sound of a here nears a little towards ``e'' as in English ``pen'' and ``e\'' in French ``pe\re''.  (We'll write this modified a-sound as [ay] in our auxiliary notation.)

Pinyin e and i need to be noted carefully.  In very many cases, these Pinyin letters represent sounds that are significantly different from the value of these letters in most Western languages. 

The basic pronunciation of Pinyin e is the following sound (which we'll denote with italic [e] in our auxiliary phonetic notation):

e   [e]
= ``e'' in English ``to err'' = ``i'' in English ``bird''
= ``oeu'' in French ``soeur''
= ``oe'' in German ``oeffnen'' (where the oe here denotes German o-Umlaut)
= ``oe'' in Danish ``foerst'' (where the oe here denotes the Danish o with a slash / through it)
= ``u'' in Dutch ``put''
= close to the ``mute e'', such as ``e'' in English ``potter'' or ``e'' in French ``renard''.

However, when next to i, u.. or y, such as e.g. in mei, zhei, ye, and xu..e (which latter one is mostly spelled xue without the Umlaut dots), the Pinyin e takes on a bit of the ``i''-like quality of the neighbouring letter, and is pronounced slightly more like ``e'' in English ``pen'' and ``e\'' in French ``pe\re'' .  (We'll write this sound as [ey] in our auxiliary notation.)

Finally, Pinyin i, which is the most complicated one of the lot.  It has three variants, of which two (which we'll write as [i] and [i<]) are quite difficult to most Westerners -- but those two difficult i-sounds only ever occur in Pinyin in the combinations si, zi, ci, shi, zhi, chi and ri.  The third variant of i-vowel (written as [iy] in our auxiliary notation), which occurs in all other cases where Pinyin i is used as a main vowel, is in contrast very easy to Westerners, and is simply pronounced much as any Frenchman, Italian, Spaniard, or German would be inclined to pronounce the letter ``i''. 

The two ``difficult'' i-sounds [i] and [i<] are much alike in sound quality, and the letter combinations si, zi, ci, shi, zhi, chi, ri in which they occur are very frequent in Mandarin Chinese. 

Differentiating clearly between on the one hand the two ``difficult'' i-sounds and on the other hand the ``easy'' [iy] is often quite important to convey the correct intended meaning to the listener.  This is because this differentiating in pronunciation between these i-sounds is a significant help to the listener in discerning which of the various flavours of ``s''-like consonants that may precede them is intended (e.g., to discern between sh and x, or between zh and j).  However, when after other than ``s''-like consonants, differentiating between the different versions of ``i'' is not very important. 

From the above, and looking at the way in which the Mandarin Chinese sound system fits together, it follows that it is one of the two ``difficult'' i-sounds, namely the [i] occurring only in si, zi and ci, and not the ``easy'' [iy], which logically has to be regarded as the ``basic'' pronunciation of Pinyin i.  This may seem strange at first, but nevertheless looking at things in this way (in my opinion) does seem to enhance rather than slow down learning of (Mandarin) Chinese pronunciation. 

Now to fill in the blanks in this general picture. 

The ``basic'' pronunciation of Pinyin i as a main vowel -- which in its ``ideal'' form however occurs only in si, zi and ci -- is the following rather muted, retracted i-sound, which in our auxiliary phonetic notation we'll write as italic [i] :

i   [i]
= ``y'' in Russian or Czech ``vychod''
= ``y'' in Swedish ``by''.
This [i] is a sound intermediate between: (1) on the one hand the sound ``i'' as in English ``pit''; and (2) on the other hand the group of sounds formed by German u-Umlaut (= Pinyin main vowel u..) and Pinyin e (= [e]).  This [i] is a sound much nearer to Pinyin e [e] and to ``i'' in English ``pit'' than to ''i'' in French ``pire'', ``ie'' in German ``hier'', or ``i'' in Italian ``tipo''.  People unfamiliar with this Slavic or Swedish [i] sound will not go far wrong when they temporarily start out with simply taking as the basic pronunciation of [i] the sound ``i'' as in English ``pit'', and when they perhaps then gradually try to mix in some of the quality of e [e] into their pronunciation of [i]. 

When after a retroflexed consonant, i.e., in shi, zhi, chi and ri, the letter i takes on a little of the ``retroflex'' quality of the preceding consonant.  The resulting slightly changed ``i'' is sometimes called the ``retroflex vowel''.  It is as if the i becomes simply the vowel-like extension of the ``English r'' quality of the retroflexed consonant.  The tongue is in the bent-backward ``English r'' position while pronouncing this ``retroflex vowel''.  We'll write this sound as [i<] in our auxiliary phonetic notation.  This ``retroflex'' [i<] is however not all that much different from the ``basic'' sound [i], and clearly differentiating in one's pronunciation between [i<] and [i] is not very important.  Pronouncing i not as [i] but more [i<]-like after a retroflexed consonant is very much an effect that should be allowed to happen automatically and ``unconsciously''. 

When after a palatized consonant, i.e., in xi, ji and qi, the letter i takes on some of the ``palatization'' quality of the preceding letter, and is pronounced quite a lot like like ``i'' in French ``pire'', ``ie'' in German ``hier'', or ``i'' in Italian ``tipo''.  (We'll write this sound as [iy] in our auxiliary notation.)

However, this last version of ``i'' is also the way in which Pinyin i is pronounced when in any other position as a main vowel ! 

It is as if in the Pinyin letter i, regardless of its ``basic'' pronunciation as [i], nevertheless has this ``palatization quality'' constantly hanging around itself, timidly lurking from a distance for an easy chance to assert itself; and it will jump into overt expression as soon as it is not ``scared away'' by the presence of a neighbouring consonant that clearly has the quality of being non-palatized.  In Mandarin Chinese, the only consonants in which it is one of their important features distinguishing them from other consonants in the Mandarin Chinese sound system that they are non-palatized, are the consonants s, z, c sh, zh, ch and r.  Therefore, it is only those letters which ``scare away'' this ``palatization quality'' from Pinyin i.  As long as none of these consonants is near, this timid ``palatization quality'' hanging around the i joyfully leaps out and asserts itself. 

This ``model'' also is in accordance with the fact that even the sheng-less syllable consisting of the single i on its own (spelled in Pinyin as yi) is pronounced with [iy], not with [i]. 

Note carefully that the sound quality of all the vowel letters as discussed above is to be interpreted as completely unconnnected with the actual length (duration) of the vowel sound as pronounced in the actual Chinese words.  The duration of each of the Chinese vowels is fixed by the tone only, and the tone of the vowel never affects the sound quality of the vowel as discussed above. 


4.4 - Tones

The ``tone'' of a Chinese syllable is the shift in pitch that occurs while the syllable is pronounced.  There are four or five different tones (see below), each of which has its unique pitch variation pattern and length (duration).  The tone is applied to the main vowel of the syllable: it is an intrinsic quality of, and intrinsic part of, of the main vowel. 

Vowels with a different tone but otherwise the same pronunciation, like a- and a\, are to Chinese ears as much different as to two vowels written with different letters, like A and E, are different to Western ears.  The situation is much like in French, where e, e/ and e\ are vowels which to the French language are entirely different.  In spoken Chinese, or in Chinese written in Pinyin, the tone of the main vowel of a syllable is therefore of similar importance as as its sound quality (as discussed in the section above) in conveying to the listener (or reader of Pinyin) the correct intended meaning.  A longer passage of Chinese written in Pinyin without tones and pronounced in that way, without any pitch variation in the vowels, would probably be intelligible to a person familiar with Chinese, who would probably be able to piece together the correct intended meaning from the context of the words; but for individual words or very short passages the tone is quite important to distinguish the words (syllables) from words with a different meaning but except for the tone exactly the same pronunciation.

Leaving out the tones in written or spoken Chinese can be compared to writing or pronouncing English with all distinction between different vowels blotted out.  For example, the sentence `` +  b+g+nn+ng  +s  th+  t+m+  f+r  t+k+ng  th+  m+st  d+l+c+t+  c+r+  th+t  th+  b+l+nc+s  +r+  c+rr+ct '' can be probably puzzled together and understood by any English reader after looking a moment at it; but when it is tried to communicate a random individual English word with the vowel blotted out, then the chances are great that the listener is not able to choose between equally likely alteratives for what the intended word might be.  (E.g., is ``sh+p'' intended as ``ship'' or ``shop'' ?  And is ``s+ck'' intended as ``sack'', ``sick'', ``sock'', or ``suck'' ?).  It is similar with Chinese tones: communicating the correct tone is quite important to distinguish a word from other words which otherwise sound similar but which could be totally unrelated in meaning.  For example, 包 ba-o means ``satiated, full (with food)'', 饱 bavo means ``pack'' or ``wrap'' (either as verb or noun), and 报 ba\o means ``newspaper''.  Another example is 买 mavi which means ``to buy'' and 卖 ma\i which means ``to sell''.  When placed in a larger sentence, the intended meaning of these words when their tone is unclear can very probably be puzzled out from the context, but when given as single words without tone, the guesswork to the listener is as large as with English ``sh+p'' or ``s+ck''

Unfortunately, in any kind of romanization notation, the ''tones'' of the Chinese syllables are very often not indicated when Chinese words or names are written in Western books (other than Chinese language courses) or Western newspapers.  This is very unfortunate, since with the tones marked, Pinyin is fully phonetic and completely unambiguously fixes the exact pronunciation of (Mandarin) Chinese.  If the tones are left out, a significant portion of this exactness is lost.  Also, it is easy to look up the Chinese characters in a dictionary once one knows the Pinyin romanization of the words complete with the correct tone (each Chinese character is exactly one syllable); but when the tone is unknown, there is quite a lot of uncertainty and guesswork. 

However, it is very easy to indicate the tones as well, in any romanization system, namely by using a diacritic placed on the ''main'' vowel of the syllable.  Thus :

Notation Form of the diacritic sign Name of tone Duration (length)
a- horizontal line ``first tone'' medium
a/ aigu or (``acute'') accent ``second tone'' medium
av hook pointing downward ``third tone'' long
a\ grave accent ``fourth tone'' short
ao a little circle or zero ``neutral tone''
or ``light tone''
very short
a no diacritic

Table 4 : The diacritic signs used to indicate the tones in Mandarin Chinese.
A syllable in the neutral or light tone is often marked in printing
by absence of any tone diacritic.

The above table shows the way in which tones are indicated in Chinese language courses, also within China itself.  Summarizing: in this way, each syllable gets a diacritic sign on top of one of its vowel letters, namely on the vowel letter representing the main vowel in the syllable.  In printing, therefore, this does not represent any bigger difficulties than when printing any kind of Western text using Latin characters in which diacritics are used, such as French. 

As already briefly explained, the tones are applied to the main vowel of each syllable, and represent changes in pitch which occur while the vowel is pronounced.  Below follows a brief description of the pronunciation of each of the tones of Mandarin Chinese. 

All tones are pronounced within the range of pitch indentical to the range of pitch in normal, relaxed speech in Western languages.  The existence of these ``tones'' in Chinese does not at all mean that Chinese uses a different pitch range than Western languages, it means only a more ``conscious'' and ``controlled'' application of the very same pitch variations as occur in Western-language speech.  Thus, when describing the pitch changes in the tones by ``high'' and ``low'', we do not mean high and low pitches such as a professional singer would employ, but instead we mean by ``high'' and ``low'' pitches which both lie very comfortably within the normal Western speech pitch range, ``high'' denoting a point of pitch relatively on the high side and ``low'' a point relatively on the low side of this comfortable range of pitch.  The variations in pitch in the tones do not cover a great range of pitch, but instead a quite small one, and one should not stretch or push at all while pronouncing these tones.  The purpose when pronouncing a toned vowel is to convey to the listener the form of the pitch variation that occurs during the time in which the vowel is pronounced.  It is the pitch variation that makes the tones, the actual absolute pitch is not very important, and neither is the actual size of the range of pitch between ``high'' and ``low''.  Various different speakers each use their own comfortable relaxed pitch range to place these pitch variations in.  Also, for example, the same speaker can, exactly as as in Western languages, gradually rise in pitch over the course of a few sentences as he is getting more excited; or can gradually fall in pitch over the course of a few sentences while he is getting tired or disappointed. 

A vowel in the first tone (a-) is pronounced at a continuously ``high'' pitch.  (The form of the ``pitch variation'' consisting in this case of the fact that the pitch remains constant.)  A vowel in the second tone (a/) starts at medium pitch and rises till ``high'' pitch.  Both of these two tones are about the same in length (duration), and have a duration that is neither long or short, i.e., a duration equalling the average of the length of a vowel in any Western-language speech.  The first tone (a-) could be said to have a determined, ``exclamatory'' character; and the second, rising, tone (a/) a kind of ``questioning'' or ``pushing'' character . 

A vowel in the third tone (av) starts at medium pitch, immediately very quickly falls to ``low'' pitch on which it remains for a noticeable time, then finally quickly rises again, to ``medium'' or even to ``high'' pitch.  The length (duration) of this tone is significantly longer than that of the other tones.  The two distinctive marks of this tone are the lowness of the (middle part of) the tone and the tone's long duration.  In quick speech, placing the middle part of the tone at ``low'' pitch is all that suffices very well to mark the vowel as being in the third tone, the initial and final parts of the pitch variation of this tone are relatively less essential features.  The third tone could be said to have a kind of ``frivolous'' character. 

A vowel in the fourth tone (a\) starts out at ``high'' pitch, then quickly drops to ``low'' pitch.  The duration of this tone is markedly shorter than the 1st and 2nd tones.  The fourth tone could be said to have a ``decisive'', ``cutting-off'' quality. 

Each syllable of (Mandarin) Chinese has one of these four tones as its ``official'' tone.  This tone is considered to be an intrinsic part of the syllable, as much as, for example, the sound quality of the main vowel or of the initial consonant is an intrinsic part of the syllable.  When a Chinese word is quoted on its own, or in very slow emphatic speech, each syllable is pronounced in its ``official'' tone.  However, in actual normal speech, a very small number of Chinese characters are mostly pronounced in the so-called ``light'' or ``neutral'' tone instead of in their ``official'' tone. 

This ``neutral'' or ``light'' tone (ao) is not so much felt as a ``tone'' but instead as the lack of one: a vowel in the ``neutral'' tone is just pronounced quickly and at an indiscriminate medium pitch, e.g., at whatever convenient medium pitch that happens to come easily in that part of the sentence.  The ``neutral'' or ``light'' tone can be considered to represent the lack of a tone in the same way as the ``e muet'' in French represents a vowel that lacks its own well-defined distinct sound quality and is just an indistinct, easy, short kind of ``nothing''-vowel. 

Such pronunciation of syllables in the ``light'' tone instead of their ``official'' tone only happens in the following two cases:

The examples below show some examples of the ``light'' tone in action.  Note that in most compound words, the light tone is in fact not used. 

In dictionaries and vocabulary lists that use Pinyin, syllables (Chinese characters) that are prone to get the ``light'' tone are listed either (1) with their ``theoretical'' ``official'' tone, or (2) with the light tone as they are actually used.  Chinese characters are very often alphabetized on the basis of how their pronunciation is written in Pinyin.  (In the alphabetical ordering, the letter u.. with Umlaut comes immediately after u.)  For syllables that differ only in tone, the alphabetization order used is first to fourth tone in that order, and then (when used) the ``light'' tone.


5 - Examples

Some examples of Pinyin in actual use, complete with the tone diacritics.  Each example also gives (within the square brackets [ ]) the precise pronunciation in our auxiliary phonetic notation. 


他   是   中 国 人   吗   ?
Ta-   shi\   Zho-ngguo/   re/n   mao ?
[ tha-   s<i<\   dz<o-ng   gwo/   z<e/n   mao ? ]
(``Is he a Chinese person ?'')


这 个   同 志   积 极   工 作 。
Zhe\geo   to/ngzhi\   ji-ji/   go-ngzuo\.
[ dz<e\   geo   tho/ng   dz<i<\   dzyiy-   dzyiy/   go-ng   dzwo\ . ]
(``This comrade works dilligently.'')


对 这样 的 坏 东西 仁慈 ,   就 会 害了 自己 。
Dui\   zhe\ya\ng   deo   hua\i   do-ngxio   re/nci/ ,   jiu\   hu\i   ha\ileo   zi\jiv.
[ dwey\y   dz<e\   ya\ng   deo   hwa\y   do-ng   syiy o   z<e/n   tshi/ ,   dzyyo\w   hwey\y   ha\y   leo   dzi\   dzyiy v. ]
(``If you are kind to such a bad thing/creature, then you'll harm yourself.'')


他 门   先   把   原 料   制 造 迟   零 件 ,   ...
Ta-meon   xia-n   bav   yua/nlia\o   zhi\za\oche/ng   li/ngjia\n ,   . . .
[ tha-   meon   syyay-n   bav   yy..a/n   lya\w   dz<i<\   dza\w   tsh<e/ng   liy/ng   dzyyay\n ,  ... ]
(``They first make raw materials into parts, ...'' )


...   再   把   各 种   零 件   装 配 迟   发 电 机 。
. . .   za\i   bav   ge\zhovng   li/ngjia\n   zhua-ngpe\iche/ng   fa-dia\nji-.
[ ...   dza\y   bav   ge\   dz<ovng   liy/ng   dzyyay\n   dz<wa-ng   phey\y   tsh<e/ng   fa-   dyay\n   dzyiy-. ]
(``... then assemble these parts into generators.'')


6 - The Wade romanization

6.1 - Wade-Pinyin conversion table

Below follows a table with all possible syllables of Mandarin Chinese in it (disregarding the tones).  Each syllable is given both in Pinyin and in Wade.  Everything written in upright bold is in Pinyin, and everything in italic bold is in Wade notation.  Where Wade has more than one alternative for spelling the same syllable, these alternatives are separated by a vertical bar ( | ). 

The columns are all possible sheng (initial consonants) and the rows all possible yun (rest-of-syllable parts) of Mandarin Chinese.  The columns and rows are labelled with the pronunciation of these parts of the syllables expressed in our auxiliary phonetic notation (explained in the sections above).  The rows are listed with all yun having the same main vowel as a single block together, and with those blocks of yun listed in alphabetical order of the main vowel. 

To find the precise pronunciation of any syllable written in Pinyin or Wade, look up the Pinyin or Wade syllable in the table (using e.g. the ``Find'' function of your web browser); then simply glue together the pronunciation of the sheng and yun parts of the syllable as given in the header of the row and column. 

The Wade romanization does not use diactritics to denote tones as Pinyin does; and Wade use of two letters with diacritics above them to denote special vowels, namely:

Note that these two diacritics in Wade are definitely not tone signs, and are really intended to sit straight above the letters, not to the right of them.  The Wade romanization makes frequent use of the apostrophe sign ( ' ); this apostrophe is not a diacritic or superscript, and in the table entries is shown in its correct position. 

[ The table contains all the Pinyin syllables given in the tables on pp. 29 - 31 of reference [1].  The Wade equivalents of these syllables were taken from the Wade-to-Pinyin conversion table on pp. 13 -17 of reference [6]. ] 

Yun Sheng
(none) [b] [ph] [d] [th] [g] [kh] [s] [dz] [tsh] [s<] [dz<] [ts<h] [sy] [dzy] [tsyh] [z<] [m] [n] [l] [f] [h]
[a] a
a
ba
pa
pa
p'a
da
ta
ta
t'a
ga
ka
ka
k'a
sa
sa
za
tsa
ca
ts'a
sha
sha
zha
cha
cha
ch'a




ma
ma
na
na
la
la
fa
fa
ha
ha
[ay] ai
ai
bai
pai
pai
p'ai
dai
tai
tai
t'ai
gai
kai
kai
k'ai
sai
sai
zai
tsai
cai
ts'ai
shai
shai
zhai
chai
chai
ch'ai




mai
mai
nai
nai
lai
lai

hai
hai
[aw] ao
ao
bao
pao
pao
p'ao
dao
tao
tao
t'ao
gao
kao
kao
k'ao
sao
sao
zao
tsao
cao
ts'ao
shao
shao
zhao
chao
chao
ch'ao



rao
jao
mao
mao
nao
nao
lao
lao

hao
hao
[an] an
an
ban
pan
pan
p'an
dan
tan
tan
t'an
gan
kan
kan
k'an
san
san
zan
tsan
can
ts'an
shan
shan
zhan
chan
chan
ch'an



ran
jan
man
man
nan
nan
lan
lan
fan
fan
han
han
[ang] ang
ang
bang
pang
pang
p'ang
dang
tang
tang
t'ang
gang
kang
kang
k'ang
sang
sang
zang
tsang
cang
ts'ang
shang
shang
zhang
chang
chang
ch'ang



rang
jang
mang
mang
nang
nang
lang
lang
fang
fang
hang
hang
[ya] ya
ya












xia
hsia
jia
chia
qia
ch'ia



lia
lia


[yaw] yao
yao
biao
piao
piao
p'iao
diao
tiao
tiao
t'iao








xiao
hsiao
jiao
chiao
qiao
ch'iao

miao
miao
niao
niao
liao
liao


[yayn] yan
yen
bian
pien
pian
p'ien
dian
tien
tian
t'ien








xian
hsien
jian
chien
qian
ch'ien

mian
mien
nian
nien
lian
lien


[yang] yang
yang












xiang
hsiang
jiang
chiang
qiang
ch'iang


niang
niang
liang
liang


[wa] wa
wa




gua
kua
kua
k'ua



shua
shua
zhua
chua









hua
hua
[way] wai
wai




guai
kuai
kuai
k'uai



shuai
shuai
zhuai
chuai
chuai
ch'uai








huai
huai
[wan] wan
wan


duan
tuan
tuan
t'uan
guan
kuan
kuan
k'uan
suan
suan
zuan
tsuan
cuan
ts'uan
shuan
shuan
zhuan
chuan
chuan
ch'uan



ruan
juan

nuan
nuan
luan
luan

huan
huan
[wang] wang
wang




guang
kuang
kuang
k'uang



shuang
shuang
zhuang
chuang
chuang
ch'uang








huang
huang
[y..an] yuan
yu..an












xuan
hsu..an
juan
chu..an
quan
ch'u..an






[e] e
e^|o


de
te^
te
t'e^
ge
ke^|ko
ke
k'e^|k'o
se
se^
ze
tse^
ce
ts'e^
she
she^
zhe
che^
che
ch'e^



re
je^

ne
ne^
le
le^

he
he^|ho
[eyy]
bei
pei
pei
p'ei
dei
tei

gei
kei


zei
tsei

shei
shei
zhei
chei





mei
mei
nei
nei
lei
lei
fei
fei
hei
hei
[en] en
e^n
ben
pe^n
pen
p'e^n


gen
ke^n
ken
k'e^n
sen
se^n
zen
tse^n
cen
ts'e^n
shen
she^n
zhen
zhe^n
chen
ch'e^n



ren
je^n
men
me^n
nen
ne^n


hen
he^n
[eng]
beng
pe^ng
peng
p'e^ng
deng
te^ng
teng
t'e^ng
geng
ke^ng
keng
k'e^ng
seng
s^eng
zeng
tse^ng
ceng
ts'e^ng
sheng
she^ng
zheng
zhe^ng
cheng
ch'e^ng



reng
je^ng
meng
me^ng
neng
ne^ng


heng
he^ng
[er] er
e^rh





















[yey] ye
yeh
bie
pieh
pie
p'ieh
die
tieh
tie
t'ieh








xie
hsieh
jie
chieh
qie
ch'ieh

mie
mieh
nie
nieh
lie
lieh


[weyy] wei
wei


dui
tui
tui
t'ui
gui
kuei
kui
k'uei
sui
sui
zui
tsui
cui
ts'ui
shui
shui
zhui
chui
chui
ch'ui



rui
jui




hui
hui
[wen] wen
we^n


dun
tun
tun
t'un
gun
kun
kun
k'un
sun
sun
zun
tsun
cun
ts'un
shun
shun
zhun
chun
chun
ch'un



run
jun


lun
lun

hun
hun
[weng] weng
we^ng





















[y..ey] yue
yu..eh|yo












xue
hsu..eh
jue
chu..eh
que
ch'u..eh


nu..e
nu..eh
lu..e
lu..eh


[i]






si
ssuv|szuv
zi
tzuv
ci
tz'uv












[i<]









shi
shih
zhi
chih
chi
ch'ih



ri
jih





[iy] yi
i
bi
pi
pi
p'i
di
ti
ti
t'i








xi
hsi
ji
chi
qi
ch'i

mi
mi
ni
ni
li
li


[iyn] yin
yin
bin
pin
pin
p'in










xin
hsin
jin
chin
qin
ch'in

min
min
nin
nin
lin
lin


[iyng] ying
ying
bing
ping
ping
p'ing
ding
ting
ting
t'ing








xing
hsing
jing
ching
qing
ch'ing

ming
ming
ning
ning
ling
ling


[o]
bo
po
po
p'o














mo
mo


fo
fo

[ow] ou
ou

pou
p'ou
dou
tou
tou
t'ou
gou
kou
kou
k'ou
sou
sou
zou
tsou
cou
ts'ou
shou
shou
zhou
chou
chou
ch'ou



rou
jou
mou
mou
nou
nou
lou
lou
fou
fou
hou
hou
[ong]


dong
tung
tong
t'ung
gong
kung
kong
k'ung
song
sung
zong
tsung
cong
ts'ung

zhong
chung
chong
ch'ung



rong
jung

nong
nung
long
lung

hong
hung
[yow] you
yu


diu
tiu









xiu
hsiu
jiu
chiu
qiu
ch'iu

miu
miu
niu
niu
liu
liu


[yong] yong
yung












xiong
hsiung
jiong
chiung
qiong
ch'iung






[wo] wo
wo


duo
to
tuo
t'o
guo
kuo
kuo
k'uo
suo
so
zuo
tso
cuo
ts'o
shuo
shuo
zhuo
cho
chuo
ch'o



ruo
jo

nuo
no
luo
lo

huo
huo
[u] wu
wu
bu
pu
pu
p'u
du
tu
tu
t'u
gu
ku
ku
k'u
su
su
zu
tsu
cu
ts'u
shu
shu
zhu
chu
chu
ch'u



ru
ju
mu
mu
nu
nu
lu
lu
fu
fu
hu
hu
[u..] yu
yu..












xu
hsu..
ju
chu..
qu
ch'u..


nu..
nu..
lu..
lu..


[u..n] yun
yu..n












xun
hsu..n
jun
chu..n
qun
ch'u..n







6.2 - How the Wade romanization works, and how to translate between Wade and Pinyin

The basics of the Wade romanization are the same as in Pinyin -- the differences lie mostly in the specifics of which letters or letter combinations denote exactly which sounds and when. 

Wade does not use diacritics to denote the tones.  Apart from normal, individual Latin characters, Wade uses the following fixed letter combinations and letters-with-diacritics to denote special vowel and consonant sounds: e^, uv, ih, sh, hs, ch.  (As already mentioned above, it must be very carefully noted that the two diacritic signs ^ and v in Wade do not denote tones.)  Unfortunately, the two diacritics are often left out in printing.  Despite the fact that it makes Wade less easy to read when this happens, it is nevertheless possible to interpret Wade unambiguously even when these diacritics are left out. 

The following is a concise but complete description of the differences between Wade and Pinyin notation.  Everything not discussed below is the same in Wade and Pinyin. 


6.2.A - Vowels

Wade never omits the Umlaut dots on u as Pinyin often does. 

In Wade, the three different types of ``i'' of Mandarin Chinese are consequently written with different letters or letter combinations.  The ``easy'' i-sound [iy], pronounced like ``ee'' in English ``bee'', is written in Wade as i, without an h after it.  The vowel sound [i<], as in Pinyin shi, zhi, chi and ri, is written consequently as ih in Wade.  The vowel sound [i], as in Pinyin si, zi and ci, is written consequently as uv in Wade.  The combinations written in Pinyin as si, zi and ci are written in Wade with a z put in, i.e., as szuv, tzuv, and tz'uv, respectively.  The combination szuv however is also written alternatively as ssuv.  These ``strange'' letter combinations ss, sz, and tz, which in Wade only occur before the vowel [i], make it possible to interpret Wade uv correctly even if the diacritic is left out: after one of these ``strange'' letter combinations, Wade u is always a uv with its diacritic lost; in all other cases, Wade u corresponds to Pinyin u

The vowel sound [e], that is, ``i'' as in English ``bird'' and e as in Pinyin le, is written in Wade as e^.  When it forms a complete syllable by itself, or when after a guttural consonant (aspirated or non-aspirated k, or h), the vowel sound [e] is also alternatively written in Wade as o.  The letter o in Wade has two uses: besides [e] it is also used for the same ``o''-vowel as Pinyin o.  These four cases: o, ko, k'o and ho, are the only ones in which Wade o is prounounced as [e]; in all other cases, Wade o denotes the same vowel as Pinyin o.  Wade e^ has only one single meaning, and always denotes [e]. 

The vowel sound [ey], that is, ``e'' as in English ``pen'' and e as in Pinyin mei, is written in Wade as e without a circonflexe diacritic above it.  When this e is the last letter in the syllable, Wade always writes an h immediately after the e.  This ``extraneous'' h makes that Wade e can be interpreted correctly even when the diacritic signs are left out; namely as follows: e in eh and when next to i or y is always [ey] (= ``e'' as in English ``pen''); and in all other cases, e is an e^ with its diacritic lost and denotes the vowel [e] (= ``i'' as in English ``bird''). 

The vowel sound [ay], as in Pinyin -ian, is written consequently as e in Wade. 

Pinyin -ong is consequently written as -ung in Wade. 

Wade consequently writes all yun -iou as -iu, including the zero-sheng yu, which Pinyin writes as you

After non non-zero sheng, Wade writes the yun pronounced as [wey] as -ui like Pinyin does, except after aspirated or non-aspirated k, in which case Wade writes this yun as -uei

Pinyin -uo is written in Wade also as -uo; except when after any kind dental consonant except sh (i.e., after any of s, j, n, l, and aspirated and non-aspirated t, ts and ch), in which case it is written in Wade as -o

Pinyin yue is written in Wade regularly as as yu..eh, but (strangely enough) is also alternatively written in Wade as yo

Pinyin yi is written in Wade as i; but otherwise, Wade uses initial y- and w- in the same way as Pinyin does. 


6.2.B - Consonants

Wade very consequently uses an apostrophe ' to denote aspiration.  The apostrophe is placed immediately after the aspirated consonant.  Consonants which differ in pronunciation only in being being aspirated or not, are written in Wade with precisely the same letter (or letter combination), either followed by the apostrophe or not.  Wade thus writes Pinyin b, d, g as p, t, k, respectively; and writes Pinyin p, t, k as p', t', k', respectively. 

As the apostrophe is used in Wade already for the above purpose, people mostly do not use the apostrophe as a syllable dividing sign (which is the only usage of the apostrophe in Pinyin) when using Wade.  Polysyllabic words in Wade notation are mostly written with all syllables separated by hyphens (dashes), e.g.: chung-kuo-jen, p'in-yin.

Pinyin z [dz] and c [tsh] are written in Wade as ts (without or with '). 

Wade uses the notation ch for two purposes simultaneously, namely for retroflexed [ts<] (Pinyin zh/ch), but also for palatized [tsy] (Pinyin j/q).  Wade ch is pronounced as retroflexed [ts<] when before ih, a, e, o, or u; and pronounced as palatized [tsy] when before i or u...  (Note that in Wade the Latin letter c is only used in the combination ch, never in any another way.) 

Pinyin retroflexed sh is written also as sh in Wade.  For the palatized Pinyin x, Wade uses these same two Latin letters, but writes them inverted, i.e., as as the combination hs

Pinyin r (pronounced [z<] at the beginning of syllables is written in Wade as j; and the final consonant [-r] written in Pinyin as -r is written in Wade as -rh


7 - Literature used

Pinyin transliterations of Chinese names and book titles are given in normal font between curly brackets { }.

[1]  Modern Chinese: A Basic Course, by ``the Faculty of Peking University''; Dover Publications, Inc., New York; 1971; ISBN 0-486-22755-3.  The second volume of this course is Modern Chinese: A Second Course, by ``the Faculty of Peking University''; Dover Publications Inc., New York; 1981; ISBN 0-486-24155-6.  The set of these two (paperback) volumes is a nearly unchanged re-issue or re-publication of the Chinese course book Modern Chinese Reader, second edition, Peking, 1963, of the Chinese Language Special Course for Foreign Students in Peking University.  It is a ``tough'' and concise, but excellent introductory course in (Mandarin) Chinese, which from the start uses Chinese characters as well as Pinyin.  (Most self-teaching Chinese courses written in English unfortunately seem to intend to teach oral Chinese only, and never use any Chinese characters at all.)

[2]  Elementargrammatik des Neuchinesischen, Uebersetzt und bearbeitet von Dr. phil. Martin Piasek; VEB Verlag Enzyklopaedie Leipzig; 1961.  (This is simply an older, and even more concise and condensed version, of the above Chinese book [1], translated to German; which however explains Mandarin Chinese pronunciation from a different point-of-view.)

[3]  The articles on ``Pinyin romanization'' and ``Wade-Giles romanization'' from the ``Micropaedia / Ready Reference'' portion of The New Encyclopaedia Brittannica, 15th edition; Encyclopaedia Brittannica Inc., Chicago; 1974. 

[4]  The Pinyin to Wade-Giles conversion table from People's Republic of China: Administrative Atlas; Central Intelligence Agency, Washington D.C.; 1975; pp. 46-47; as reproduced in Jonathan D. Spence, The Search for Modern China; W.W. Norton & Company Inc./Ltd., New York / London; 1990; pp. xxv-xxvii. 

[5] Rita Mei-Wah Choy, Read and Write Chinese; China West Books, San Francisco; 1990. (Used for some data on the Canton dialect.)

[6] 危 东亚 { We-i Do-ngya\ } (editor in chief),  A Chinese-English Dictionary (Revised Edition) / 汉 英 词典   ( 修订 版 缩印 本 )  { Ha\n Yi-ng ci/diavn (xiu-di\ng bavn suo-yi\n bevn) },  compiled by the Beijing Foreign Language University's English-language-family Dictionary Group; Publisher: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press / 外语 教学 与 研究 出版社 { wa\iyuv jia\oxue/ yuv ya/njiu- chu-bavnshe\ }, Beijing; 1997; ISBN 7-5600-1325-2.  (This is a nice dictionary which I think I can recommend.)

[7] 王 文博{ Wa/ng We/nbo/ } et al., Chinees-Nederlands Woordenboek / 中 荷 词典  { Zho-ng He/ ci/diavn }; Published jointly by: (1) The Commercial Press (Hong Kong) Ltd., Hong Kong, and (2) Ming Ya Books Co., Amsterdam; 1993; ISBN 90-72179-12-9.

[8] Hanyu Chubu: Chinese for Beginners / 汉语 初步  { Ha\nyuv chu-bu\ }, Compiled by the Peking Language Institute and the Editorial Department of the monthly China Reconstructs; Publisher: Bailey Record Co., Hong Kong; 1976.  (This item consists of a small booklet plus two cassette tapes.)

[9] David Bonavia, The Chinese; Penguin Books; 1982; pp. 235-236. (Used for some data on various Chinese dialects.)

[10] The chapter ``Introduction'' (pp. 1-33) from Jacques Gernet, A History of Chinese Civilization; Publisher: The Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K.; 1982; ISBN 0-521-24130-8.  This is a translation of Jaques Gernet, Le Monde Chinois; Librairie Armand Colin, Paris; 1972.  (Used for data on Chinese dialects.)


8 - Acknowledgements

I wish to thank ``native speaker'' Biao Huang for some very helpful pointers on Chinese pronunciation. 



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