TheChineseReader™

Nav → Mandarin Pinyin [ initials :: finals ]     Yale Cantonese [ initials :: finals ]

Below you will find tables for each romanization system, broken into initials and finals. A single sound is usually made by combining one sound from each table (though either alone sometimes works too.) Find each part of the sound that you are trying to lookup in its respective table.

Descriptions vs IPA: The descriptions of each sound are a 'best attempt' to relate the sound to a familiar english word or two, but they are by no means official or precise. For precision, refer to the IPA column, which utilizes the symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet to lay down exactly what it should sound like. But unless you are familiar with what an alveolar-fricative is, this may have a bit of a learning curve.

Multisound, single syllable: all chinese characters are one syllable, and some of the descriptions have multiple sounds strung together. These are all meant to break out the component sounds of a complex vowel progression that in truth is said in one fell swoop. For example, the "uah" in an evil vilan's "Muah ha ha ha!" could be described as 'the oo in cool + the a in father.' The two sounds are meant to be melded together in sequence.

Mandarin Pinyin is the most common standard for romanizing mandarin chinese. Though other systems exist (notably Taiwanese Hanyu Pinyin and Zhupin), pinyin made the most sense as a base for the site.

Tones Those familiar with chinese will know that it is a tonal language, meaning that the pitch-contour of a word is as important as the consonants and vowels that make it up. Mandarin in particular has four primary tones. Here is a brief description of how they work:

Cantonese is a very hard to romanize language. There are many systems out there which try, inconsistently, to lay down the sounds which are so unfamiliar to a western ear. The primary system in use in Hong Kong, in fact, is not the Yale version we choose here, but the Jyutpin (粵拼) system. We choose the Yale system for the site essentially becuase it is the most accessible to anyone trying to learn cantonese.

Tones The number of tones in cantonese is debated—6,7, some even say 9. It's a lot anyway you slice it. The Yale system differentiates 6. These tones may make the most sense visually, in the pitch chart to the right. In practice, they work like this (note the h added to the tone marked words for the lower tones):