Introduction to PinYin Miss Chiang

History Romanization has been around for a long time to make Chinese language more accessible to foreigners. Many different methods, such as Wade-Giles, Yale, etc. PinYin –Introduced in –developed by People’s Republic of China, –most popular method today.

token.SearchID=Mandarin PinYin Symbols Overview Initials –Similar to Consonant. Finals –Similar to vowels.

Pinyin 1: Initials bpmf dtnl gkh jqx zhchshr zcs

Pinyin 2: Simple Finals iuü aoeê

PinYin 3: Compound Finals aieiaoou anenangengong=ueng iaiaoieIu=iou ianiniangingiong uauouaiui=uei uanun=uenuangueng ü eü anü n er

Spelling Rules 1. If there is no initial consonant before i & ü, they are written as yi & yu. 2. If there is no initial consonant before u, it is written as wu. 3. ueng is written as ong. 4. An apostrophe is used to separate two syllables with connecting vowels, e.g. shi’er (12).

se101/pinyin/tones.htm Tones Chinese is a sound-poor language, about 400 sounds. Every Chinese syllable has a tone. Each character corresponds to a single syllable. There are 4 main tones. There is also a neutral tone.

se101/pinyin/tones.htm

Tone Marks First—Singing Tone“C” Second∕Question Tone“What?” Third√Dipping, hesitating “Well….” Fourth\Assertive, short“GO!” “NO!!” NeutralNoneLight sound

marks/index.html Where do the Tone Marks go? a and e trump all other vowels and always take the tone mark. There are no Mandarin syllables that contain both a and e. In the combination ou, o takes the mark. In all other cases, the final vowel takes the mark.

Resources Online Pinyin help: ChineseOn.net.ChineseOn.net Pinyin Practice: tones, initials & finals. Pinyin Practice Romanization Conversion Tool: Pinyin, Wade-Giles, Yale. Romanization Conversion Tool Romanization comparison chart. Romanization comparison chart Tone Drill. Tone Drill Harvard Chinese Pronunciation Guide. Harvard Chinese Pronunciation Guide