As you may recall from previous modules, the letter i represents different sounds in the Pinyin system. In this module, we will practice more on recognizing the sounds that i represents. Let’s start by listening to these exemplars:
Character and Pinyin | English Equivalent |
---|---|
chicken | |
lucky | |
self | |
mark | |
capital | |
vegetation | |
son | |
letter | |
to know | |
straight | |
only | |
to devote |
Did you hear any differences in the sound that i represents among the exemplars? In the syllables that start with j the i represents a sound similar to the the long “ee” sound in English words like sea, see, he, and she. But in the syllables that start with z and zh the sound is markedly different.
Following the consonants z and zh (as well as c, s, ch, sh and r) the position of the tongue for the i is not as far forward as it is when pronounced after j. It is in the middle of the mouth but the tongue is positioned high, creating what is called a high central unrounded vowel. In these syllables, the vowel is a natural continuation of the preceding consonant. Go back and listen to the exemplars and see if you can focus on this sound difference.
To non-linguists, the sound i makes after z and zh may not be recognized as a vowel at all, and there is no symbol in the Latin alphabet for the sound that i makes in this context. In fact, the developers of Pinyin actually added a vowel letter to these syllables because they wanted to conform to a rule that dictated that tone marks had to be placed above vowels. The developers reasoned that since the vowel usually represented by the letter i (the long “ee” sound) does not occur after z, c ,s, zh, ch, sh, and r, it would be possible to use the letter i to represent the (fake) vowel in those syllables.
Now listen to more exemplars using a variety of initials:
Character and Pinyin | English Equivalent |
---|---|
pen | |
leather | |
rice | |
low | |
lift | |
you | |
to stand | |
seven | |
to like | |
play | |
blemish | |
word | |
this | |
sting | |
silk | |
die | |
four | |
eat | |
late | |
ruler | |
red | |
poem | |
stone | |
to make | |
yes | |
sun |