Intro to Chinese ::: Learn pinyin (consonants)

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Whenever one starts learning a new language they should learn pronunciation first, so I introduce to you Pinyin.

Pinyin is the official Romanization scheme approved by the Chinese government back in 1949 ish to help the people become more literate, and to standardize the international translation of Chinese names. The system will teach you how to pronounce the language, but keep in mind that it is NOT the language. Take the pinyin phrase wo ai ni ma. Without the characters/tones, this is very ambiguous statement! I love you? I love your horse? I love your mom...? o.O

Mandarin Chinese spoken language is composed of a consonant "initial" and vowel "final". It will always be consonant-vowel. The only consonant that can end a word is a -n or -ng.

consonants
__________________________

b: soft b almost a p sound very little air :::::::::: sPy
p: definite p sound lots of air ::::::::::::::::::::::::: Power
m: english m
f: english f
d: soft t sound little air ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: sTop
t: regular t lots of air :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Tower
n: english n
l: english l

g: soft k sound little air ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: sKrabble (the game, I just spelled with K)
k: hard k lots of air :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Kite
h: H! just exhale. easy

c: say cats ca-TS its the ts sound on the end of cats. Lots of air
z: say wads of paper wa-DZ tongue should feel like TS position but little/NO air! Vibrate those vocal cords. Think swarm of bees. dzzzzzzz
s: english s



*Retroflex Consonants*
tongue on roof of mouth farther back than normal for these!
ch: say CHurch. lots of air. easy.
zh: tongue in same spot as ch but say.... jurch?
sh: say SHurburt
r: say shurburt again and hold out the urrrrrrrrrrr sound. That's what mandarin 'R' is -- exactly like SH but just go straight to the urrrrrrrrrr -- like a little growl

I hope you didn't gag on your tongue!!


okay these are the strangest to english speakers
q: tip of tongue against back of bottom teeth rest of tongue near top of mouth and makes an air canal of sorts. Similar sound as ch above but front of mouth sound and very weak sounding... LOTS OF AIR!!!
j: exact same tongue positioning as for q but NO AIR!
x: mmm hiss like a snake sssssss whistly sounding as possibly
^^^^ i will provide links for these soon because they are hard to explain




*no initial* ::::::: there is allowed to be just vowels by themselves. I'll cover this more in the vowel post next.