Introduction to Pinyin

	Pīnyīn is the Romanized system to represent Chinese sounds. It uses the same alphabet as English with additional letter ‘ü’ and four tone markers. The letter ‘v’ is not used in Pǔtōnghuà, the standard common language in China. 

Pinyin
Scheme for the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet

Initials

b	p	m	f	d	t	n	l	
g	k	h		j	q	x		
zh	ch	sh	r	z	c	s		

•	An initials is the first consonant of a syllable.
•	Each initial represent one sound. Some initials are represented by  two-letters, e.g., ‘zh’ ‘ch’ and ‘sh’. 
•	Most sounds are similar to English sounds, but not exactly identical. For example, the sound ‘b’ in Chinese is not voiced. It is a voiceless sound as ‘p’ in English word ‘speak’. The sound ‘p’ is an aspirated voiceless sound as ‘p’ in English word ‘peak’.
•	Please pay close attention to each sound when you learn. The following sounds need more attention:

j	a consonant, as 'j' in ‘jeep’ but not aspirated
q	a consonant, as 'ch' in ‘cheek’
x	a consonant, as 'sh' in ‘she’
zh	a consonant, as 'j' in ‘jump’ with retroflexed tongue
ch	a consomant, as 'ch' in ‘church’, strongly aspirated and retroflexed
sh	a consonant, as 'sh' in ‘shore’, retroflexed
z	a consonant, as 'ts' but not aspirated
c	a consonant, as 'ts' in ‘bats’, strongly aspirated

Finals

	i	u	ü	
a	ia	ua		
o		uo		
e	ie		üe	
ai		uai		
ei		uei		
ao	iao			
ou	iou			
an	ian	uan	üan	
en	in	uen	ün	
ang	iang	uang		
eng	ing	ueng		
ong	iong			

•	Finals are all sounds after initials.
•	Some finals are single vowel, e.g., ‘a’ ‘o’ ‘e’ ‘i’ ‘u’ and ‘ü’.
•	Some finals are compounds, e.g., ‘ai’ ‘ei’ ‘ao’ and ‘ou’.
•	Some finals end with ‘n’ or ‘ng’, e.g., ‘in’ ‘en’ ‘ang’ and ‘iong’. 
•	The pronunciation of vowels is similar to English or some European languages. But the vowel ‘e’ needs special attention. It is pronounced as 'ir' in ‘shirt’, or 'ur' in 'turn' without ‘r’ sound, not English 'e' [i:]

•	You don't have to learn these individual sounds now. Listen to recording or your instructor carefully and pay close attention to these sounds. Sounds are best learned in a connected speech. 

Tones

•	There are four tones in Chinese. Pay particular attention to the tone differences when you listen to recording. The same syllable with different tones is different in meaning. For example:

Tone	1st tone	2nd tone	3rd tone	4th tone	
Syllable	mā 	má  	mǎ 	mà	
Meaning	mother	hemp	horse	to scold	

The tone pitch of the first tone is high and long.
The tone pitch of the second tone is rising and long.
The tone pitch of the third tone in connected speech is low and short. (When a syllable with the third tone is pronounced individually, the pitch dips and then arises.)
The tone pitch of the fourth tone is falling and short. See the table below for illustration.

1 high and  long	mā	2 rising and long	má	
3 low and short	mǎ	4 falling and short	mà	

•	Tones change in connected speech. The actual sound you hear in 'nǐhǎo' is 'níhǎo'. This happens when a third tone syllable follows another. 

Syllable Structure

•	An initial, a final and a tone form a syllable. The tone is superimposed over the entire syllable.

Tone (1st)  ─	
Initial	Final	
j	i	o	ng