Lesson 1: The Pinyin System and The Tone
Ok guys and gals, let's start with the first lesson of mandarin chinese, I will try to share 'the simple way to speak mandarin chinese' (in my opinion hehehe ).
Before that, let's read this rhyme :
Qiān lǐ zhī xíng, shǐ yú zú xià.
1000 mile’s journey, begin at foot down
A long journey begins with a single step. (Laozi)
So, first thing that I think is the most important is knowing the Pinyin system to accelerate our study in mandarin. If we know it, we can speak mandarin ASAP, although we still don't understand what we read :), so at least we can more confidence to speak (this is very important if we learn a foreign language, we must not shame to speak, or "tidak tahu malu" in bahasa :) , that way, we can learn and speak faster)
Pinyin, more formally Hanyu Pinyin, is the most common Standard Mandarin romanization system in use. Hanyu means the "Chinese Language", and pinyin means "spell sound", or the spelling of the sound.
Rules given in terms of English/Bahasa pronunciation
All rules given here in terms of English/Bahasa pronunciation are approximate, as several of these sounds do not correspond directly to sounds in English/Bahasa.
Pronunciation of initials
| Pinyin | Read | Explanation | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| b | [p] | unaspirated p, as in spit or pisau in bahasa | |||||||||||||
| p | [b] | aspirated p, as in pit, or babi in bahasa | |||||||||||||
| m | [m] | as in English mum | |||||||||||||
| f | [f] | as in English fun | |||||||||||||
| d | [t] | unaspirated t, as in stop, or tong in bahasa | |||||||||||||
| t | [tʰ] | aspirated t, as in top, or dop in bahasa | |||||||||||||
| n | [n] | as in English nit | |||||||||||||
| l | [l] | as in English love | |||||||||||||
| g | [k] | unaspirated k, as in skill, or kuil in bahasa | |||||||||||||
| k | [kʰ] | aspirated k, as in kill or gagah in bahasa | |||||||||||||
| h | [x] | like the English h if followed by "a"; otherwise it is pronounced more roughly . | |||||||||||||
| j | [tɕ] | like q, but unaspirated. Like cuaca in bahasa | |||||||||||||
| q | [tɕʰ] | like church; in English both "ch" and "q" are often pronounced the same. Like juanda in bahasa | |||||||||||||
| x | [ɕ] | like sh or palatalised s, Like siuman in bahasa | |||||||||||||
| zh | [ʈʂ] | ch with no aspiration (a sound between joke and church). Like tz in bahasa | |||||||||||||
| ch | [ʈʂʰ] | as in chin, but with the tongue curled upwards; very similar to nurture American English. Like jarang in bahasa | |||||||||||||
| sh | [ʂ] | as in shinbone, but with the tongue curled upwards; very similar to undershirt in American English | |||||||||||||
| r | [ʐ] or [ɻ] | Similar to the English r in rank | |||||||||||||
| z | [ts] | unaspirated c (something between suds and cats). Like coba in bahasa | |||||||||||||
| c | [tsʰ] | like ts in bats, however more aspirated. Like juga in bahasa | |||||||||||||
| s | [s] | as in sun | |||||||||||||
| w | [w] or [u] | it is pronounced as the "u" (pinyin-pronounced) that "w" replaced. | |||||||||||||
| y | [j] or [i] | case 1)it is pronounced as the "i" (pinyin-pronounced) that it replaced. case 2) Similarly, note that "yu" is not pronounced as a "yu", rather it is pronounced as the (pinyin-pronounced) "ü" that it replaced. |
Beside the pinyin system, what we also should know in the first time is the pitch tone.
The most famous example of this, is the word "ma" :
If you want to know how to spell the tone, you can click -> hear the mandarin tone (this is tone 1-4 only)
Now, let's try to familiar with the sounds and syllables of pinyin. Beginning now, I will use bahasa pronunciation to read the pinyin (but I have an obstacle to write the accent mark - above is only copy paste :) , so no accent mark here - any body know how to write that mark ?)
ok let's begin :
Wo yao xue xi zhong wen (read: wuo yao sie se chong wen) = I want to learn mandarin
Wo bu zhi dao (read: wuo pu tze tao) = I don't know
Beijing (read: pei cing) = Capital of PRC
Hope you can understand this first lesson, if you don't, please review again and again until you are familiar with this pinyin system, so that we can begin to learn the mandarin the faster way - using daily conversation :)