Chinese —Pinyin Adapted from a presentation by Haiwang Yuan Associate Professor, University Libraries

Adjunct Instructor, Department of Modern Languages

Hanyu Pinyin (Chinese Phonetics) • Pinyin (拼音), literally “spell the sound,” is the standard
romanization scheme for Chinese characters (汉字) • Adopted in 1958 by mainland China • Used by all
major world media and Chinese schools • Beginning from October 1, 2000, the Library of Congress and
other U.S. libraries joined the international community in using Pinyin to catalog their Chinese materials

Why Pinyin? • A pronunciation tool for domestic and foreign learners of Chinese which, unlike many
other languages in the world, is a non-alphabet language • Assist in popularizing standard Chinese,
known as Putonghua or Mandarin, among Chinese who speak a variety of dialects, such as Cantonese •
Index tool, such as library catalogs and dictionaries • One method for Computer input of Chinese
characters • Standardized translation of Chinese names in the non-Chinese media (e.g. Beijing for
北京；Haiwang Yuan for 袁海旺）

Why Pinyin (continued) • Before Pinyin, there was the Zhuyin system:ㄣㄆㄇㄈㄌㄊㄋㄞ used to
indicate the pronunciation • More difficult to learn than b p m f d t n l, which are familiar to foreign
learners, but avoids the pronunciation pitfalls inherent in Pinyin. • Zhuyin is still used in Taiwan, though
Pinyin is now increasingly found alongside Zhuyin in textbooks • Pinyin, though not perfect (e.g. j, q, x),
is widely accepted. It has become essential to learning and using Chinese

Learning Pinyin • Each Chinese character is a single syllable • A syllable has three components: • Initial
(consonant): b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, z, c, s, zh, ch, sh • Final (vowel) that usually follows the initials: a, o, e, i,
u, ü (simple) or eng, ong, ing, etc. (compound) • Tone (four distinct and one neutral) • Chinese has
around 400 syllables; tones serve to multiply the number of possible pronunciations • More
homophonic words - words having the same sound but expressing different meanings • Traditionally,
Pinyin has 21 initials and 35 finals

23 initials Learning Pinyin - Initials

24 finals (vowels): Learning Pinyin - Finals

Pinyin Table 1
Pinyin Table 2
Pinyin Table 3
Learning Pinyin - Tones • The first tone “–” : At the doctor’s request, say “ah….” • The second tone “/”:
Express your disbelief and say “What?” • The Third tone “v” : When waiting for an answer, say “Well?” •
The fourth tone “\” : Reject somebody’s request and say categorically “No!” • The neutral tone: Where
the voice naturally goes, as in the second part of “ge1ge”.
Practice Mother is riding a horse; the horse is slow; Mother curses the horse. , ,

Pronunciation Exercises • Part One • Listen carefully and circle the word that you hear. • 1. Single
Words: Initials • 2. Single Words: Finals • 3. Single Words: Tones (1, 4) • 4. Single Words: Tones (2, 3) •
5. Single Words: Tones (all) • 6. Single Words: Everything • 7. Tone Combinations

Pronunciation Exercises • Part Two • Listen carefully and write in the sounds that you hear. • 1. Initials
and Simple Finals • 2. Tones • 3. Compound Finals • 4. Neutral Tones • 5. Monosyllabic Words • 6.
Bisyllabic Words • 7. Combinations