Chine Pronunciation（汉语发音）
2008-10-06 20:29
Chine Pronunciation
Composition of the Chine Alphabet (pinyin)
老外骂人1. Syllable
A syllable is the basic unit in the sound structure of modern Chine. A syllable is compod by an initial consonant, a simple or compound vowel and tone. Generally speaking, one Chine character is compod of one syllable.
2. Initial consonant
scholl
An initial consonant is the beginning consonant of a syllable. There are 23 initial consonants in Chine. They are:
b p m f d t n l g k h j q x zh ch sh r z c s y w.
3. Simple or compound vowel
Vowels after an initial consonant are called simple or compound vowels. There are 36 simple and compound vowels. They are:
a o e i u ü ai ei ui ao ou iu ie üe an en in un ün ang eng ing ong er ia iao ian iang iong ua uo uai uan uang ueng üan.
4. Whole syllables
Some syllables are pronounced as a whole, and are called "whole syllables". There are 16 such syllables. They are:
zhi chi shi ri zi ci si ye yi yin ying wu yu yue yun yuan.
5. Syllables with no initials
There are some syllables with no initials. Examples include:
ān 安 (safe); a 啊 (ah)
Rules of phonetic spelling
outlawIn Chine, the initial consonant and simple or compound vowels are grouped together with a tone. The spelling rules go as follows:
1. Initial consonants "j q x" are only grouped together with the simple or compound vowels "i" and "ü". The two dots above the "ü" are omitted when the vowel is joined with a consonant. For example:
ji, qi, xi
jia, qia, xia
ju, qu, xu
scale是什么意思
aggressor jue, que, xue
jun, qun, xun
2. When there is no initial consonant before the simple or compound vowels with "i" or "u", then "i" should be changed into "y", and "u" into "w". For example:
ia→ya uo→wo
3. When "ui, un, iu, ü" are alone, they become,
ui→wei un→wen iu→you ü→yu
4. Syllable Division Sign
stoneTho syllables with "a, o, e" as initial vowels are formed with a syllable division sign, " ' ". For instance:
jī'è 饥饿 (hunger); míng'é 名额 (number of people allowed)
jiè 借 (to borrow); mín'gē 民歌 (folksong)汤圆 英文
Pronunciation rules
1. Basic tones
There are four basic tones in spoken Chine.
The first tone, The High-and-Level Tone
The cond tone, The Rising Tone
The third tone, The Falling-and-Rising Tone
The fourth tone, The Falling Tone
The four tones are written as "ˉ, ˊ, ˇ,ˋ" and are written above the main vowel (the one that caus the mouth to open the widest.) For instance:脱产培训
englishpod
qiāng, qiáng, qiǎng, qiàng
tuī, tuí, tuǐ, tuì
As a general rule, the vowel that comes earlier in the alphabet is usually the main vowel,
but there are exceptions.
2. Light tone syllable
A light tone syllable is the one that comes after another syllable and is pronounced in a short and soft way. You need not to mark it when writing. For instance:
hǎo ma? 好吗 (Is that OK?)
bō li 玻璃 (glass)
3. The Tone Changes
Tone changes occur when veral syllables come together. Here are the three situations where tone changes happen.
When two the 3rd tones come together, the leading tone becomes a cond tone. For instance, the pronunciation of 你好 "nǐ hǎo" becomes "ní hǎo".
When the third tone comes before the first tone, the cond tone, the fourth tone and most of the light tones, it becomes half third tone. That is to say, you can just pronounce the first or falling part of the third tone. For example:ocean是什么意思
lǎo shī 老师 (teacher)
yǔ yán 语言 (language)
In Chine "不" and "一" also have special tone changes. When "不" and "一" come before a Chine character with fourth tone, or a light tone their pronunciations become "bú" and "yí" parately. For example:
bú shì 不是; yí gè 一个
bù shuō 不说; bù lái 不来; bù hǎo 不好
yì tiān 一天; yì nián 一年; yì qǐ 一起
4. Retroflexion with –r
When a vowel of a syllable comes with "er(-r)", it becomes r-ending retroflexion. There are many such words in Chine. For instance:
gēr 歌儿 (song); huār 花儿 (flower)
If a vowel ends with "-i" or "-n", then "-i" or "-n" would not be pronounced. For example,
xiǎo háir 小孩儿 (child); wánr 玩儿 (to play)
