Pinyin – Chinese transcription
Pinyin is the official phonetic system by which the reading of Chinese characters is recorded. It uses Latin letters, so it’s not a problem to master. The first thing you need to do is. Pinyin will help you figure out what sounds are even used in Chinese and how to pronounce them correctly. This is the most fundamental skill for mastering the language.
Master the theory first. In Chinese, sounds are not divided into consonants and vowels, but into initials and finalizations. An initialization is the sound that starts a syllable, a final is the sound with which it ends. There are a total of 21 initialials and 34 finalials in Chinese. Together they give about 400 combinations. In addition, in Pinyin many characters are not read the way we are used to. Zh, ch, j are especially difficult for beginners.
Having mastered pinyin, you will be able to type on the computer in Chinese. It is done very simply – enter the reading of the character in Latin, and then choose the desired one from the list that appears (many characters have the same reading). So once you learn pinyin, you can use the dictionary and even communicate with Chinese people.
Tones – The Basics of Chinese Pronunciation
The number of sounds in Chinese is limited, and the number of homophones – similar-sounding words – is very large. In order for words to be distinguished in some way, the language has developed a special system for changing the pitch of the voice, i.e. tone.
Studying pinyin and the basics of phonetics, you will smoothly move on to tones – you can’t get away from it. And it’s better to pay more attention to them right away so that you don’t have to re-learn them later. After all, if you completely ignore the tones, you will be misunderstood or not understood at all. For example, the words “soup” and “sugar” are pronounced with the same sounds, but in different tones – tāng and táng respectively. So if you ask for soup in a restaurant but use the wrong tone, the waiter will bring you sugar or won’t understand what you are asking for at all. Rare mistakes are not so terrible, but for them to be rare, you still need to know the tones.
Learn to hear tones
If you’ve just started learning a language, you’ll probably find it difficult to hear the difference between tones. After all, the brain of a European speaker is not trained to recognize such voice changes. This skill needs to be learned separately.
Try saying the word “yes” first with an affirmative intonation. Imagine that you are confidently answering, “Colleague, have you completed the task? – Yes.” And then with a questioning tone: “I learned Chinese in six months – Yes?”. And with an exclamation, “Do you want a promotion? – Yes!” See the difference? Now do the same thing, but with the Chinese syllable ma. Listen to how the same syllable is pronounced in different tones in the table. Do you feel similar to what you did? You can practice here
Once you get used to it, move on to words of two syllables. It’s best to listen to the tones being pronounced together, one after the other. It can be harder to distinguish them in context, so they should not be taught in isolation.