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From: bill@utastro.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Chinese<==>English transliteration
Message-ID: <669@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 24-Sep-83 19:09:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: utastro.669
Posted: Sat Sep 24 19:09:21 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 28-Sep-83 02:50:51 EDT
References: <663@grkermit.UUCP>
Organization: UTexas Astronomy Dept., Austin, Texas
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Short guide to the Pinyin Romanization of Chinese
-------------------------------------------------

This system was introduced on the mainland in the Fifties, and has
replaced the other romanizations in use up to that time there
The system was "home brewed" by the Chinese themselves, and 
generally is very satisfactory; however, in several respects 
it does not adhere to any of the rules of other languages and 
must be considered in its own right.  It is not used on Taiwan.

Earlier systems when pronounced
according to English rules gave pronunciations which are
quite different from the way things are pronounced in "Standard"
Chinese (supposed to be similar to Beijing pronounciation).
Therefore the new Romanization is likely to give a
more reasonable rendition (even using English rules) once you 
know the special consonants z, zh, c, x, q.

Each syllable consists of an initial (Consonant or NULL) and
a final (vowel or diphthong with optional n, ng or r at the end).
Most of the initial consonants are pronounced close enough to
the English equivalent that there would be no point in describing the
subtleties.  The following initials can be considered close
to the corresponding English consonants:

	NULL, b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, h, ch, sh, j, s

For most practical purposes, the following initials should be
pronounced as in the following table:

	Initial		Pronounciation
	------------------------------
	zh		English "j"
	z		similar to "dz" in "adze"
	c		like the "t's H" in "it's Hal" (unvoiced
				equivalent of "z"
	q		English "ch"
	x		English "sh"
	r		This sound is midway between "r" and the sound
				of the s in "pleasure".	

You will notice that (j, zh), (q, ch) and (x, sh) seem to duplicate.
Actually there are some subtle differences between the two consonants
in each pair due to the fact that the first listed of each pair is actually
palatal, while the second is retroflex (pronounced with the tongue
curled way back).  The consonant "r" is also pronounced as a retroflex.
"ch" is pronounced with a generous expulsion of air.  
The palatal consonants always appear before a front vowel, and the
retroflexes and sibilants (z, c, s) before a back vowel.

The majority of the vowels and diphthongs are pronounced similarly
to English.  "w" and "y" are considered vowels after a null initial
and have the English values.

	Vowel		Pronounciation
	-------------------------------
	a		a in "father"
	an, ang		same vowel with the indicated final consonant
	ai		ai in "aisle"
	ao		au in "sauerkraut"

	o		like wa in "wall" - it is labialized
	e		like u in "lung"
	en, eng		same vowel with the indicated final
	ei		ei in "eight"
	ou		ou in "soul"
	ong		ung in German "jung"

	u		u in "rule"
	ua, wa		wa in "wander"
	uai, wai	wi in "wide"
	ui, wei		wei in "weigh"
	uan, wan	wan
	un		woon with the oo pronounced as in "book" -
				it is labialized
	uang, wang	wang with the a pronounced as above in "father"
	ueng, weng	starts with "w" and ends with ung as in "lung"

	i		before a retroflex or sibilant (zh, ch, sh, r, z, c, s)
				The closest vowel I can think of in English
				is the "i" in "chirp"; it is pronounced
				way in the back (mandatory because of the
				position of the tongue in the previous
				consonant).
	
	i		before other consonants: like i in "machine"
	yi		like i in "machine"
	ia, ya		ya in "yacht"
	iao, yao	yow in "yowl"
	ie, ye		ye in "yet"
	iu, yu		you
	ian, yan	"yen"
	in, yin		ine in "machine" - palatalized.
	iang, yang	i in "machine + "ang" above - palatalized
	ing, ying	i in "machine" + ng in "sing" - palatalized
	iong, yong	i in "machine" + "ong" above - palatalized

	u		after y, j, q, x is umlauted (not written).
	u		may be umlauted (written as such) after n and l

Finally, a final "r" is pronounced similar to an English "r" final, but
with the tongue in a retroflex position.

There is a lot of local variation in the way individual speakers
pronounce things.  In southern China (near Shanghai) zh, sh become
z, s respectively.  In parts of northeast China, initial n becomes l,
and there is in general a lot of variation in the pronunciation of
certain vowels.  This makes it difficult for someone who learned Chinese 
as a foreign language, and has only heard "standard" pronunciation,
to understand it when spoken; it takes getting used
to.  Also, it means that you may be corrected in your pronunciation if
you use the rules above (which are not perfect).  However, it should
give reasonably close results, certainly better than the average
TV newscaster!  8-)

	Bill Jefferys  8-%
	Astronomy Dept, University of Texas, Austin TX 78712   (Snail)
	ihnp4!kpno!utastro!bill   (uucp)
	utastro!bill@utexas-11   (ARPA)