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PHONOLOGY OF MANDARIN CHINESE: A COMPARISON OF PINYIN AND IPA
Dr. Sunny Ifeanyi Odinye
Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nigeria.
Email: ifeanyiodinye@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Chinese language has an ideographic and logographic writing system, and it has always
been a difficult problem to correctly represent the phonology of Chinese characters
(syllables and words). The Pinyin system uses Roman alphabets to spell the sounds of
Chinese characters, but it was not designed as an accurate phonetic transcription system.
The Pinyin system is simple and easy to learn, but its simplicity also causes the problem
that many different phonemes have to be represented by the same letter. The phonetic
transcription system widely accepted by linguists is the IPA (International Phonetic
Alphabets), a system designed for transcribing the phonemes of the world’s languages.
To accurately capture Mandarin Chinese phonology, this study compares Pinyin symbols
and IPA in describing Mandarin initials (consonant sounds) and finals (vowel sounds). At
the end, it is found out that both pinyin and IPA have advantages and disadvantages.
INTRODUCTION
The population in China alone accounts for about 1.3 billion, approximately one-fifth of
the total population of the human race. With such a high percentage of the human race
growing up speaking different varieties of the language as their first language, Chinese is
indisputably one of the most commonly used languages in the world. Against such a
background, interest in the Chinese language has grown rapidly outside China. China is a
unitary multinational state which officially recognizes 56 ethnic groups including Han,
Zhuang, Uygur, Hui, Yi, Yibetan, Miao, Manchu, Mongol, Buyi, and Korea. Chinese, or
zhongguoren, is used to refer all citizens in the People’s Republic of China regardless of
ethnic nationality. Apart from the Han majority, the non-Han Chinese, with a total of
more than 96.5 million people, constitute roughly 8% of the total population in the
People’s Republic (Sun, 2006:2).
Chinese, as a language name in English, refers to the Sinitic subgroup of Sino-Tibetan
languages in Asia. First of all, Chinese can be translated as zhongwen generally referring
to the language. Zhongwen is also the right term to use for the academic discipline in
studying Chinese language and literature, such as zhongwenxi for the Chinese department
in a university setting. Second, the term hanyu ‘Hanyu language’ is used in the context
contrasting the languages spoken by the Han nationality the make up 92% of the 1.3
billion Chinese citizens of the People’s Republic with all of the non-Han languages
spoken in China and rest of the world. Third, as hanyu is a general term for the
languages, many of which are mutually unintelligible among speakers of different
varieties of Han language. Fourth, Chinese also refers to different Chinese dialects, or
hanfangyan, but does not include any of the non-Han-Chinese languages spoken by
ethnic minorities in China. In Singapore, as well as in the other Chinese communities in
Southeast Asia, Chinese is known as hanyu ‘Han language’. In Taiwan, standard Chinese
is known as guoyu, literally ‘national language’. Traditionally, Han-Chinese is divided
into seven major dialect groups, Mandarin (or beifanghua- Northern Chinese), Wu,
Xiang, Gan, Kejia (Hakka), Yue (Cantonese), and Min (Yuan, 1989). Among the Han-
Chinese, Northern Chinese speakers comprise 70% (840 million), Wu 8.5% (102
million), Yue 5.5% (66 million), Min 4.5% (54 million), Kejia 4% (48 million), Gan
2.5% (30 million), and Xiang 5% (60 million) (Zhou, 2003).
Chinese government replaced the name of guoyu ‘national language’ with Putonghua
‘common speech (language)’ in order to highlight political equality among all ethnic
groups and their languages (Zhou, 2003). The official definition of Putonghua is: ‘the
standard form of modern Chinese with the Beijing phonological system as its norm of
pronunciation, and Northern dialects as its base dialects, and looking to exemplary
modern works in biahua ‘vernacular literary language’ for its grammatical norms’ (Chen,
1999:24). Standard Chinese has been the official language of China for a few decades. It
is used in schools and universities and on national radio and television broadcasts. In this
paper, Chinese or Mandarin (Standard Chinese) is used interchangeably.
CHINESE ALPHABETICAL WRITING AND PINYIN
Mandarin is written in Chinese characters, but characters do not provide consistent
information about pronunciations. In general, pronunciation cannot be derived from
looking at Chinese characters, although sometimes characters with common parts have
similar pronunciation. Unlike most languages, Chinese characters are not primarily
phonetic, and certainly not alphabetic, but pictographic or ideographic (displaying
combinations of pictures or symbols to convey meaning) like ancient Egyptian
hieroglyphics. Hence there has needed to be a way of representing in writing the
pronunciation of each character when teaching the language. Therefore, Mandarin is
typically studied via a transcription. Many transcription systems have been devised for
Mandarin Chinese in China and in the West. Most of these are based on the Roman
alphabet, and are therefore termed ‘romanization’ systems.
According to Ni (1948), the first alphabetical writing system for Chinese was designed by
the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci and published in 1605 in Beijing (but the record was
lost). Subsequently, other missionaries designed various other alphabetical systems, often
to aid foreigners to learn Chinese. Before pinyin was developed there were other systems
for writing the pronunciation of Chinese words using English alphabet. The most notable
is the Wale-Giles system, settled in 1892. However, since the standardization of the
Chinese language in the latter half of the century, many of the pronunciations that these
old systems represent are no longer valid in China. For example Peking used to be a way
to pronounce China’s capital, but now in China, it is pronounced Beijing. While
superceded in China, some of these old pronunciations are still in common use around the
world.
Alphabetical writing did not attract the attention of Chinese intellectuals until after the
Opium War (1840-1842). Many proponents of language reform around the turn of the
nineteenth century believed that alphabetical writing was a key to the strength of a
modern nation. Therefore, besides proposing a standard spoken language, they also
proposed to establish an alphabetical writing system. The first Chinese design was
published by Gangzhang Lu in 1892. The system adopted by the Republic of China
(Taiwan) in 1928 is called Guoyu Luomazi ‘National Language Romanization’. The
system adopted by the People’s Republic of China in 1958 is called Hanyu Pinyin
Fang’an ‘Chinese Spelling System’ or ‘Pinyin’ for short. A main difference between the
two systems is that Guoyu Luomazi uses letters to spell tones, whereas Pinyin marks
tones with separate diacritics. In this paper, the interest is only on Pinyin.
Pinyin means to join together, or spell out, sounds. Pinyin was developed for Chinese
speakers and those learning Mandarin Chinese pronunciation, and is an efficient was of
representing Mandarin Chinese sounds with the Roman alphabet. It serves the purpose as
the International Phonetic Symbols used in dictionaries to show how English words are
pronounced. It was first approved by the Chinese government in 1958, and the
International Organization for Standardization adopted it as a word standard in 1982.
Since 1958, the Pinyin system has become very useful for foreigners to learn to speak
Mandarin Chinese and it is now most widely adopted by teachers instructing foreign
students in Chinese. The success of Pinyin overseas is partially because of its similarities
with English letters that make it much easier for students who already know English not
only to commit the Chinese phonetic symbols to memory, but also to type Chinese text
into English-enabled computers (Sun, 2006: 22). It is obvious that Pinyin was not
developed for the English-speaking world. This is in evidence whenever English speakers
try to pronounce Pinyin words without any previous study. About half the time, letters in
Pinyin represent different sounds from what they would in a typical English word, and
most of the time the vowels have peculiar sounds. Pinyin is a system of Romanization
(phonetic notation and transliteration to Roman script) for Mandarin Chinese based on
the Mandarin dialect of the Beijing area used in the People’s Republic of China. While
Pinyin uses the Latin alphabet (Roman), it should be kept in mind that it represents the
sounds of Mandarin, not of English or any other language.
INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET (IPA)
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation
based primarily on the Latin alphabet. It was devised by the International Phonetic
Association as a standardized representation of the sounds of oral language. The
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is designed to represent only those qualities of
speech that are part of oral language: phones, phonemes, intonation, and the separation of
words and syllables. To represent additional qualities of speech, such as tooth gnashing,
lisping, and sounds made with a cleft palate, an extended set of symbols called the
Extensions to the IPA may be used (MacMahon, 1996:821).
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols are composed of one or more
elements of two basic types, letters and diacritics. For example, the sound of the English
letter ⟨t ⟩may be transcribed in International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) with a single letter,
[t], or with a letter plus diacritics, [t̺ʰ], depending on how precise one wishes to be. Often,
slashes are used to signal broad or phonetic transcription; thus, /t/ is less specific than,
and could refer to, either [t̺ʰ] or [t], depending on the context and language.
In 1886, a group of French and British language teachers, led by the French linguist Paul
Passy, formed what would come to be known from 1897 onwards as the International
Phonetic Association. One of the first activities of the Association was to produce a
journal in which the contents were printed entirely in phonetic transcription. The idea of
establishing a phonetic alphabet was first proposed by Otto Jespersen (1869-1943) in
1886, and the first version of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) was published in
August 1888. Its main principles were that there should be a separate letter for each
distinctive sound, and that the same symbol should be used for that sound in any
language in which it appears. The alphabet was to consist of as many Roman alphabet
letters as possible, using new letters and diacritics only when absolutely necessary. These
principles continue to be followed today. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) has
been modified and extended several times, and is now widely used in dictionaries and
text-books throughout the world (Crystal, 1997: 160).
According to MacMahon (1996:822), since International Phonetic Alphabet’s creation, it
has undergone a number of revisions. After major revisions and expansions in 1900 and
1932, the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) remained unchanged until the IPA Keil
Convention in 1989. A minor revision took place in 1993 with the addition of four letters
for mid-central vowels and the removal of letters for voiceless implosives. The alphabet
was last revised in May 2005 with the addition of a letter for a labiodentals flap. Apart
from the addition and removal of symbols, changes to the International Phonetic
Alphabet (IPA) have consisted largely in remaining symbols and categories and in
modifying typefaces.
PHONOLOGY OF MANDARIN CHINESE
Chinese phonology has been studied for over 1,700 years since the appearance of the first
rhyming books in the third century. This tradition can be divided into three periods:
traditional literature before the twentieth century, the standardization effort in the
twentieth century, and the generative influence since the late 1950s (Duanmu, 2007:6).
Phonology of Mandarin Chinese consists of initials (consonants), finals (vowels), and
tones.
There is disagreement among linguists and scholars on the number of Mandarin
consonant sounds. Some authors agree that Mandarin consonant sounds are twenty one
(21) while others disagree, saying it is only nineteen. According to Duanmu (2007:23),
“Standard Chinese has nineteen consonants. In addition, there are three palatals and some
syllabic consonants”. For Eme & Odinye (2008:30), “The consonants of Chinese
comprise six plosives, two nasals, five fricatives, six affricates, one lateral approximant
and these sum up to twenty-one consonants”. In this paper, I will go along with Eme &
Odinye (2008) in presenting twenty-one (21) consonant sounds of Mandarin. Below are
the consonant sounds of Mandarin Chinese in Pinyin.
Unaspirated Aspirated Nasal Voiceless
fricative
Voiced
fricative
Labial b p m F
Alveolar d t n l
Velar g k H
Palatal j q X
Dental
sibilant
z c S
Retroflex zh ch Sh r
Table 1: Mandarin consonant sounds in pinyin
There is equally a controversy over the number of vowels in Mandarin Chinese
phonology. Some linguists agree on six (6) main vowels, while others agree on five (5)
vowels. There are other linguists who think it is lesser than five vowels. A linguist says
that Mandarin Chinese has no vowel. According to Duanmu (2007:35), “if we exclude
the two ‘apical vowels’ and the retroflex vowel, standard Chinese has five vowel
phonemes”. Wang (1993) suggests that the high vowels are glides; if so there are just
vowels in Mandarin Chinese. Pulleyblank (1984) suggests that [i,y,u] are glides, [ə] is
not specified at the underlying level, and [ɑ] is a pharyngeal glide instead of a vowel. If
so, standard Chinese has no vowel at all. In this paper, I present six main vowel sounds in
Mandarin Chinese. See the table below:
Vowel sounds in pinyin Description
a Low
e Central
o Mid-back
i High-front
u High-back
ü High-front
Table 2: Mandarin main vowel sounds in pinyin
Mandarin Chinese finals (vowels) can be divided into: six simple finals (a,e,i,o,u,ü),
thirteen compound finals (ai, ao, ei, ia, iao, ie, iou, ou, ua, uai, üe, uei, uo), sixteen nasal
finals (eight front nasals: an, en, ian, in, uan, üan, uen, ün; eight back nasals: ang, eng,
iang, ing, iong, ong, uang, ueng). The initial (consonants) and final (vowels) sounds make
a total of fifty-six (56) basic sounds. Combinations of initials and finals plus the special
cases result in 411-413 possible combinations. Applying the four tones of Mandarin
Chinese to this, we get a total of around 1,600 unique syllables.
Chinese is a tonal language. At the supra-segmental level involving the entire syllable
rather than a single phone, there are four basic tones, as well as a short and weak neutral
tone in standard Chinese. The most frequently used system in describing Chinese tones is
scale of five pitch levels developed by YR Chao in 1930 (Sun, 2006:39). Below is the
table of Mandarin Chinese tone.
Table 3: Mandarin Chinese tones
MANDARIN CHINESE SOUNDS: PINYIN VERSUS IPA
Phonetic transcription is important factor to consider when talking or teaching Mandarin
Chinese. In the case of English, there is usually a certain degree of resemblance between
the alphabetic-based orthographical form of a word. In the Mandarin Chinese, however,
there is no connection between the logographic system and the phonetic symbols
normally used to transcribe Western languages. Although International Phonetic
Alphabet (IPA) has developed a set of symbols which aim to describe all human
languages including Chinese, many symbols for the Chinese sounds are difficult to learn
and inconvenient to type. This is where the pinyin system comes in (Shei, 2014:3). Pinyin
is a Romanized system which represents Mandarin Chinese sounds in a convenient way.
Pinyin is also used to type Chinese characters as it is compatible with the English-based
computer keyboard. Heselwood (2013) call pinyin a ‘pseudo-transcription’. It is not a
‘real’ phonetic transcription system, nor is it a ‘real’ orthographic system, but it does
carry out both functions in a partial sense. Pinyin is currently the most popular tool for
encoding Mandarin Chinese sounds for language learners, who can use pinyin to learn the
Chinese sounds, to read Chinese text and later to key in the Chinese characters which
they learn (Shei, 2014:3)
The table below shows a good one-to-one correspondence between the Mandarin Chinese
Pinyin and IPA symbols in both initials (consonant sounds) and finals (vowel sounds).
The table also shows the similarities and differences between the IPA and Pinyin symbols
for the Mandarin Chinese consonant and vowel sounds.
Pinyin b p m f d t n l g k h j q x z C s zh ch sh r
IPA [p
]
[pʰ
]
[m
]
[f
]
[t
]
[tʰ
]
[n
]
[l
]
[k
]
[kʰ
]
[x
]
[tɕ] [tɕʰ
]
[ɕ] [ts
]
[tsʰ
]
[s
]
[tʂ
]
[tʂʰ
]
[ʂ
]
[ɻ]
Table 4: Mandarin Chinese consonant sounds in both Pinyin and IPA
Tone Marking Pitch value Description
1st mā 55 High level tone
2nd má 35 High rising tone
3rd mǎ 214 Falling rising tone
4th mà 51 Falling tone
5th ma Neutral tone
Pinyin a o e i u ü ai ao ei ia iao ie Iu ou ua uai üe ui uo
IPA [a] [ɔ] [ ]ə[i] [u] [y] [i̯a] [ɑʊ̯][eɪ̯] [i̯a] [i̯ɑʊ̯][i̯ɛ
]
[i̯oʊ̯] [oʊ̯] [u̯a] [u̯aɪ̯] [y̯œ] [u̯nə
]
[u̯ɔ]
Pinyin an en ian in uan üan un ün ang eng iang ing Iong ong uang ueng -i -i er
IPA [an] [ nə
]
[i̯ɛn
]
[in] [u̯an] [y̯ɛn
]
[u̯nə
]
[yn] [ɑŋ
]
[ ŋə
]
[i̯ɑŋ] [iŋ] [i̯ʊŋ] [ʊŋ] [u̯ɑŋ
]
[u ŋə
]
[ɿ] [ʅ] [əɹ]
Table 5: Mandarin Chinese vowel sounds in both Pinyin and IPA
CONCLUSION
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) could be used to represent Mandarin Chinese
pronunciation, but it requires a good knowledge of the symbols. Though it is more
efficient and foolproof than trying to mimic Chinese sounds with an intuitive
combination of English letters, it is not easy to write, either by hand or typing. Therefore,
pinyin is a better system. Pinyin is a very useful tool to learn to get around China. The
Chinese people view their characters as the true Chinese written language, but pinyin can
be seen on many maps, road signs, and other notices. It is necessary to note, however,
that the Hanyu pinyin ‘Chinese spelling system’ is currently not used in place of Chinese
writing (character) in China. Instead, it is a Romanized system functioning to annotate
Mandarin Chinese pronunciation with Roman letters. Because Mandarin Chinese has a
large number of homophones, and because of the difficulty in defining the word in
Chinese, alphabetical system is not yet an independent working orthography.
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