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Edited on Fri Oct-01-04 11:26 PM by Lydia Leftcoast
When the Chinese government made up an official Roman alphabet for their standard language (commonly referred to as "Mandarin"), they decided to throw out Western ideas of phonetics and make up spelling conventions that accurately portray the sounds of Chinese--only not in the way Westerners instinctively would.
The "Q" represents one of the two "ch" sounds in Mandarin. One of them, spelled "ch," represents "ch" pronounced with the tongue curled back, almost like "tr." The other, represented by "q," represents "ch" pronounced with the tongue between the teeth. Thus "chun" is pronounced almost like "troon" and "qun" is pronounced almost like an English person saying "tune" ("tyoon"). The name "Qi" is pronounced "Chee," and the name Quan is pronounced not Kwan but "Chyuan" with an "an" like "Ann." (I'm not going to get into all the weird things that can happen to the vowels. For example, the name "Chi" is pronounced "chr"--but only in mainland Chinese spelling. In the older style of spelling, "chr" is spelled "Ch'ih.")
The "x" represents one of the two "sh" sounds. "Sh" is pronounced with the tongue curled back and is pretty close to the English sound. "X" is "sh" with the tongue between the teeth and a slight "y" sound, and some spelling systems spell it "hs," as in Hsu. So you have two names, Xu ("shyoo") and Shu ("shoo"). The city with the terra cotta warriors is Xi'an (pronounced "Shee-ahn").
There's a similar pair with "j" and "zh." "Zh" is --you guessed it--"j" with the tongue curled back. "J" is "j" with the tongue between the teeth. So "Zhun" is "Joon" and "Jun" is "Jyoon."
Okay, I said I wasn't going to do it, but I'll give you a rundown on what happens to the rest of the alphabet.
"c" is pronounced "ts."
"z" is pronounced "dz"
"i" is pronounced "ee" by itself or after any consonant except zh, ch, sh, s, z, r, or c. After zh, ch, sh, it's pronounced "r." (chi=chr, shi=shr, zhi=zhr) After s, z, c, or r, it's pronounced like a short i in English (the "i" in "tin"), so si=sih, zi=dzih, ci=tsih, and ri=rih
a is usually "ah," but after "i" or "y" or after "ju," "xu," or "ju," "an" becomes "ann."
"en" is pronounced "un" as in "unreal." "Eng" is "ung" as in "sung."
"e" is "uh" as in "duh," except after "y" or "i," when it is pronounced "eh."
"ui" is pronounced "way." The town in southern China with all the funny looking mountains is Guilin (Gway-lin).
"ou" is pronounced "oh."
"er" is prounced "ar."
"ei" is "ay."
"iu" is pronounced "yo."
Here are some handy Chinese phrases to practice on!
Cesuo zai nar? (Tsuh-swo dzy nar?) "Where's the bathroom?"
Duo shao qian? (Dwo shaoh chyann?") "How much is it?"
"Tai gui!" (Ty gway!) "Too expensive."
Hen hao! (Hun how) "Very good."
Xie-xie (Shyeh-shyeh) "Thank you."
Qing wen (Ching wun) "I'd like to to ask you."
Ni chi fan le ma? (Nee chr fahn luh ma) "Have you eaten?"
Wo hen xihuan he pijiu (Wo hun shee-hwahn huh pee-jyoh) "I like to drink beer."
Wo shi Meiguo ren. (Wo shr May-gwo run) "I'm an American."
Zai jian! (Dzy jyann) "Good-bye!"
Believe it or not, once you get the hang of this system of spelling and learn a little Chinese, it makes perfect sense.
On edit:
The system that is still official in Taiwan, and which was once the most common one in the West is called the Wade-Giles system. In it, the phrases I have given you would look like this:
Ts'e-suo zai nar? Duo shao ch'ien? T'ai kwei Hen hao (same) Hsieh-hsieh Ch'ing wen Ni ch'ih fan le ma? Wo hen hsihuan he p'ichiu Wo shih Meikuo jen Zai chien!
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