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3.2: Pronunciation

  • Page ID
    89606
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    To get your vocal organs ready to pronounce Chinese, it is useful to contrast the articulatory settings of Chinese and English by pronouncing pairs of words selected for their similarity of sound. Thus kǎo ‘to test’ differs from English ‘cow’ not only in tone, but also in vowel quality.

    a) 

    kǎo cow
    hǎo how
    nǎo now
    chǎo chow [-time]
    sǎo sow['s ear]
    bǎo [ship's] bow

    b) 

    xìn sin
    qín chin
    jīn gin
    xìn seen
    jīn jean
    lín lean

    c) 

    shòu show
    zhōu joe
    sǒu so
    ròu row
    dōu dough
    tóu toe

    d) 

    paw
    bo[r]e
    mo[r]e
    duō doo[r]
    tuō to[r]e
    luō law

    e) 

    bízi beads
    lǐzi leads
    xízi seeds

     


    This page titled 3.2: Pronunciation is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Julian K. Wheatley (MIT OpenCourseWare) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.