A Very Short Primer on Pronouncing Chinese*

When Gwen Moore decided to help poor children in Guizhou Province in China, she did not know how to pronounce the name of the province. Neither could she pronounce Luodian, the county where the children she had pledged to help lived, nor the names of the people she was to meet.

In the mid-1950s, the Chinese National People's Congress adopted pinyin as the method of teaching Mandarin Chinese pronunciation.** Pinyin literally means "spelled sound." A tone, or pitch, is added to indicate the spoken meaning of a character or set of characters. Even though romanized, the letters in pinyin do not have the same sound as they do in English as illustrated below.

An excellent resource to begin to understand the Chinese language is I Can Read That! A Traveler's Introduction to Chinese Characters by Julie Mazel Sussman (SF: Chinese Books & Periodicals, 1996).

Pronunciation Guide

Fund-Related Words (transliteration of pinyin)
~Guizhou, the province—"gway-joe"
~Guiyang, the capital of the province—"gway-yahoong"
~Luodian, the county where the Fund focuses its work—"low-dee-an"

Vowels & Dipthongs***
a—a, as in are and father
ao—ow, as in how and down
e—a, as in about and ago
ei—a, as in cake and say
i—i, as in sit and it
ia/ie—ye, as in yes and yet
o—aw, as in saw and all
ou—o, as in go and note
u—oo, as in too
uo—oo+aw, as in war

Consonants***
c—a little like ch, as in church, but tongue touches lower front teeth
ch—ch, as in church and chain
g—g, as in girl and go
j—j, as in jam and jump, but softer and tongue touches lower front teeth
q—tch
y—y, as in yes and yet
z—like j, but softer
zh—j, as in jam and jeans