History of Mandarin Chinese

Mandarin Chinese, also known as Huayu (華語“language of the Chinese”), Guoyu (國語 “national language”), or
Putonghua (普通話”common language”), is the official language of the People's Republic of China (since 1982) and the
Republic of China (since 1932). Mandarin is also one of the four official languages of Singapore, and one of the eight
official languages of the United Nations.

In 1932 the Republic of China (中華民國) officially adopted the Commission’s product, known as Guoyu or Mandarin, as
the national language of China and the first definitive dictionary of the Mandarin language was published in that year.

After 1949, the newly created People’s Republic of China (中華人民共和國) continued to use Mandarin and began to
promote Mandarin in earnest beginning in about 1958. In 1955, the PRC changed the Chinese name of Mandarin from
Guoyu to Putonghua. Guoyu, Putongua, and Huayu are simply different names for the identical language.

When Mandarin was first officially adopted in 1932, its proponents' goal was that in a century's time, all Chinese would
be able to speak proper Mandarin. Today, more than 70% of Chinese people speak Mandarin fluently.

Making Chinese "Roman"

by "romanizing" Chinese, we mean using the letters of the Roman
alphabet (you know, "A, B, C...") to spell out the sounds of the characters,
such as bĕi, nán, dōng, and xī to represent , , , and . This is done
to make learning how to pronounce characters easier.

In other words, romanization is a learning tool for pronunciation, not a

replacement for characters.

Such a tool is necessary because nothing in a Chinese character

itself tells exactly how to pronounce it. For instance, out of the blue,
would you know how to say " "?

BUT WHAT ABOUT...

Occasionally, native speakers of Chinese will claim that characters do offer inherent pronunciation clues. I'll
counter, however, that no character carries the information to communicate its exact phonetic pronunciation or
tone

A source of confusion in the West is the fact that several systems exist for spelling Chinese words with roman
letters, and most people have no idea which they're seeing when they encounter one. The three most common
systems are called Wade-Giles, Yale, and Pīnyīn.

The Wade-Giles system was developed in the 19th century by Sir Thomas Francis Wade, a British officer and
diplomat who served in China, and was later modified by Cambridge professor Herbert Allen Giles. The Yale
system was developed at Yale University in the late 1940's, originally for (according to some sources) teaching
Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese to military and diplomatic personnel.

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Pīnyīn, which is pronounced like peen-yeen and means literally "spell-sound," is the official system that the
People's Republic of China began developing in the late 1950s to help fight the country's illiteracy problem. It is
still used in Mainland China to teach elementary school students how to pronounce their native tongue.

AS IF THAT WEREN'T CONFUSING ENOUGH...

An additional source of confusion lies in the fact that for many years, the West's primary contact with a
Chinese-speaking culture was with Hong Kong, where Cantonese is the primary dialect. The name Hong Kong
itself, for instance, is Cantonese. The Mandarin name for this Special Administrative Region of China is Xiāng
Gāng. Quite different ways to pronounce the same two characters ( ), though both names of course mean
"Fragrant Harbor."

Another system from long ago still making occasional appearance is the
Chinese Postal Romanization system, which was based largely on
German spelling approaches to pronunication. The name you'll see most
often from this system is Tsing Tao, the beer, named for the place it's
made, Tsing Tao, the island (Qingdao in pinyin spelling).

As the People's Republic of China plays an increasingly important role

in global affairs, Pīnyīn has emerged as the system used most in the
Western world. It has been officially adopted by the International
Organization for Standardization (ISO), the United Nations, and the
governments of the United States and many other western nations. You'll find it used throughout the rest of this
site as well.

Just the same, it will be to your advantage to make yourself familiar with all three of these romanization
systems. That way, you can easily work with materials from most any romanized source.

For comparison, this table shows how Wade-Giles, Yale and Pīnyīn romanize this sentence, which means "I am
going to Beijing." (And note that this chart includes tone markers, which you'll read about later.)

System Romanization The three systems, as you see, do have

some similarities ... and some grand
Wade-Giles wo3 ch`ü4 pei3 ching1. differences. And while we're on the topic,
Yale wŏ chyù běi jīng. why not check out what the U.S. Library of
Congress decided on the romanization
Pīnyīn wŏ qù běi jīng. issue.

Putting all that in context, to give you a look at

how some other terms compare, take a look at
these well-known Chinese names rendered in
Wade-Giles, Yale, and Pīnyīn:

NOTE To give you a more thorough

comparison, in the Pronunciation
Appendix, I've put together pages where you
can compare these systems side by side, part of
the "appendix" to this pronunciation overview.

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 Syllabic Structure and Pronunciation of Modern Standard Chinese
A syllable of Modern Standard Chinese is usually composed of three parts: an initial consonant,
a final consisting of vowels or vowels and ending consonants -[n] or -[ng], and a tone. The tone is
superimposed on the entire syllable. A syllable may also have no initial consonant.

Chinese syllabic structure:

Syllable = Tone
Initial Final

A. Simple Finals:
There are six simple finals in Modern Standard Chinese:

a, o, e, i, u, ü
B. Initials
There are twenty-one initial consonants in Modern Standard Chinese:

1. b (o) p (o) m (o) f (o)

2. d (e) t (e) n (e) l (e)
3. g (e) k (e) h (e)
4. j (i) q (i) x (i)
5. z (i) c (i) s (i)
6. zh (i)(r) ch (i)(r) sh (i)(r) r(i)

C. Compound Finals:

1. ai ei ao ou
2. an en ang eng ong
3. ia iao ie iu ian in iang ing iong
4. ua uo uai ui uan un uang ueng
5. üe üan ün
6. er

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 Mandarin Chinese Initial and Finals: Pinyin Table 1
This is the first of four tables illustrating which pairings of initials and finals do occur in Mandarin Chinese
and, by omission, which do not.

The initial b, for instance, may be paired with a, but not with e, since ba is a sound in Mandarin Chinese, while
be is not.

By the way, don't let the great number of sounds you see represented here alarm you. The majority of these are
seldom used.

Table 1: Chinese initials (left) and finals a through ong (top).

a o e -i* er ai ei ao ou an en ang eng ong

b ba bo bai bei bao ban ben bang beng
p pa po pai pei poa pou pan pen pang peng
m ma mo me mai mei mao mou man men mang meng
f fa fo fei fou fan fen fang feng
d da de dai dei dao dou dan den dang deng dong
t ta te tai tao tou tan tang teng tong
n na ne nai nei nou nan nen nang neng nong
l la le lai lei nao lou lan lang leng long
z za ze zi zai zei zao zou zan zen zang zeng zong
c ca ce ci cai cao cou can cen cang ceng cong
s sa se si sai sao sou san sen sang seng song
zh zha zhe zhi zhai zhei zhao zou zan zen zhang zheng zhong
ch cha che chi chai chao chou chan chen chang cheng chong
sh sha she shi shai shei shao shou shan shen shang sheng
r re ri rao rou ran ren rang reng rong
j
q
x
g ga ge gai gei gao gou gan gen gang geng gong
k ka ke kai kei kao kou kan ken kang keng kong
h ha he hai hei hao hou han hen hang heng hong
a o e er ai ei ao ou an en ang eng
NOTE Note that the bottom row without initials signifies Chinese sounds consisting of finals only without
preceding initial consonants. Also, * the final -i should not be confused with i appearing in Table 2. These two
finals are pronounced differently and match with different initials.

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 Mandarin Chinese Initial and Finals: Table 2
This is the second of four tables illustrating which pairings of initials and finals do occur in Mandarin Chinese
and, by omission, which do not.

The initial b, for instance, may be paired with a, but not with e, since ba is a sound in Mandarin Chinese, while
be is not.

By the way, don't let the great number of sounds you see represented in these tables alarm you. The majority of
these are seldom used.

Table 2: Chinese initials (left) and finals i through iong (top).

i ia iao ie iou ian in iang ing iong
b bi biao bie bian bin bing
p pi piao pie pian pin ping
m mi miao mie miu mian min ming
f ..
d di daio die diu dian ding
t ti tiao tie tian ting
n ni niao nie niu nian nin niang ning
l li lia liao lie liu lian lin liang ling
z
c
s
zh
sh
ch
r
j ji jia jiao jie jiu jian jin jiang jing jiong
q qi qia qiao qie qiu qian qin qiang qing qiong
x xi xia xiao xie xiu xian xin xiang xing xiong
g
k
h
. yi ya yao ye you yan yin yang ying yong
*
The final i should not be confused with -i appearing in Table 1. These two finals are pronounced differently
and match with different initials.
NOTE Table 2 finals, when not preceded by an initial, change the i to y.

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 Mandarin Chinese Initial and Finals: Table 3
This is the third of four tables illustrating which pairings of initials and finals do occur in Mandarin Chinese
and, by omission, which do not.

The initial b, for instance, may be paired with a, but not with e, since ba is a sound in Mandarin Chinese, while
be is not.

By the way, don't let the great number of sounds you see represented here alarm you. The majority of these are
seldom used.

Table 3: Chinese initials (left) and finals u through ueng (top).

u ua uo uai uei uan uen uang ueng
b bu . . . . . . . .
p pu
m mu
f fu
d du duo dui duan dun
t tu tuo tui tuan tun
n nu nuo nuan ..
l li luo luan lun
z zu zuo zui zuan zun
c cu cuo cui cuan cun
s su suo sui suan sun
zh zhu zhua zhuo zhuai zhui zhuan zhun zhuang
ch chu chua chuo chuai chui chuan chun chuang
sh shu shua shuo shuai shui shuan shun shuang
r ru rua ruo rui ruan run
j
q
x
g gu gua guo guai gui guan gun guang
k ku kua kuo kuai kui kuan kun kuang
h hu hua huo huai hui huan hun huang
. wu wa wo wai wai wan wen wang weng
NOTE Table 3 finals, when not preceded by an initial, change the u to w. Also, when the final uen takes an
initial, the e is dropped.

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 Mandarin Chinese Initial and Finals: Table 4
This is the fourth of four tables illustrating which pairings of initials and finals do occur in Mandarin Chinese
and, by omission, which do not.

The initial b, for instance, may be paired with a, but not with e, since ba is a sound in Mandarin Chinese, while
be is not.

By the way, don't let the great number of sounds you see represented here alarm you. The majority of these are
seldom used.

And in Table 4, as you see below, the possible initial + final pairing are few in number. Which is a good thing,
because I think it would actually hurt to say züan or shün.

Table 4: Chinese initials (left) and finals ü through ün (top).

ü üe üan ün
b
p
m
f
d
t
n nü nüe
l lü lüe
z
c
s
zh
ch
sh
r
j ju jue juan jun
q qu que quan qun
x xu zue xuan xun
g
k
h
. yu yue yuan yun

NOTE Table 4 finals, when not preceded by an initial, change the üe to y, though the vowel sound does not
change.
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 The Tones of Mandarin Chinese
Chinese is a tonal language, i.e., a tones change the meanings of words. Since Mandarin has a limited number of
syllables, there are a lot of homophones whose meaning varies with the tone. In the table shown to the right, the
syllable is ma but the tone is different. In fact, we can assemble the following sentence:

妈妈 骂 马 吗 - māma mà mǎ ma?
Properly pronounced, the sentence translates into "Does Mamma scold the horse?"

Mandarin is normally said to have just four tones. However, there is also a neutral tone which does not occur
very often but is just as important. The tone is indicated by a tone mark placed on top the vowel. It should be
placed on the letter a or e is present, on the letter o in the ou final, and on the last vowel in all other cases. The
neutTROral tone is indicated by the lack of tone mark.

Tone As in Note

1 mā 妈 mom starts high and stays there

2 má 蔴 hemp starts at mid-range and ends high

3 mǎ 马 horse starts mid-range, dips low, ends mid-range

4 mà 骂 scold starts high and ends low

Neutral ma 吗 question particle neutral tone

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 Sandhi: Tone Shifts in Mandarin Chinese
In some cases, characters aren't pronounced with their "native" tones (the tones assigned to them). Here are three
cases where tones experience shifts.

Third Tone Shift #1

In spoken Mandarin, third tone characters are actually seldom pronounced in the third tone. Unless they occur
alone, or come at the very end of a sentence, they're subject to a tone shift rule.

The first "shift" occurs when two or more third tone characters occur consecutively. What happens is this:

When two or more third tone characters occur in a row, the last of these remains a third tone, while the one(s)
before it is pronounced in, or shift to, the second tone. In this illustration, the characters that experience tone
shifts are colored red to help you pick them out. Notice that the final third tone in each series remains a third
tone.

As it happens, the final third tones in both these

examples would be pronounced as "partial" third
tones. Let's discuss that next.

Third Tone Shift #2

This next shift rule applies when any of the other tones (first, second, fourth, or neutral) comes after a third
tone. In this case the third tone doesn't actually shift to another tone, but rather mutates to a "partial third" tone,
which means that it begins low and dips to the bottom, but then doesn't rise back to the top. Compare it here to
the full third tone:

Tone Shift #2 Illustrated

A "full" third tone starts low, dips to the bottom, then A "partial" third tone starts low, dips to the bottom, but
rises toward the top. does not rise toward the top.

Tone Change of (bù)

The character (bù), which means no or not, is normally a fourth tone character, but when it comes before
another fourth tone character, it shifts to the second tone.

Therefore, instead of saying bù shì and bù yaò, you would say bú shì and bú yaò.
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