Chinese phonetic alphabet Pinyin. Chinese Pinyin

The Chinese language has a huge variety of characters. Their number is in the thousands. The very appearance of the hieroglyph clearly does not indicate how to read it correctly. And some hieroglyphs are read differently in different contexts. The only way to learn to read hieroglyphs is to learn them and their pronunciation.

Therefore, it was very important to introduce the transcription of hieroglyphs - pinyin.

Pinyin is a modern international transcription system. Pinyin 拼音 - pinyin (拼 - combine, 音 - sound) is translated as “transcription”. It was officially adopted in China in 1958 as the Chinese phonetic alphabet based on Latin.

Chinese national alphabet

By the way, there is also a Chinese phonetic alphabet based on hieroglyphs. The so-called Chinese national alphabet is Zhuyin Zimu (注意字母 - zhùyīnzìmǔ).

The letters of this alphabet were schematized hieroglyphs or their details. Only, unlike ordinary hieroglyphs, hieroglyphs-letters convey not a concept, but a sound. This alphabet has been officially used since the 20s of the last century. This alphabet is still used in elementary school textbooks in Taiwan.

GR - outdated transcription

Predecessor pinyin was the official transcription of Kuomintang China - 国语 Romanized or GR.

It used fewer Latin letters, and some sounds that were designated differently in pinyin were spelled the same in GR.

Pinyin

In fact, there are many rules and subtleties in how different Chinese words are written in Pinyin. But it’s easier to just get used to which ones exist, how they are written in pinyin and how they are pronounced. The dashes above some letters indicate how the syllable is read.

The Chinese language consists of a limited number of syllables. There are about 400 of them in total. Each syllable has its own entry in Pinyin transcription.

If you learn a language using audio courses, it will not be difficult for you to understand how a particular syllable is read.

There is also a Russian transcription and there are tables of correspondence between pinyin and Russian transcription. They can be found in dictionaries (at least in my dictionary, which I use, there is such a table).

In general, we can say that the introduction of transcription has made it much easier for foreigners to learn Chinese.

It is most convenient to use dictionaries in which hieroglyphs are sorted by Pinyin.

Examples

中国 - zhōng guó - zhong guo - China, Chinese, literally - the central kingdom;

汉语 - hàn yǔ - Han Yu - Chinese;

北京 - běi jīng - bei jing - Beijing, literally - the northern capital;

上海 - shàng hǎi - shang hai - Shanghai, literally - at the sea;

风水 - fēng shuǐ - feng shui - literally wind and water; geomancy - when, according to local conditions, the most favorable place for a grave or for a dwelling is determined.

And don't forget to pick up your GIFT! - E-book "Introduction to Chinese" in pdf format - click on the picture

 Listen to the audio lesson with additional explanations

The official language of the People's Republic of China is Mandarin(普通话 рǔtōnghuà, lit. "universal language"), whose phonetics and vocabulary are based on the pronunciation norm of the Beijing dialect.

The basic phonetic unit of the Chinese language is the syllable. A syllable consists of a consonant part - initial(声母 ，shēng mǔ) – at the beginning of the syllable and vowel part – final(韵母 ，yùn mǔ) – at the end of a syllable, as well as a tone. There are about 400 basic syllables in modern Mandarin. To record the sounds of the Chinese language, the Pinyin phonetic alphabet (拼音, pīn yīn) is used, a transcription system based on the Latin alphabet.

Tones

The main distinguishing feature of the phonetics of the Chinese language is tones. Chinese has 4 tones + a light unstressed tone. Tone is needed in order to distinguish the meaning of syllables that sound the same.

For example:

First tone: high and level, designated ā.

Second tone: rising, indicated by á.

The third tone: first falling and then rising, is designated ǎ.

Fourth tone: falling from high to low, indicated by à.

The tone sign is always placed above the final. If the tone sign is placed above the final i, then the period is not written: nǐ, nín. In syllables with compound finals, the tone sign is placed above the one at the moment of pronunciation of which the mouth is opened wider (a, o, e, i, u, ü): māo, ​​dài, péi.

Light tone

A light tone is also sometimes called a "null" tone. A light tone is pronounced weaker and shorter. In transcription, a light tone is not indicated by any sign.

For example:

好吗？	你呢？	爸爸	谢谢
Hǎo ma?	Nǐne?	baba	xièxie
Fine?	And you?	dad	Thank you

Initials

Initial can be expressed with only one consonant sound.

Before you start studying initials, let's get acquainted with the concept of "aspiration", because in Chinese initials divided into aspirated and unaspirated. In order to learn to pronounce initials with aspiration, try when pronouncing, bring a piece of paper to your lips and pronounce the sound with a strong exhalation. The piece of paper should move away from you due to the flow of air during intense exhalation. When spoken initials without aspiration, the sheet of paper should not move. Thus, it turns out that the sound “x” is added to the sound, however, you should avoid pronouncing aspirates like the Russian sound + “x”; you should try to achieve this effect with the help of exhalation.

There are a total of 21 initials in Chinese:

	Pronunciation method	Pronounced like	Examples
b		Something between Russian voiced[b] and deaf [P]	爸爸 – dad
p		Russian [P][n x]	怕 – to be afraid
m		Chinese [m]different from Russian[m]greater intensity and duration	妈妈 – mother
f		Similar to Russian sound[f]	发 – send
d		Chinese [d]looks like Russian[d], but is deaf	都 – everything
t		Russian [T], which is pronounced with aspiration -[t x]	他 – he
n		Unlike Russian[n]while speaking Chinese[n]the tip of the tongue is raised	你 – you
l		Chinese [l]different from Russian[l]lowering the back of the tongue	来 – to come
g		Chinese [g]looks like Russian[G], but is deaf	狗 – dog
k		Russian [To], which is pronounced with aspiration -[k x]	看 – watch
h		Russian sound [X], but more intense	很 – very
j	When spoken[j], [q]And[x]The tongue should lie below, slightly touching the lower teeth with the tip. The middle of the tongue touches the roof of the mouth when spoken. There are no such sounds in Russian. Please note that the initials[j], [q], [x]not compatible with finals[u], [a]	Sound [j]approximately equal to Russian[dzh], pronounced softly and without aspiration	几 – how much
q		Average between Russians and soft[T] And [h](something like soft[tchi]), pronounced with aspiration	七 – seven
x		Similar to sizzling[With](something like hissing[smiling])	星 – star
z	These are hissing sounds. When spoken[z], [c]And[s]the tip of the tongue touches the back surface of the front teeth	Looks like Russian[ts], but pronounced louder (something like a combination[dz])	在 – in; on
c		Voiceless combination[ts]heavily aspirated	从 – s; from
s		Looks like Russian[With], just a little more intense	三 – three
zh	When spoken , , And[r]the tip of the tongue curls back towards the roof of the mouth	Combination [j](for example, as in [jam]), but is pronounced as a single sound.	这 is
ch		Combination [chsh]heavily aspirated	车 – car
sh		Close to Russian[w], but more fizzy	书 – book
r		Looks like Russian[and]	人 – person

The initial may be absent, then the syllable consists only of the final and is called a syllable with a zero or omitted initial.

Finals

The final can consist of either one vowel sound (simple) or several (compound). There are a total of 38 endings in Chinese:

	Pronounced like	Examples	Transcription rules
a	Looks like Russian[A], only pronounced more intensely	那 – that one
e	When spoken[e]the tongue is in the same position as when pronouncing Russian[O], but without rounding the lips. The sound itself is something between[e] And [s]	呢 interrogative particle
i	Pronounced like Russian[And], but more intense; softens the consonant that precedes it	骑 – to ride on horseback	If[i] [y], For example,一 – one After[z], [c], [s], , , And[r]finals[-i]reads as solid[s], For example:吃 – eat, 词 – word, 日 – day, etc.
o	Pronounced like Russian[O], but more intense	摸 – touch
u	Pronounced like Russian[y]	不 – no, no	If[u]forms an independent syllable[w], For example:五 – five
ü	There is no such sound in Russian. Sound[ü] combines sounds[i] And [u], pronounced together as one sound. To make this sound try saying[yiu], only rounding the lips as when pronouncing[Yu]	女 – woman	If[ü] forms an independent syllable, then an unpronounceable initial is added before it[y], and two points above[ü] are not written, for example:语 – language If the finals[ü] comes after the initials[j], [q]or[x],then two dots above[ü] are not written, but the sound is still read as[ü] . And if before[ü] worth an initial[n]or[l], then the dots must be written, for example:去 – go
ai	[ouch]	还 – yet
ao	Pronounced as a combination of Russian sounds[ao]	猫 – cat
ei	Pronounced as a combination of Russian sounds[Hey], but softly	杯 – glass
ia	Pronounced like Russian[I]	家 – home, family	[i], That[i]changes to[y], For example:鸭 – duck, 要 – want, 也 – too
iao	Pronounced as a combination of Russian sounds[yao]	小 – small
ie	Reads like [ie]but without stretching sounds, similar to Russian sound[e]	姐姐 – older sister
iou/iu	Pronounced as a combination of Russian sounds[yo]	六 – six	Composite final , when placed after any initial, is written as , and the tone sign is written above[u], For example:丢 – to lose
ou	Pronounced as a combination of Russian sounds[OU]	走 – to walk
ua	Pronounced as a combination of Russian sounds[wa], Where [y] very short	抓 – grab	If a syllable consists only of a final that begins with[u], That[u]changes to[w], For example:挖 – dig
uai	Pronounced as a combination of Russian sounds[wow], Where [y] very short.	块 – yuan	If a syllable consists only of a final that begins with[u], That[u]changes to[w], For example:外 – external
üe	Pronounced close to a combination of Russian sounds[yue]	学 – to teach	If a syllable consists only of a final that begins with[ü] , then an unpronounceable initial is added before it[y], and two points above[ü] are not written, for example: 月 [ü] , comes after the initials[j], [q], [x], then two points above[ü] are not written, for example:雪 – snow
uei/ui	Pronounced as a combination of Russian sounds[way], only together and with emphasis on[e]which is pronounced very short	水 – water	Composite final , when placed after any initial, is abbreviated as , and the tone sign is written above[i], For example:贵 – dear
uo	Pronounced as a combination of Russian sounds[oo], only pronounced as a single sound	说 – to speak	If a syllable consists only of a final that begins with[u], That[u]changes to[w], For example:我 – I
an	Pronounced as a combination of Russian sounds[en]	看 – watch
en	Pronounced as a combination of Russian sounds[en]	很 – very
ian	Pronounced as a combination of Russian sounds[ian]	钱 – money	If a syllable consists only of a final that begins with[i], That[i]changes to[y], For example:烟 – smoke
in	Pronounced as a combination of Russian sounds[in]	新 – new	If forms an independent syllable, then an unpronounceable initial is added before it[y], For example:银 – silver
uan	Pronounced as a combination of Russian sounds[one]; when pronouncing[y]tube lips	馆 – hotel, restaurant	If a syllable consists only of a final that begins with[u], That[u]changes to[w], For example:玩 – play
üan	It doesn't seem like a combination of Russian sounds[yuen]	选 – choose	If a syllable consists only of a final that begins with[ü] , then an unpronounceable initial is added before it[y], and two points above[ü] are not written, for example:元 – yuan If the ending that begins with[ü] , comes after the initials[j], [q], [x], then two points above[ü] are not written, for example:全 – all
uen/un	Pronounced as a combination of Russian sounds[wen], Where [e]soft and short	婚 – wedding	Composite final , when placed after an initial, is abbreviated as , For example:困 – sleepy In case the final independently forms a syllable, then[u]replaced[w], For example:问 – to ask
ün	[jun]	群 – crowd	If a syllable consists only of a final that begins with[ü] , then an unpronounceable initial is added before it[y], and two points above[ü] are not written, for example:云 – cloud If the ending that begins with[ü] , comes after the initials[j], [q], [x], then two dots above[ü] are not written, for example:迅 – fast
ang	Pronounced as a combination of Russian sounds[en], only sound [n]– nasal	忙 – busy
eng	Pronounced as a combination of Russian sounds[en], only sound [n]– nasal	冷 – cold
iang	Sounds like a combination of Russian sounds[yan], only sound [n]– nasal	想 – want, think	If a syllable consists only of a final that begins with[i], That[i]changes to[y], For example:羊 – ram
ing	Pronounced as a combination of Russian sounds[in], only sound [n]– nasal	病 – to be sick	If forms an independent syllable, then an unpronounceable initial is added before it[y], For example:影 – shadow
iong	Pronounced as a combination of Russian sounds[yon], only sound [n]– nasal	穷 – poor	If a syllable consists only of a final that begins with[i], That[i]changes to[y], For example:用 – to use
ong	Pronounced as a combination of Russian sounds[He], only sound [n]– nasal	红 – red
uang	Pronounced as a combination of Russian sounds[one], only sound [n]– nasal	床 – bed	If a syllable consists only of a final that begins with[u], That[u]changes to[w], For example:网 – network
ueng	Pronounced as a combination of Russian sounds[wen], only sound [n]– nasal	翁 – old man	If a syllable consists only of a final that begins with[u], That[u]changes to[w]. Syllable - this is the only syllable that is formed with the help of this final
er	Pronounced as a combination of Russian sounds[ar]; when pronouncing, the tip of the tongue bends up and back	二 [èr] – two	When added to a syllable the process of erization occurs. Final can form an independent syllable, for example:儿子 [érzi] – son If stands at the end of a syllable, it loses its independence and merges with the syllable. In transcription, it is added to the syllable[r], a hieroglyph is added to the hieroglyphic notation儿 , For example:哪儿 – where In this case, the pronunciation of the last consonant sound is usually lost, for example:玩儿 – to play

The tables provide examples of monosyllabic words, during the pronunciation of which you must pay attention to the tones. In words that consist of two or more syllables, the tones are sometimes modulated. Now we will look at the most common cases of modulation.

3rd tone modulation

When reading two syllables of the 3rd tone together, the first syllable is read in the second tone. If there are three or more consecutive words of the third tone, then all tones except the last one change. The transcription retains the sign of the 3rd tone.

For example:

你好 (nǐ hǎo) (that's how it's written)– ní hǎo (that's how it reads)). - Hello!
我很好 (wǒ hěn hǎo (that's how it's written)– wó hén hǎo (that's how it reads)). – I'm fine.

Modulation of negative particle 不 (bù)

The negation 不 (bù) is pronounced in the fourth tone. But if 不 (bù) is followed by a syllable with a fourth tone, then 不 (bù) is read in the second tone. For example:

不是 (bú shì) – no
不去 (bú qù) – not to go
不要 (bú yào) – not to want

In sentences with repetition of a verb (affirmative-negative), when 不 (bù) stands between identical verbs, we read 不 (bù) in a light tone; in the transcription the tone sign is not placed, for example:

是不是 – yes or no
去不去 – to go – not to go

Modulation "一" (yī)

The initial tone "一" is the first tone. “一” is pronounced as the first tone if it is pronounced in isolation, if it is at the end of a phrase or sentence, if it is used as an ordinal number. In other cases, “一” is modulated: before the first, second and third tones, “一” is modulated into the fourth tone, and before the fourth tone - into the second tone.

Apostrophe

An apostrophe is used in transcription for syllable separation in cases where a regular syllable is followed by a syllable with a zero initial, for example:

先 – first
西安 – Xi'an

When learning Chinese phonetics, try to listen and repeat more. It’s like in sports: there are many techniques, but the key to success is practice.

Home page » China » Chinese language » Chinese characters from ancient times to the present day

Chinese writing is hieroglyphic. Thanks to it, the different peoples inhabiting China and speaking different dialects can understand each other. Chinese characters are an integral part of Chinese culture. Apart from China, Chinese hieroglyphic writing was widespread in the Asian region.

How do Chinese language and hieroglyphs relate?

Based on historical and geographical characteristics, linguists identify seven main dialect groups in China: Northern dialects, Gan, Hakka, Wu, Xiang, Yue, Min. Sometimes they are also supplemented by the Anhui dialects, Jin and Pinghua. In turn, individual dialects are distinguished within dialect groups.

♦ Read more: Population of China and dialects of the Chinese language

Sometimes dialects differ so much that their representatives do not understand each other at all. Oral Chinese Mandarin普通话 (literally “common language”), created on the basis of northern dialects and, in particular, the Beijing dialect, is the official language, but not all Chinese speak it fully and, accordingly, understand it.

Therefore, the only means of interethnic communication remains a written language that is not tied to phonetic reading. If you have watched Chinese television, or seen Chinese films or video clips, you may have noticed that there is often hieroglyphic text at the bottom of the screen.

Hieroglyphics also allows you to quite freely read texts written several centuries ago. In addition, Chinese written language wenyan文言 was widely used throughout the Asian region: Japan, Korea, Vietnam and other countries. And although now they use their own writing, nevertheless, knowing wenyan, you can read and understand ancient texts. And the texts in Japanese are understandable to some extent even now.

• Is it worth learning Chinese? Advice for those in doubt
• The structure of the hieroglyph: features, graphemes, complex signs. How to remember hieroglyphs

History of Chinese hieroglyphic writing

All Chinese characters are collectively called 文 wen. In modern Chinese there is a division into 文 itself wen- simple signs, the most ancient, and 字 zi- compound signs.

♦ Read more: Wen - pattern, writing, culture

Legendary Cang Jie

In Chinese traditional historiography, it is believed that the oldest form of Chinese writing was knotted writing, which was later replaced by hieroglyphics. Its founder was Cang Jie仓颉, who, “observing the outlines of mountains and seas, the traces of dragons and snakes, birds and animals, as well as the shadows cast by objects,” created 540 simple signs - wen文. They became the oldest system of classification of objects and phenomena in the world.

According to tradition, Tsang Jie was the court historiographer of the legendary Emperor Huang Di (XXVII-XXVI centuries BC). He is usually depicted with four eyes, which symbolize his special insight. In the treatise “Xun Tzu” (III century BC) it is said about him: “There were numerous experiments in creating writing, but only the signs created by Tsang Jie were accepted and exist to this day.”

Neolithic signs and Yin pictograms

Hieroglyphs go back to images - pictograms, which over time became more and more complex and formalized, gradually transforming into a system of signs. However, even with minimal knowledge, a hieroglyph can be “read” and see various meanings in it.

The earliest pictographs in China were discovered in the Jiahu settlement of the Neolithic Peiligan culture, located on the Yellow River (Henan Province). 16 artifacts date back to the 6th millennium BC. It turns out that Jiahu writing is older than Sumerian cuneiform. However, now most researchers believe that although some signs from Jiahu superficially resemble modern Chinese characters for “eye” and “sun,” this similarity is deceptive, and the signs found cannot be considered the ancestor of Chinese writing.

Other examples of early Chinese writing have been discovered at the Neolithic sites of Banpo (east of Xi'an, Shaanxi Province) and Jiangzhai (Lintong District, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province). However, they also appear to have no genetic connection to Chinese hieroglyphic writing.

The first examples of Chinese hieroglyphic writing itself date back to the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. The earliest ones are from the 17th century. BC. These are Yin* divinatory inscriptions on animal bones (often buffalo) and turtle shells. They are called 甲骨文 Jiaguwen(literally “inscriptions on shells and bones”), “fortune-telling inscriptions from the capital of Yin” 殷契卜辭 yinqi butsi and “inscriptions from Yin ruins” 殷墟文字 yinxu wenzi.

The symbols, which were applied with pointed sticks, turned out to be angular. Basically, these were simple pictograms - schematic images of the most universal concepts: parts of the human body, natural phenomena, household supplies, etc. A single, standard writing of hieroglyphs did not yet exist; several variants of writing the same sign were in circulation. However, due to the small number of people who were literate, this did not cause any particular problems. To date, out of more than 5,000 signs, about 1.5 thousand have been identified.

* Yin (Shang-Yin dynasty) XVII century. BC. 1045 BC is the earliest confirmed dynasty in Chinese history.

The first inscriptions on bones and shells were discovered in 1899 near the city of Anyang (Henan Province). However, as it turned out, local residents had long been familiar with them and called them “dragon bones.” They handed over the “bones” to pharmacies, where they were ground into a powder that supposedly had medicinal properties. It is difficult to calculate how many Yin inscriptions were destroyed in this way.

♦ Read more: The origin of ideas about the dragon

The Yin believed that hieroglyphs provided a connection between people and their ancestors who had gone to Heaven, primarily between the ruler and the supreme ancestor Shang Di 上帝. Three people took part in the fortune-telling ritual: the ruler himself, the priest and the scribe. The ruler asked questions, which the scribe carved into bones with a chisel: whether the hunt would be successful, whether the harvest would be rich, whether to start a war, whether to marry, whether an heir would be born, etc. Then the bone was burned with hot sticks and the answer was guessed from the cracks that appeared.

♦ Read more: Cult of Heaven in Chinese culture: Heaven, Son of Heaven, Mandate of Heaven

Thus, in the Shang-Yin era, writing had a sacred character. The ritual-magical attitude towards the text was preserved in later eras: even a century ago in China one could meet people who collected paper covered with hieroglyphs in order to burn it in ovens specially designed for this purpose.

Hieroglyphic writing in the Zhou era

During the Zhou era (1045-221 BC), Chinese hieroglyphic writing was already quite developed. With the advent of bronze casting technology, “writing on metal” 金文 appeared Jinwen— inscriptions on ritual bronze vessels. Sometimes called "tripod and bell writing" 鐘鼎文 zhongdingwen. Zhou script is found on meat tripods, grain vessels, bells, bronze wine and water vessels, as well as steles, stone drums, slabs and ceramics.

The hieroglyphs of the Zhou era became significantly more complex compared to the Yin script. Phonoideograms appeared - hieroglyphs consisting of two parts: a phonetic, which conveys an approximate reading, and a key, indicating belonging to a certain class of objects, phenomena or properties. Now more than 90% of all Chinese characters are ideograms.

At the beginning of the 8th century. BC. The court historiographer Shi Zhou compiled a list of hieroglyphs. The style in which these characters were written is called 大篆 da zhuan— “The Great Seal.”

During the Zhanguo period (475-221 BC), China found itself divided into various kingdoms. Xu Shen, in the preface to the hieroglyphic dictionary “Shuo wen jie zi” 說文解字 (“Explanation of simple signs and interpretation of complex ones”, turn of the 1st-2nd centuries) noted: “Statements and speeches began to sound differently.” Several regional variants of writing were formed, among which the three largest stood out:

• writing system of the Qin kingdom based on the Zhou script da zhuan;
• writing of the six major kingdoms "ancient writings" 古文 Guwen based on Yin and Zhou script;
• written language of the southern Chinese kingdom of Chu.

Reform of Chinese writing during the Qin era

With the coming to power of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, who united the country under the rule of a single centralized Qin Empire (221-206 BC), a reform of writing began: “all chariots with an axle of the same length, all hieroglyphs of standard writing.” Based on Qin script da zhuan the letter 小篆 appeared xiao zhuan(“small seal”) The “official letter” 隸書 has also become widespread li shu, which, with some modifications, formed the basis of modern writing.

Xu Shen in the preface to the dictionary “Shuo Wen Jie Zi” describes this time as follows:

At that time, Qin […] raised subjects and soldiers on a large scale and developed military service and forced labor. Job responsibilities in departments and courts became more complex, and the style of “formal writing” appeared for the first time, as standardization and simplicity were sought.

During the Qin era, the official list numbered 3,300 characters. At the same time, there was a process of unification of pronunciation.

Chinese characters from Han to Song periods

During the reign of the Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD), a list of 540 keys was formed. Since ancient times, text was written on bamboo tablets. This is probably partly why the Chinese wrote in columns from top to bottom and from right to left until the 20th century.

In the first centuries of our era, paper appeared, which replaced the silk and bamboo strips on which texts had previously been written. Now the brush, which has been known since the Yin Dynasty, has become increasingly used to write down hieroglyphs. The “Four Treasures of the Cabinet” appeared 文房四宝 wen fan si bao: brush 笔 bi, mascara 墨 mo, paper 纸 zhi and ink 砚 yang.

At the end of the Han Dynasty, Liu Deshan based on the "official letter" li shu created a semi-cursive "running letter" 行書 xing shu, in which the features of the hieroglyph were partially written without lifting the brush from the paper.

Liu Deshan's students created a "charter letter" 楷書 kai shu, which was distinguished by the absence of characteristic thickenings inherent in Han official writing. Around the same time, the cursive “herbal letter” 草書 appeared cao shu, which was widely used in Chinese calligraphy.

♦ On topic: Contemporary Museum of Calligraphy in Moscow (Sokolniki Park)

During the Song era (960-1279), with the advent of woodblock printing, writing was further standardized.

Reforms to simplify hieroglyphs in the 20th century

Over time, writing hieroglyphs became much more difficult. Some signs consisted of several dozen features, which made them difficult to remember. At the end of the 19th century, it was proposed to simplify hieroglyphic writing. It was believed that complex writing of hieroglyphs interfered with the acquisition of literacy and, as a result, aggravated China's economic and social lag behind the Western powers. In the 1930s, the first list of simplified hieroglyphs appeared, numbering 2,400 characters. However, it did not take root.

They returned to the problem of simplifying hieroglyphs again after the formation of the People's Republic of China. In 1956, the “Hieroglyph Simplification Program” was adopted. hanzi jianhua fan'an. In 1964, the Summary Table of Simplified Characters 简化字总表 was published. jianhua zi zongbiao, which consisted of 2238 simplified characters. An additional list of simplified characters was adopted in 1977, but was canceled in 1986.

Simplification of hieroglyphic writing 简化字 jianhua zi was built on the following principles: adherence to customs and simplicity; standardization: elimination of different variants of hieroglyphs; highlighting phonetic properties; if possible, preservation of ideogram properties; stability; practicality; proper artistry. The hieroglyphs were simplified according to the following scheme: reducing the number of features of the sign, cutting off part of the hieroglyph, using cursive styles, replacing a complex sign with a simpler one.

Currently, simplified characters have become widespread in China, Singapore and Malaysia. A number of regions have retained traditional characters: Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Chinese diasporas in the USA and Canada. They are called "complex characters" 繁體字 (繁体字) fantizi, "full characters" 全體字 (全体字) quantizi, or "old characters" 老字 Lao Tzu. Japan also has its own simplified hieroglyphs, which borrowed Chinese writing in the Middle Ages. In Korea, hieroglyphs are almost completely replaced by phonemic writing hangul.

Pinyin phonetic alphabet

In 1958, the Chinese phonetic alphabet Pinyin 拼音字母 was adopted Pinyin Zimu, which is widely used for educational purposes. It consists of letters of the Latin alphabet with diacritics to indicate tones. However, due to the widespread use of homophones, the transition from hieroglyphic writing to phonetic writing is impossible. Therefore, pinyin plays only a supporting role, indicating the reading of syllables in accordance with the normative spoken language of Putonghua, accepted as the official language.

Let's learn Chinese from scratch!
第一课 - Lesson 1

Note: there are no capital letters in the table i, u, ü , because they are not used at the beginning of a word.

The phonetic alphabet is intended to describe sounds and is used as a transcription, however, there is no connection between the transcription and the hieroglyph. Don’t focus on it for now, but proceed to the lesson below. The sounds will be clear after completing 12 lessons! Don't panic, but be patient.

Make sure you have Adobe Kaiti Std R (softer, used in textbooks) and SimSun (rougher, but more precise) fonts installed on your system. If you have both fonts installed, Kaiti will be used.

Text

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How to memorize hieroglyphs?

Let's analyze the hieroglyphs piece by piece. The meaning of the parts will not always coincide with the overall meaning. Your task is to remember smaller parts in order to remember more complex ones in the future.

Comments

“你好!” - “Hello (those)!”, “Good morning!”, “Good afternoon (evening)!”

“你好” is a widely used universal greeting (morning, afternoon, evening), always addressed personally (i.e. to one person). The answer to it is exactly the same greeting “你好”.

Phonetic exercises and conversation practice

Chinese tone configuration

Distinguishing sounds

Discrimination of tones (first and fourth tones)

Changing tones

Third tone plus another third tone → second tone plus third tone:

nǐ hǎo → níhǎo

Read the following sentences

Nǐ hǎo.
Bàba, nǐ hǎo.
Māsha, nǐ hǎo.

Exchange of greetings

Conduct a dialogue based on the pictures

Two friends greet each other.

A: Nǐ hǎo!
!

Greet each other.

Phonetics

Initials and finals

The Chinese syllable is characterized by a certain structure. The number of sounds in a Chinese syllable does not exceed four, and their sequence is strictly regular. In modern standard language Mandarin there are about 400 main syllables, differing in sound composition.

A Chinese syllable consists of two main structural elements: the consonant part - at the beginning of the syllable, which is called the initial, and the vowel part - the rest of the syllable, which is called the final.

The consonant part, or initial, can be expressed with only one consonant sound. There are a total of 21 initials in the Chinese language. The initial may be missing, in which case the syllable consists only of the final.

The vowel part of a syllable, or final, can be expressed as a monophthong or a descending diphthong (simple final), ascending diphthong or triphthong (complex final). The combination of vowels into diphthongs and triphthongs occurs according to certain rules. There are also seventeen finales containing a final nasal element. There are a total of thirty-five endings in Chinese. The compatibility of initials with certain finals is regulated by certain rules.

Basic requirements for pronunciation of sounds

Initials b [p] ≈ b, g [k] ≈ g And p [p’] ≈ p, k ≈ k

In Mandarin does not exist comparisons voiced and unvoiced consonant sounds. The corresponding stop consonants form pairs, differing by presence/absence aspiration.

Consonants "b" and "g" are unaspirated semivoiced stops. When pronouncing these sounds, a bow is first formed, and only then, at the very end, the vocal cords begin to vibrate weakly.

Consonants "p" and "k" are aspirated voiceless stops, i.e. they are pronounced with a strong exhalation and with an additional x-shaped noise at the end of a consonant. When pronouncing, the vocal cords should not vibrate. Without this x-shaped noise, "p" will become "b" and "k" will become "g", so be careful (English also has this feature, but it is not as important as Chinese).

The sign ≈ indicates approximate Russian sounds.

Simple ending ao ≈ ao

The Chinese diphthong "ao" is a descending diphthong. This means that its initial vowel is strong (syllabic), pronounced briefly but clearly, and the final element - not a syllabic - is pronounced weakly. In the diphthong “ao”, under the influence of the final back vowel, the articulation of the syllabic “a” shifts to the back of the oral cavity: the tongue is pulled back and the back of the back of the tongue rises slightly, while the lips are slightly rounded. Thus, the "a" in the diphthong "ao" is articulated in the back of the mouth and is called a back vowel, as opposed to the sound "a" in the simple final, which is a middle vowel.

Forelingual nasal final an ≈ an

First, the “a” of the front row is pronounced, i.e., under the influence of the final nasal element, the articulation of the vowel shifts to the front part of the oral cavity (in contrast to the “a” of the middle row in the simple final). Then the tip of the tongue is adjacent to the alveoli (this is the difference from the Russian “n”, in which the tongue is adjacent to the upper teeth), and the middle part of the tongue lies flat. The air stream passes through the nasal cavity.

Tones

Chinese is a tonal language. A Chinese syllable is characterized not only by a certain sound composition, but also by one or another tone, which is called the etymological tone of a given syllable. Tone- This is a melodic pattern of the voice, characterized by a certain change in pitch. Tones perform a meaningful function. Syllables that have the same sound composition, but pronounced in different tones, have different meanings. Chinese (Mandarin) has four basic tones, which are indicated by tone marks (diacritics): "" (first tone), "" (second tone), "" (third tone) and "" (fourth tone). (See above for the melodic pattern of tones.)

The tone sign is placed only above the vowel letter. If a syllable has one vowel, then the tone sign is placed above this vowel (in this case, the vowel “i” is not dotted, for example “nǐ”). If the syllable has a diphthong or triphthong, then the tone mark is placed above the letter indicating the syllabic vowel, for example "hǎo".

Changing tones

If two syllables, each individually pronounced in a third tone, follow each other without a pause, the tone of the initial syllable changes to the second. This change is not reflected in the alphabetical entry. For example, "nǐ hǎo" is read as "níhǎo".

Listen and write down the following monosyllables in Pinyin transcription, indicate the tones:

安；高；破；皮；脑；比；波；故；干；拿; 篮；哈；考；包；跑；哭；南；路；办。

If the key disappears quickly, catch it with your finger, or move your mouse inside the key...

Do you know?

Chinese

The Chinese language belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family and is the national language of the Han people (hànzú, 汉族, that is, the Chinese themselves, who make up 94% of the population of China. One of the names of the Chinese language, Hànyǔ, 汉语, comes from the name of the ethnic group. verbatim, "Han language"). The Chinese language is the official language and the language of interethnic communication of the peoples of China. In addition, Chinese is one of the most widely spoken languages ​​in the world and one of the official languages ​​of the UN.

Written monuments indicate that Chinese is one of the oldest languages ​​on Earth. The written language was one of the most important factors that ensured the continuity of cultural tradition and the continuity of the development of Chinese civilization throughout its long history. The language itself also developed, but its main features - grammatical norms, basic vocabulary, structure and functions of hieroglyphic writing - did not undergo fundamental changes.

Modern Chinese Putonghua (pǔtōnghuà, 普通话, letters, "universal language") is an actively developing normative Chinese language. The pronunciation base of Putonghua is the Beijing dialect, the northern dialects are taken as the basis, and the grammatical norms are focused on the living modern Chinese language and works of new Chinese fiction. Putonghua is actively spreading in all spheres of life in the PRC, and primarily in the education system at all levels, as well as in the media - on television, radio broadcasting, the Internet (site names), in mobile phones (a set of SMS messages).

Chinese alphabet

So what is the Chinese alphabet? First of all, it is worth saying that the Chinese language does not have an alphabet in the strict sense of the word. The alphabet is a system of signs that do not have independent meaning, but convey sound. Alphabets can be syllabic (as in Japanese katakana and hiragana) or divided into vowels and consonants (as in Latin and Cyrillic). All this has nothing to do with the Chinese language, where one hieroglyph has a semantic meaning. Often, one Chinese character is a whole word, although in modern language most words consist of two characters.

In addition, the alphabet has a clear and limited number of characters. All this, again, has nothing to do with Hanzi (the so-called Chinese script, in Chinese 汉字), where the exact number of characters is unknown. So what is this article about then? - you ask. What's the point of writing about something that doesn't exist? In fact, there is still something that can conditionally be called the “Chinese alphabet” - this is a pinyin phonetic letter(拼音, pīnyīn), which was developed in 1958 and officially approved in February, during the fifth session of the National People's Congress.

With the help of Pinyin, you can learn how to correctly pronounce Chinese sounds and learn the features of Chinese articulation. The Pinyin alphabet consists of Latin letters and diacritics that indicate the tone of a particular vowel sound. Pinyin does not replace Chinese hieroglyphic writing, but serves only as a supplement. It was created solely to convey the phonetics of standard Chinese (Putonghua, 普通话) and is completely unsuitable for conveying dialect words and regionalisms. The alphabet is taught in all modern Chinese schools. Knowledge of Pinyin is mandatory for all foreign students in China, without it it is impossible to progress further in learning the language.

Chinese letters

Chinese letters, just like most European alphabets, consist of vowels and consonants. The number of characters here is almost the same as in the Latin alphabet. Below is the Chinese alphabet with translation into Russian:

A a	A
Bb	ba
C c	tskha
CH ch	chha
D d	Yes
E e	uh
F f	F
G g	ha
H h	Ha
—i	And
Jj	ji
K k	haha
Ll	la
Mm	m
Nn	n
O o	O
P p	pha
Q q	qi
R r	jan
Ss	sa
SH sh	sha
T t	tha
- u	at
— ü	Yu
W w	va
X x	si
Y y	I
Z z	tsa
ZH zh	zha

In addition, the Chinese Pinyin alphabet uses a large number of special diacritics. This is due to the fact that Chinese is a tonal language. That is, each vowel sound has a certain intonation and a certain pronunciation. For Chinese language learners it is very important to master the tones, because the meaning of the word depends on them. The same syllable can have different meanings depending on how you pronounce it. It often happens that a foreigner who has mastered the Chinese language, but has not learned the correct pronunciation, finds that none of the Chinese understand him when he speaks their language. This is by no means accidental. It is better to learn the correct pronunciation with a teacher, because on your own there is a risk of putting it incorrectly. It will be very difficult to relearn later.

Usually, the tone sign is placed above the vowel. In the case of diphthongs, the icons are placed above the syllabic vowel. Let's give an example of these signs using the sound ba as an example:

1. Bā – high even tone
2. Bá – rising from medium to high
3. Bǎ – low decreasing, and then rising to the average level
4. Bà – falling to low from high

Here are some examples of words, phrases and sentences:

• Wǒ xué xí Hànyǔ - I am learning Chinese
• Nǐ hǎo! - Hello!
• Nǐ – you
• Wǒ – I
• Hǎo – good
• Shì – is, to be
• Pengyou - friend, buddy
• Nǐmen – you (when addressing several persons)
• Māma - mother
• Baba – dad

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Hello dear friends! It's time to expand our horizons and therefore, I suggest you get acquainted with the Chinese language :)

I think there is no point in describing in detail all the delights and benefits that you will get by learning Chinese. But even if you do not intend to seriously study Chinese, knowing its basics will still not hurt you.

Where to start learning Chinese?

If you thought that you need to start learning Chinese with hieroglyphs, then you are not entirely right. The fact is that in our time an integral part of the Chinese language is pinyin- romanization system for the Chinese language. In other words, pinyin is like an alphabet. We need Pinyin in order to use it to read hieroglyphs. You can learn more about pinyin from my video:

Once you are familiar with the basic initials and finals of pinyin, you can move on to tones :)

Tones in Chinese

Tones are one of the “tricks” of the Chinese language. Most likely you have heard something about them. So, remember that in Chinese tones clearly expressed. To verify this, search the Internet for spoken Chinese, Korean and Japanese and “feel the difference” between them :)

There is no need to be afraid of tones; just a little practice and you will be able to use them in speech.

Chinese characters

Once you've mastered pinyin and become familiar with the tones, it's time to take a closer look at the characters. After all, even if you know pinyin perfectly, you cannot do without hieroglyphs. After all, pinyin serves only as a “bridge” to hieroglyphs, while hieroglyphs are the main form of Chinese writing.

So, after you have learned what graphemes, simple and complex hieroglyphs are, you can safely start learning Chinese on your own :)

If you have any questions, do not hesitate and

In general, it must be said that you cannot guess the pronunciation of a particular Chinese character just by looking at its image. Although some elements of the hieroglyph may give an idea of ​​how it might be pronounced. Unlike other modern written languages, the Chinese script, which is based on hieroglyphs, has no explicit phonetic basis, and, of course, it does not have an alphabet. Instead, pictographic and ideographic signs are used, which are a combination of graphic images and symbols that convey a specific meaning). This writing is vaguely reminiscent of the hieroglyphic writing used in ancient Egypt.

Thus, there must be a system that reflects how each of the characters should be pronounced while learning the language. Over the course of a long history, different systems were used for this until they settled on a system called pinyin. This is the generally accepted system for transcribing Chinese characters in modern written language.

Other pronunciation systems

Before the Pinyin system was developed, there were other systems for transcribing the pronunciation of Chinese words based on the Latin alphabet. The most significant and famous of them is the Wade-Giles system, developed and put into use in 1892. However, after the standardization of the Chinese language in the second half of the last century, many pronunciation options according to these old systems are no longer relevant in mainland China (although there are still many variant pronunciations from the Wade-Giles system that are still widely used in Taiwan). For example, previously the word Beijing was pronounced and written Peking; now, when transcribing the name of the Chinese capital, the spelling Beijing is used, which more correctly reflects how the Chinese themselves pronounce this word. Likewise, the name of Guangdong Province, located in southeast China, used to be Canton. Some of the pronunciation variants used in the older systems are still used outside of China.

Chinese word pronunciation system for English speakers

The tables below provide a pronunciation system that corresponds more or less exactly to standard Chinese pronunciation (without tones). It uses letters of the Latin (English) alphabet. This system uses the alphabet to represent the sounds of the Chinese language in a way that is convenient for native English speakers. You can start using this system in just a few minutes. It can be used as a quick guide to start pronouncing Chinese words for those who are not familiar with the Chinese language. This system is sometimes used on the China Highlights China Guide pages to show the pronunciation of place names or people's names.

According to this system, the word Beijing would be written as Bayjing and the word Guangdong as Gwungdong.Although, having heard such a pronunciation, it is quite easy to find out what is meant, in some cases, for example, if a Chinese word is used yue, (written as youair to make it easier to recognize), then this system is not as effective as Pinyin in conveying the pronunciation of some letters. There are also other difficulties. For example, it is not clear how to use a combination of letters ow in a word cow,cow so as not to be mistaken for the pronunciation of the combination ow in a word low.Pinyin is a more efficient system. It only takes a few hours to get used to it. If you learn how to use it, it will definitely be very useful for you.

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

In order to represent the pronunciation of Chinese words (see pronunciation tables according to the Pinyin system), you can also use the international phonetic alphabet, but for this you need to have a good knowledge of the characters themselves. Although this is a clear and more effective way than simply trying to represent Chinese sounds using combinations of Latin (English) letters, the characters of this system are not as easy to write - either by hand or on a computer. Therefore, pinyin is a more convenient system.

Pinyin

The Pinyin system allows you to combine sounds and pronounce them in any combination. The Pinyin system was developed both for those who use Chinese as a native language and for those who learn Chinese as a foreign language. This is a very effective way to convey Chinese sounds using letters of the Latin alphabet. Pinyin plays the same role as phonetic transcription signs in dictionaries.

The Pinyin system began to be developed after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. It was first tested and approved by the Chinese government. This happened in 1958. Then, in 1982, the Pinyin system was adopted by the International Standards Organization.

Obviously, the Pinyin system was not developed for the English-speaking world. Many people don't understand this. This is especially noticeable when native English speakers begin to pronounce words written using the Pinyin system without prior familiarity with it. About half the time, the letters that are used in the pinyin system convey completely different sounds than those that would be seen in a typical English word with those letters. In addition, in most cases, vowels sound in a very specific way.

Pinyin is a very useful tool for learning a little about the language before traveling to China. In addition, knowing Pinyin will help you navigate China more easily. Naturally, the Chinese just need to look at the hieroglyph to understand how it is pronounced and what it means, but at the same time, on the streets of Chinese cities, along with hieroglyphs, you can also see Latin letters - this is pinyin. Pinyin accompanies many inscriptions in Chinese characters on maps, road signs and other places. Pinyin is much easier to learn, use, and remember than characters, especially if you neglect tones. Understanding the principle of reading Chinese words written in pinyin is not that difficult. This can take several hours, while Chinese characters take months to learn, and if the goal is to reach a high level, it will take several years of hard work.

Tones

All Chinese words have a certain tone. There are 4 types of tones in Chinese, which are indicated in the Pinyin system by a small icon above the vowel. The part of the word that does not have this symbol has a weak tone (see table below).

Tone number	Tone name	Tone symbol	Another name for tone
	High tone		Soprano tone
	Rising tone		Questioning tone
	Falling and rising tone at the same time		Sarcastic tone
	Falling tone		Striking tone
Without tone number	Light tone	a (no symbol)	Calm tone

Tones can also be given alternative names according to how they sound in relation to the realities of other languages, such as English.

Chinese is often spoken so quickly that it can be very difficult to make out individual syllables and determine the tone with which they are pronounced. Mispronunciation of tones during the initial stages of language learning is common. If you write Chinese words using the Pinyin system and also specify the tones, it will be a rather laborious process. Therefore, Chinese words written using the Pinyin system often do not have tone marks for purposes other than learning. So in this little section on pronunciation, and in other sections of this site, when we write words using the pinyin system, we ignore tones.

Chinese syllables

The standard unit of the Chinese language is the syllable. Each Chinese character is pronounced as one syllable. Words in Chinese consist of one, two or more characters, and, accordingly, one, two or more syllables. Every syllable in Chinese is either a final or an initial followed by a final.

There are only 413 syllables in the Chinese language, and these syllables represent thousands of Chinese characters (see below). e Look up the syllables in the Pinyin system to see how a syllable in that system corresponds to how it is pronounced in the English adaptation.

• a, ai, an, ang, ao
• ba, bai, ban, bang, bao, bei, ben, beng, bi, bian, biao, bie, bin, bing, bo, bu
• ca, cai, can, cang, cao, ce, cei, cen, ceng, cha, chai, chan, chang, chao, che, chen, cheng, chi, chong, chou, chu, chua, chuai, chuan, chuang, chui, chun, chuo, ci, cong, cou, cu, cuan, cui, cun, cuo
• da, dai, dan, dang, dao, de, dei, den, deng, di, dian, diao, die, ding, diu, dong, dou, du, duan, dui, dun, duo
• e, ê, ei, en, er
• fa, fan, fang, fei, fen, feng, fo, fou, fu
• ga, gai, gan, gang, gao, ge, gei, gen, geng, gong, gou, gu, gua, guai, guan, guang, gui, gun, guo
• ha, hai, han, hang, hao, he, hei, hen, heng, hm, hng, hong, hou, hu, hua, huai, huan, huang, hui, hun, huo
• ji, jia, jian, jiang, jiao, jie, jin, jing, jiong, jiu, ju, juan, jue, jun
• ka, kai, kan, kang, kao, ke, kei, ken, keng, kong, kou, ku, kua, kuai, kuan, kuang, kui, kun, kuo
• la, lai, lan, lang, lao, le, lei, leng, li, lia, lian, liang, liao, lie, lin, ling, liu, long, lou, lu, luo, luan, lun, lü, lüe
• m, ma, mai, man, mang, mao, mei, men, meng, mi, mian, miao, mie, min, ming, miu, mo, mou, mu
• n, na, nai, nan, nang, nao, ne, nei, nen, neng, ng, ni, nian, niang, niao, nie, nin, ning, niu, nong, nou, nu, nuo, nuan, nü, new
• o, ou
• pa, pai, pan, pang, pao, pei, pen, peng, pi, pian, piao, pie, pin, ping, po, pou, pu
• qi, qia, qian, qiang, qiao, qie, qin, qing, qiong, qiu, qu, quan, que, qun
• ran, rang, rao, re, ren, reng, ri, rong, rou, ru, rua, ruan, rui, run, ruo
• sa, sai, san, sang, sao, se, sei, sen, seng, sha, shai, shan, shang, shao, she, shei, shen, sheng, shi, shou, shu, shua, shuai, shuan, shuang, shui, shun, shuo, si, song, sou, su, suan, sui, sun, suo
• ta, tai, tan, tang, tao, te, teng, ti, tian, tiao, tie, ting, tong, tou, tu, tuan, tui, tun, tuo
• wa, wai, wan, wang, wei, wen, weng, wo, wu
• xi, xia, xian, xiang, xiao, xie, xin, xing, xiong, xiu, xu, xuan, xue, xun
• ya, yan, yang, yao, ye, yi, yin, ying, yong, you, yu, yuan, yue, yun
• za, zai, zan, zang, zao, ze, zei, zen, zeng, zha, zhai, zhan, zhang, zhao, zhe, zhei, zhen, zheng, zhi, zhong, zhou, zhu, zhua, zhuai, zhuan, zhuang, zhui, zhun, zhuo, zi, zong, zou, zu, zuan, zui, zun, zuo

Initials and finals

Initials are what starts a syllable. Finals are either the syllables themselves or their endings.

Unlike pronunciation in English and many other languages, where all phonemes are divided into consonants and vowels, in Chinese it is more convenient to divide them into initial and final sounds, that is, into initials and finals. There are 21 initial sounds in Chinese. All of these sounds can be more or less accurately expressed using the consonants of English or other languages. There are 36 ending sounds, or endings, in the Chinese language. They are either a complete vowel sound or a combination of a vowel and a consonant sound. See the table below for a complete list of initials and finals.

Pinyin classification	Pinyin only	Pinyin combined	Sound in IPA	Sound in English	Example (notes)
Initial	No	b	b	b	be
Initial	No	c	ts	ts	cats
Initial	No	ch	t∫	ch	china
Initial	No	d	d	d	do
Initial	No	f	f	f	fun
Initial	No	g	g	g	go
Initial	No	h	h	h	he
Initial	No	j	dℑ	j	Jay
Initial	No	k	k	k	key
Initial	No	l	l	l	like
Initial	No	m	m	m	me
Initial	No	n	n	n	no
Initial	No	p	p	p	people
Initial	No	q	t∫	ch	china
Initial	No	r	r	r	run
Initial	No	s	s	s	so
Initial	No	sh	∫	sh	she
Initial	No	t	t	t	to
Initial	No	x	s∫	ssh	ssshhh!(average between s and sh)
Initial	No	w	w	w	we
Initial	No	y	y	y	you
Initial	No	z	dz	ds	ads
Initial	No	zh	dℑ	j	Jay
Vowel final	a	a	a	a	cat
Vowel final	ai	ai	ΛI	eye	eye
Vowel final	an	an	an	an	an
Vowel final	ang	ang	aŋ	ung	bung
Vowel final	ao	ao	aa℧	aoww	aoww! (Like the a in at followed by the ow in owl)
Vowel final	e/ê	e	ə:/ə	er/uh	er/uh
Vowel final	ei	ei	ei	ay	day
Vowel final	en	en	ən	nn	runner
Vowel final	eng	eng	əŋ	nng	bung
Vowel final	er	er	ə:r	urr	purr
Vowel final	o	o	o:	or	or
Vowel final	ong	ong	αŋ	ong	long
Vowel final	ou	ou	ə℧	oh	oh
W final	wa	ua	wa:	wah	quark
W final	wai	uai	wΛI	why	why
W final	wan	uan	wan/wən	wan/wen	know ants/went (wen after j, q and x; otherwise as w+an)
W final	wang	uang	wΛŋ	wung	how ungrateful
W final	N/A	ue	wε:	where	where
W final	wen	un	wən	wnn	rowan (note: no "a")
W final	weng	N/A	wəŋ	wnng	rowing (note: no "i")
W final	wei	ui	wei	way	way
W final	wo	uo	wo:	wor	wore
W final	wu	u	u:	oo/yoo	boo/yoohoo (yoo after j, q and x; otherwise oo)
W final	ya	ia	ja	yah	yahoo
W final	yan	ian	jεn	yen	yen
W final	yang	iang	jaŋ	yang	yang
W final	yao	iao	ja℧	yoww	yowwch!
W final	ye	ie	jε:	yeh	yeh (like yeah)
W final	yong	iong	jαŋ	yong	Pyongyang
W final	you	iu	jə℧	yo	yoyo
W final	yu	ü	ju:	yoo	yoohoo
W final	yuan	N/A	jwεn	ywen	y"went
W final	yue	üe	ju:ε:	youair	you air the clothes
W final	yun	N/A	ju:n	yoon	you need
W final	yi	i	ə/i:	uh/ee	uh/bee (uh after c, ch, r, s, sh, z, zh; otherwise ee)
W final	yin	in	In	in	in
W final	ying	ing	Iŋ	ing	king

Initial sounds

There are 23 initial sounds in total. Most of the initial sounds in Chinese syllables have exactly the same pronunciation as English consonant sounds. In such cases, there is no need to further comment on the Pinyin symbols. It is worth mentioning four cases that are exceptions. In the Pinyin system, the sign is Sound c represents sound ts,sign q represents sound ch,sign x represents sound ssh and sign zh represents sound j.

Pinyin sounds w And y are called halves of finals. When they act as initials, they have their usual sound, and in such combinations as wu And yi. Wu and yi they have no sound. When they appear as the first part of the finale, the w sound is represented as w is represented as u, but continues to sound like w and the sound y presented as i or two dots over a u, but the sound remains y See below.

Final sounds

In Chinese, final sounds in syllables always end with a vowel sound, with the sound n sound ng or in some cases to sound r if it's a syllable er

Finals are divided into simple (single vowels), complex (two or three vowel sounds) and nasal finals (vowel sound plus ending in n or ng Four endings which, according to Chinese education, never appear in the Pinyin system ( ün, üan, uen And ueng), nevertheless have endings w And y forms ( yun, yuan, wen And weng)See table below.

Finals can also be divided into three categories, as shown in the table above: those that begin with a vowel sound, those that begin with the sound w and those that begin with a sound y .

There are 13 finals in total that begin with a vowel sound and which can be used to fully represent hieroglyphs. These 13 endings all begin with the letters a, e or o. Other endings require that they be preceded by a w sound or a y sound.

There are also 9 finals, that start with a sound w . Sound w presented as u when is the finale w wai matches the sound g in a syllable guai. Sound w is completely omitted from the combination wu in combinations and is not pronounced, for example g + wu = gu. To use fewer letters, wei written as ui,but not uei, And wen written as un, not how uen.

There are also 14 finals that start with a sound y .Sound y presented as i when is the final y accompanied by an initial: for example, when the final yao matches the sound m in a syllable miao. Sound y is completely omitted from combinations yi, yin and ying in combinations (to save letters) and is not pronounced, for example m + ying = ming.To use fewer letters, you are written as you A iu, not like iou. Final yu presented as ü in combinations.

Sounds that are exceptions

There are a few very rarely used syllables in the Pinyin system that are exceptions and do not follow the above rules. These are syllables hmm, hng, m, n And ng.

* In the northern dialects of Chinese, you can often hear an overtone at the end of words rr To express this sound in writing, an additional hieroglyph is used (which means the concept of son or child). This additional character is pronounced as er. However, the additional syllable that is usually associated with the character er, not pronounced. Instead the sound rr changes and becomes part of the preceding syllable. In this case, there is one more hieroglyph in the word or sentence, and their total number exceeds the number of syllables.

Example table

Below are tables in which you can see examples of the use of the Pinyin system. See below for detailed

Description of the Pinyin system.

Combinations of vowels and consonants

Mandarin has quite a few diphthongs (compound sounds) and combinations of vowels and consonants.

Consonants

Pinyin tones

Tones play a very important role when it comes to the meaning of a character. Different tones of the same syllable in the Pinyin system mean that this syllable is the meaning of a different word and is expressed by a different character. In the Pinyin system there are four main tones: High, rising, falling and rising simultaneously and falling.

High, high rising, low falling and rising at the same time, high falling, neutral.

Example:

A different tone in a Pinyin character will mean a different character, and, accordingly, the meaning of this word will be different.