Standard Chinese, a modular approach.
Resource module on pronunciation and romanization. Take two.
On this tape we're going to take up most of the vowel sounds of standard Chinese,
as well as their spellings in the pinyin system of romanization.
These vowel sounds all have approximate equivalents in English,although not exact equivalents.
And there's always some precedent if only in forward names for their spellings.
We'll hold the consonants to the same fairly obvious ones we used on the first tape.
Turn to display one for this tape in your workbook.
The left column has five Chinese surnames.
Listen to the vowel sound in the first surname.
Notice that the vowel sound a is spelled with the letter a as in Okinawa.
Try repeating the surname after the speaker.
Listen to the vowel in the second surname.
Notice that the sound e is spelled with an i as in Tahiti.
Try repeating,mi,mi,mi.
Here's the third surname.
Notice that the sound u is spelled with a u.
The English vowel u,which is not quite the same as spelled with a u in Honolulu.
Try repeating.
Here's the fourth one.
Notice that this does not sound much like the English vowel we use for Hong Kong.
It sounds more like the short double o vowel in Hook.
About the only word with this sound spelled o in English is woman.
Try repeating.
Listen to the last surname.
Notice that the sound a is spelled with an e as in chicken.
Notice also that this is not the vowel sound spelled with an e as in hen.
Try repeating.
You may find the sound a written e a bit close to the sound a written a and to the sound o written o.
Exercise 1 will give you practice in making these distinctions.
For each numbered item,the speaker will read a surname.
Write in the appropriate vowel letter repeating as you do so.
Then I'll give you the correct vowel letter.
O 6
Hang
E 7
Hang
E 8
Hong
O 9
Heng
E 10
Heng
E 11
Hong
O 12
Hang
A
Now try pronouncing the names in exercise 2.
Don't let it bother you if you're not sure of some of them.
You'll have a chance to repeat each of them after the speaker and each vowel will come up several times.
Don't ignore the tone marks.
Now when I give you the item number,try reading the item.
One
Ma
Two
Yi
Three
Four
Four
Long
Five
He
Six
Wu
Seven
Fang
Eight
An
Nine
Long
Ten
Yong
Eleven
Mang
Twelve
An
Thirteen
Yin
Fourteen
Ming
Fifteen
Hong
Now look at display 2,which presents four diphthongs or vowel combinations.
Listen to the first surname.
Li
Notice that the diphthong i is spelled ai as in Shanghai,which is pronounced in Chinese like this.
Shanghai
Try repeating the surname.
Li
Here's the second surname.
Wei
The diphthong a is spelled ei as in Taipei,the largest city in Taiwan,which is pronounced in Chinese like this.
Taipei
Remember that without the letter i,the letter e was pronounced 呃,try repeating the surname.
Wei
Wei
Here's the third surname.
hao
The diphthong o is spelled a-o as in Mao Zedong in Chinese.
Mao Zedong
Try repeating.
How
Here's the last surname.
Lou
The diphthong o is spelled o-u as in Zhou and Lai in Chinese.
Zhou and Lai
Try repeating.
Lou
Now try reading the surnames in exercise three and repeat after the speaker.
One
My
Two
Fei
Three
Four
Hou
Five
He
Six
Hu
Seven
Ha
Eight
Li
None
Lou
Ten
Meng
Eleven
Mei
Twelve
Lao
Thirteen
Long
Fourteen
Li
Fifteen
O
Sixteen
Wei
Seventeen
N
Eighteen
Nine
Nineteen
Yong
Twenty
How
Up until this point, we've treated the sounds spelled w and y as if they were regular consonants.
Fanatically, however, they're shortened vowels or semi-vowels, which glide into the full vowel of the syllable.
They're so close to being vowels that when a semi- vowel is followed by a vowel with the same articulation, it might be difficult to hear any transition.
The syllable written wu may sound like u and the syllable written yi may sound like e.
Like vowels, semi-vowels may follow consonants.
When they do, the pinyin system writes them with the equivalent vowel letter u instead of w and i instead of y.
Listen to the speaker read the triplets of surnames in display three.
Hang,Wang,Huang
Lan,Wang,Luan
Mao,Yao,Miao
Lang,Yang,Liang
In each triplet, the first surname starts with a regular consonant, the second with a semi-vowel,
and the third with a regular consonant followed by a semi-vowel spelled as a vowel.
If you have any difficulty with semi-vowels following consonants,
you can build up to them by starting with full vowels and speeding up until their semi-vowels.
For example, we could build up to the surname huang by starting from the full name, surname, and given name.
Listen.
Huang,Huang
Again
Huang,Huang
Try repeating after the speaker.
Huang,Huang
Again
Huang,Huang
Try repeating after the speaker as she reads through the display again.
Huang,Huang
Huang
Lan,Wang
Luan,Mao
Miao,Miao
Lang,Yang
Liang
Now try reading the surnames in exercise 4 and repeat after the speaker.
One,Han
Two,Huang
Three,Huang
Four,Lang
Five,Yang
Six,Liang
Seven,Luan
Eight,Miao
Nine,Huang
Ten,Liao
Eleven,Huang
Twelve,Huai
Thirteen,Liang
Fourteen,Luan
Fifteen,Liao
Display 4 presents three irregularities that crop up in combinations of semivol and vol.
Listen to the speaker read the first triplet of surnames.
Uh,Yeh,Liang
Notice the effect of the semivol written Y or I, again.
Uh,Yeh,Liang
After the semivol written Y or I,the letter E has the same sound value as in English yet,
rather than the sound value Uh,which it has alone.
The rest of the same sound value it has in the diphthong A written EI.
Try repeating these three surnames after the speaker.
Uh,Yeh,Liang
Again,Uh,Yeh,Liang
Now listen to the second triplet.
Uh,Yeh,Liang
Notice the effect of the semivol,again.
Uh,Yeh,Liang
Here after the semivol the AN takes on the sound value of EN in hen.
We include the N in the rule because this change only takes place where there is an N.
Try repeating these surnames.
Uh,Yeh,Liang
Again,Uh,Yeh,Liang
Now listen to the three surnames in the last row.
Uh,Yeh,Liang
Listen for the effect of the semivol written W or U.
Uh,Yeh,Liang
ONG is pronounced UN,but after the semivol written W or U,the letter O stands for another vowel sound.
The combination WO or UO is pronounced rather like the beginning of the English word WAL.
Try repeating after the speaker.
LONG,WO,LO
Again,LONG,WO,LO
Exercise 5 provides some practice in these combinations.
Read the surnames and repeat.
1,Yeh
2,Yen
3,WO
4,Lie
5,Lian
6,Luo
7,Liang
8,Long
9,Nie
10,Heh
11,Huo
12,Yang
13,On
14,Yeh
15,Nian
16,Luo
17,Uh
18,Luo
19,Lian
20,Lie
Now let's review what we've covered on this tape.
Try reading the surnames in exercise 6 and repeat after the speaker.
1,Fang
2,Luo
3,Huang
4,Mao
5,Yi
6,Way
7,Miao
8,Luo
9,Lai
10,Hu
11,Hong
12,Liang
13,Luan
14,Wo
15,Lian
16,Yang
17,Lian
18,Lie
19,Heh
20,Yeh
Exercise 7 is a dictation exercise.
Try filling in the blank in the romanization of each surname.
Repeating as you do so.
I'll give you the correct answers as we go.
1,Fang
A,2,Miao
2,Iao
3,Yi
4,Way
5,Wu
6,Huang
7,Yeh
8,Lian
9,An
10,Yang
11,Luan
12,Hong
13,Liang
14,Wo
15,Luo
16,Lai
17,Huang
18,Lie
18,Lian
19,Yan
20,Luo
Wu
20,Liang
21,Liang
22,Liang
23,Liang
24,Liang
25,Liang