Hanyu (汉语) means Chinese Language

Pin (拼) means spelling

Yin (音) means sound

Hanyu PinYin is the Chinese Phonetic System. It is written in Roman letters to represent the sound of the characters. Chinese pronunciation does not correspond directly to the sound of English but only an approximate only.

A Chinese syllable consists of an initial and a final. There are altogether 21 initials and 38 finals. Initial is equivalent to a consonant in English and finals are the equivalent of vowels in English.

Initials

b	p	m	f	d	t	n
l	g	k	h	z	c	s
j	q	x	r	zh	ch	Sh

 

Initial   m, f,n, l, h, s and sh are similar to English pronunciation.

b  (unaspirated)                       like      p          in spit

p  (strongly aspirated)             like      p          in pay

d  (unaspirated)                       like      t           in stop

t  (strongly aspirated)              like      t           in take

g  (unaspirated)                       like      k          in skill

k  (aspirated)                           like      k          in kill

z  (unaspirated)                       like      ds        in reads

c  (strongly aspirated)             like      ts         in cats

j  (unaspirated)                        no equivalent in English. Like ji (じ) in Japanese

q  (strongly aspirated)             no equivalent in English. Like chi (ち) in Japanese

x                                              no equivalent in English. Like shi (し) in Japanese

r                                               like rain with tough curl upwards

zh                                            like      j           in job

ch  (strongly aspirated)           like      ch        in church with tongue curl upwards

*aspirated means pronounce with a breathing

Finals

	i	u	ü
a	ia	ua
o		uo	üe
e	ie
er
ai		uai
ei		uei (ui)
ao	iao
ou	iou (iu)
an	ian	uan	üan
en	in	uen (un)	üen
ang	iang	uang
eng	ieng	ueng
ong	iong

ie         like      ye        in yet

e          like      e          in her

er         like      ar         in bar (American pronunciation)

ai         like English word eye

ei         like      ay        in bay

ou        like      o          in so

ao        like      ow       in cow

an        like      an        in ban

en        like      en        in taken

-ng       nasalized sound like ng in bang

Examples of Initial + Final

bu (不)  no pa (怕) scared mang (忙)  busy

hao (好) good           zhong (中)  middle          xie (谢)  thanks

PinYin Tone

Chinese pronunciation is a very important step in learning this language. If the tone is pronounced incorrectly, the meaning of the word changes as well. There are basically 4 tones and 1 neutral tone in Chinese.

1st Tone:        High Level Tone

Example:        Ma (妈)  mother

2^nd Tone:       High Rising Tone

Example:         Ma  (麻)  hemp

3^rd Tone:        Low Dipping Tone

Example:         Ma  (马)  horse

4^th Tone:        High Falling Tone

Example:         Ma  (骂)  scold
Der umfang ghostwriter doktorarbeit der vertraglichen leistungen ergibt sich aus der jeweils gültigen ausschreibung.