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Appendices
1 Common Chinese Family Names
2 Common English Names with Chinese Transcriptions
100 Common Surnames
100 Common Male Given Names
100 Common Female Given Names
3 Chinese Place Names
Provinces
Autonomous Regions
Municipalities under direct jurisdiction
Special administrative regions
Introducing Chinese
1 PRONUNCIATION
1.1 Vowels
SINGLE VOWELS
There are seven basic single vowels:
| a | similar to a in ah |
| e | similar to a in ago |
| ê | similar to e in ebb (this sound never occurs alone and is transcribed as e, as in ei, ie, ue) |
| i | similar to ee in cheese (spelled y when not preceded by a consonant) |
| o | similar to oe in toe |
| u | similar to oo in boot (spelled w when not preceded by a consonant) |
| ü | similar to German ü in über or French u in tu; or you can get ü by saying i and rounding your lips at the same time (spelled u after j, q, x; spelled yu when not preceded by a consonant) |
VOWEL COMBINATIONS
These single vowels combine with each other or with the consonants of n or ng to form what are technically known as diphthongs. These combinations are pronounced as a single sound, with a little more emphasis on the first part of the sound.
You can learn these combinations in four groups:
| Group 1: | diphthongs starting with a/e/ê |
| ai | similar to y in my |
| ao | similar to ow in how |
| an | |
| ang | |
| en | |
| eng | |
| ei | similar to ay in may |
| Group 2: | diphthongs starting with i |
| ia | |
| ie | similar to ye in yes |
| iao | |
| iou | similar to you (spelled iu when preceded by a consonant) |
| ian | |
| ien | similar to in (spelled in when preceded by a consonant) |
| ieng | similar to En in English (spelled ing when preceded by a consonant) |
| iang | similar to young |
| iong |
| Group 3: | diphthongs starting with u/o |
| ua | |
| uo | |
| uai | similar to why in British English |
| uei | similar to way (spelled ui when preceded by a consonant) |
| uan | |
| uen | (spelled un when preceded by a consonant) |
| ueng | |
| uang | |
| ong |
| Group 4: | diphthongs starting with ü |
| üe | used only after j, q, x; spelled ue |
| üen | used only after j, q, x; spelled un |
| üan | used only after j, q, x; spelled uan |
1.2 Consonants
Consonants may be grouped in the following ways.
| Group 1: | These consonants are almost the same in Chinese and English. |
| CHINESE | ENGLISH |
| m | m |
| n | n |
| f | f |
| l | l |
| s | s |
| r | r |
| b | pronounced as hard p (as in speak) |
| p | p (as in peak) |
| g | pronounced as hard k (as in ski) |
| k | k (as in key) |
| d | pronounced as hard t (as in star) |
| t | t (as in tar) |
| Group 2: | Some modification is needed to get these Chinese sounds from English. |
| CHINESE | ENGLISH |
| j | as j in jeep (but unvoiced, not round-lipped) |
| q | as ch in cheese (but not round-lipped) |
| x | as sh in sheep (but not round-lipped) |
| c | as ts as in cats (make it long) |
| z | as ds as in beds (but unvoiced, and make it long) |
Group 3: No English counterparts
Chinese zh, ch, and sh have no English counterparts. You can learn to say zh, ch and sh starting from z, c and s. For example, say s (which is almost the same as the English s in sesame) and then roll up your tongue to touch the roof of your mouth. You get sh.
TONES
Chinese is a tonal language, i.e. a sound pronounced in different tones is understood as different words. So the tone is an indispensable component of the pronunciation of a word.
1.3 Basic tones
There are four basic tones. The following five-level pitch graph shows the values of the four tones:
• The First Tone is a high, level tone and is represented as ¯, e.g. 妈 mā (meaning mother, mom).
• The Second Tone is a high, rising tone and is represented by the tone mark ́, e.g. 麻 má (hemp or sesame).
• The Third Tone is a falling, then rising tone. As you can see from the pitch graph it falls from below the middle of the voice range to nearly the bottom and then rises to a point near the top. It is represented by the tone mark ˇ, e.g. 马 mǎ (horse).
• The Fourth Tone is a falling tone. It falls from high to low and is represented by the tone mark ̀, e.g. 骂 mà (curse).
In Chinese speech, as in English speech, some sounds are unstressed, i.e. pronounced short and soft. They do not have any of the four tones. Such sounds are said to have Neutral Tone. Sounds with the neutral tone are not marked. For example in 爸爸 bàba (daddy) the first syllable is pronounced in the fourth tone and the second syllable in the neutral tone, i.e. unstressed.
TONE CHANGES
Tones may undergo changes in actual speech (“tone sandhi”). The third tone, when followed by a first, second, fourth or neutral tone sound, loses its final rise and stops at the low pitch. Followed by another third tone sound, it becomes the second tone. This is a general rule and the notation of third tone sounds remains unchanged.
For example, in 所以 suǒyǐ (therefore, so), notation remains the third tone for both syllables, but the word is actually pronounced like suóyǐ.
Two important words 不 bù (no) and 一 yī (one) also undergo tone changes. You will find the details of their tone changes under these entries.
1.4 Syllables: Distinct units
Normally
