The pinyin system of Romanisation

The system is used only as tool for teaching standard pronunciation, or for indicating standard pronunciation in reference materials such as encyclopaedias and dictionaries. It is not in everyday use for reading and writing. Only the character script is used for these purposes.

Summary of the pinyin system

I Initials

Note that in the pairs (b,p), (d, g), (j, q), (zh,ch), (z,c), the first member of the pair is unaspirated, while the second member is aspirated.

II Finals consisting of a single vowel

III Finals consisting of compound vowels

IV Finals in n and ng

Note:

group 2 finals with no preceding initial are spelt with >y= instead of >i=
group 3 finals with no preceding initial are spelt with >w= instead of >u=
group 4 finals with no preceding initial are spelt with >yu= instead of >ü=

V Tone sandhi

VI Placing of tone marks

1. The tone mark over a letter >i= replaces the dot
2. If the final is a single vowel, the tone mark is placed on the vowel
3. If the final consists of three vowels, the tone mark is placed on the middle vowel
4. If the final consists of two vowels, it is placed

over the >a= if one is present, if not,
over the >e= if one is present, otherwise
over the >o= if one is present.

If the two vowels are >iu= or >ui=, the tone mark is placed over the second vowel.

VII Separation mark and hyphen

1 . The apostrophe is used to separate two grouped syllables when the second syllable begins with a vowel, as in Xi=an, Tian=anmen and so on.

2. The hyphen is not used. Two-syllable personal names and two-syllable surnames are grouped as one word as in Zhou Enlai, Zhuge Liang and so on. They are not hyphenated as in the Wade-Giles system of romanisation.

Further details

Chinese uses polysyllabic words, in which each syllable has three components:

Tones

Contrary to what some NZ=ers think, you don=t have to have a musical ear to be able to use or understand spoken Chinese. There must be millions of tone-deaf Chinese, just as there are countless tone-deaf English-speakers who nevertheless speak their own language with perfect intonation! There is no evidence that the budding Te Kanawas and Pavarottis in our midst will be any better at learning Chinese than less musical NZ=ers.

Every syllable in standard Chinese is pronounced in one of only four basic tones.

This tone remains the same regardless of the context in which the syllable occurs, so that if you get the intonation on each syllable correct, your intonation for the whole sentence will automatically be correct. In English, learning correct intonation is much more difficult, since the intonation on the syllables changes with context. For instance:

a falling intonation on town in AI am going to tòwn@ indicates a statement of fact. This is the fourth tone in Chinese

The question mark at the end of AYou=re going to tówn?@ tells us to use a rising intonation on town, so that we hear the phrase as a question, the second tone inChinese.

If the person you are speaking to then repeats doubtfully >town?!=, he would probably use an intonation which begins by falling and then rises, ie a Chinese third tone.

If the first speaker then confirms his intention by saying AYes, town is where I=m going@, he is likely to use a high level intonation on >town=, ie a Chinese first tone..

Just as a Chinese-speaker has to learn intonation in English, so an English-speaker has to learn intonation in Chinese. For an English-speaker, the difficulty at first lies in learning to associate a different meaning with the same sound pronounced in a different tone. Children, including non-Chinese children, learn this very quickly and easily. It may take an adult learner a little longer, but as in all language learning, practice makes perfect!

There are four basic tones in standard Chinese; and a fifth neutral tone.

The four basic tones are:

The first tone is a high level tone, indicated in the standard system of phonetic writing known as pinyin by a macron (short horizontal line) above the principal vowel of the syllable. It is the intonation used on the third syllable of English words like >international=

The second tone is a high rising tone, indicated by an acute accent on the principal vowel of the syllable, as in má. It is the intonation used in English to end questions.

The third tone begins by falling and then rises, indicated in pinyin by an upside done circumflex (or inverted v) on the principal vowel of the syllable. This is in fact known as the full third tone, and is used only when the syllable stands alone, as a monosyllabic word before a pause. When it occurs as part of a polysyllabic group, the rise at the end is omitted, and it becomes a low falling tone, and is called the half-third tone. This intonation is often used in English to express doubt.

The fourth tone is a falling tone, indicated in by an grave accent on the principal vowel of the syllable, as in mà. It is the intonation used in English at the end of emphatic statements of fact.

Chinese children and other beginners learn to recite the above four tones in sequence as a kind of tune. Once you know this tune you will be able to work out how to pronounce the pinyin spelling of any new word you happen to look up in the dictionary. You may need help from a Chinese-speaker, or you may be able to borrow a tape from your local branch of your public library. If so, then:

Chinese is a stressed language, like English. The tone on an unstressed syllable tends to disappear, becoming low in pitch after the 1st, 2nd and 4th tones, and high after a 3rd tone. This is known as the neutral tone.

There are thus five tones to learn. This is so much easier than learning to sing the many notes of the major, minor and chromatic scales when learning to sing, that one wonders why writers in English have made so much fuss about the difficulty of learning them!

Go to language index site contents email

This page last revised: 7th January, 2001