Standard Chinese Modular Approach
Resource module on pronunciation and romanization
Tape 5
This tape will take up several abbreviations in pinyin spelling
A new vowel and a new consonant
Display 1 contains three cases of abbreviation
Listen to the speaker read the surnames in the first row
I'm one one
Listen again and notice that they run
I'm one one
Each of these syllables clearly has the vowel sound uh
But the last one is spelled without an e
We've supplied the e in the version in brackets to reflect the pronunciation
Notice, by the way, that the ton mark has wound up on the u
The only surviving vowel letter
Now listen to the names in the second row
say
way
Listen again, they run
say
way
Here, you'd expect g-u-e-i
Since the a sound is spelled e-i
But in fact, there is no e
Notice that the ton mark has shifted to the i
The last vowel letter
Now listen to the last row
hole
yo
leo
Listen again
Except for the tone, they run
hole
yo
leo
Here, you'd expect l-i-o-u
Since the sound o is spelled o-u
But in fact, there's no o
Notice that the ton mark has shifted to the u
The last vowel letter
We've been treating these spelling simply as abbreviations
But in fact, they make some kind of phonetic sense
It happens that vowels often have a slightly different quality
in the first and second tones
And in each of these cases, the abbreviated spelling
is suggestive of the first and second tones
pronunciations
For example, listen to the pairs of names in the
play too
yo
leo
Perhaps you'll agree that you hear something
approaching a simple u sound after the
semi vowel in the first and second tones names
so that the spelling without the o
might be better for both of them
Listen again and notice that the pairs don't quite rhyme
yo
leo
Now listen to the speaker read down the columns
This way, you may better hear the rhymes
yo
leo
yo
leo
Again
yo
leo
yo
leo
This way, three presents a slightly different kind of abbreviation
Listen to the speaker read the names
leo
Listen again and notice that they rhyme
All three end in o
leo
In this case, the semi vowel is not written after m
There's no u
The same goes after other consonants involving the lips
b,p and f
The theory seems to be that the lip involvement of m,b,p and f
is sufficient to suggest the lip rounding of the semi vowel without writing u
Now try reading the names in exercise 1
and repeat after the speaker
one
two
one
three
four
way
four
way
five
yo
six
leo
seven
more
eight
more
nine
lun
ten
niu
eleven
rei
twelve
bo
thirteen
tsui
fourteen
twenty
fifteen
q
exercise two is a dictation exercise
fill in the blanks repeating as you do so
one
we
two
one
hu
three
guay
u,i
four
way
we,i
vi
more
wo
six
more
wo
seven
leo
iu
eight
yo
wei
yu
nine
guay
u,i
ten
war
wo
eleven
one
hu
twelve
wei
we,i
thirteen
more
yu,o
fourteen
one
we
fifteen
yo
yu
sixteen
liu
iu
display four introduces a new vowel
it's written as a letter u with two dots over it
for lack of a better term let's use the german term umlaut
for the accent mark and call the combination u umlaut
listen to the speaker read the three names
li
lu
again
li
lu
u
liu
yi
yu
yi
yu
yi
yu
yi
yu
yi
yu
yi
u,i
li
lu
again
li
lu
li
yu umlaut
tu
li
i
ri
lu
yu
for
lu
yu umlaut
fif
lu
yu umlaut
sixte
li
i
seven
li
i
eight
lu
u
nine
lu
yu umlaut
ten
lu
yu
in exercise four try reading the names and repeat
one
li
two
lu
three
li
four
lu
five
lu
six
li
seven
lu
eight
lu
nine
li
ten
u
U
Yen, Yen
Yen
For many speakers, the last pair rhymes.
The pronunciation would be better represented by the spelling in the parentheses,
with an E added for the S sound.
For many speakers, however, this pair doesn't rhyme.
The pronunciation is well represented by the actual spelling Y,
U-umn-lout, A-N.
We put the umlaut axid mark over the u's in display 5, but actual pinion spelling doesn't.
After a y, a u couldn't stand for anything but the u umlaut sound, and so pinion doesn't bother to add the two dots.
The same goes after the palatal consonants written j, q, and x.
Since these consonants pronounced with the tongue in the e position occur only before vowels pronounced with the tongue in the e position, namely e and e, or their semi-vol equivalents,
you know that a u after a j, q, or x must mean u umlaut.
Just to be helpful though, we'll write the umlaut for you every time in the early part of this course,
but just to get an idea of how the system works, try reading the names in exercise 5.
Pronouncing the letter u with the sound value y after y and the palatal consonants written j, q, and x,
and then repeating after the speaker.
1, shu, 2, su, 3, shu, 4, wu, 5, yu,
6, zhu, 7, zhu, 8, ju,
9, chu, 10, q, 11, mu,
12, yu, 13, ju, 14,
chu, 15, shu,
15, shu,
in exercise 6 we've gone back to our helpful spelling. Try reading the names and repeat after the speaker.
2, shu, 3, shu, 4, quen, 5, shuang,
6, chun, 7,
jun, 8, yue,
9, quen, 10, lü,
11, lù,
12, yu, 13,
ju, 14,
yuan, 15,
chuan, 16,
yun.
yuan, 16,