3. Pinyin (Initial Consonants : c, zh, ch, sh, r)

[jrjvg]

simple for me... ;) zh=ž, ch=č, sh=š r=r LOL

[Guillhez]

@podcastyou00 some sources state that the "r" sound can be retroflex approximant [ɻ], a voiced retroflex fricative [ʐ] AND a voiced alveolo-palatal fricative [ʑ] ... Is this right? Is it dialectal? Or are these variations just a nuance and make no difference?

[roble14]

It's really hard!! I cannot see the diference among zh, ch, sh ...

[spin2knitnweave]

@roble14 It took me awhile to get it too... Just keep practicing :) You'll get it

[TakeADumpOnUrChest]

@roble14 they seem to begin with sh and ch sounds, i agree man, this is fockin nutz

[TakeADumpOnUrChest]

@roble14 its so obvious, they sound the same but they start with "dge" "ch" "sh" duh

[E24M6shark]

Interesting lesson. VancouvWA obviously needs to see a shrink and get a life.

[quisiera259]

is there someone who speaks spanish here?

[roble14]

@quisiera259 Yes, I do it.

[carrie7cq]

@quisiera259 yo sí

[TakeADumpOnUrChest]

@quisiera259 why the hell would you want to learn spanish? so you can speak to mexicans?

[VancouvWA]

Thank you for the lesson. Dr. Speakwell is obviously selling something or a crank.

[FarewelI]

Thank you for the lesson.

[DrSpeakwell]

I believe English is DIFFICULT to you as well. Just look at your spellings. They are pathetic.

[qaflah]

very difficul langue so you learn this langue your mind is finish this is very difficul langue sorry for learn

[DrSpeakwell]

In simplified Chinese, the "queen 后" becomes the "behind 後" and is also "thick 厚", the "face 面" becomes "noodle 麵", and "need 須" becomes "beard 鬚". Your kind offer to cook noodles for some one (我下麵給你吃) will turn into a lewd invitation to fellatio or cunnilingus (我下面給你吃) depending on if you are a male or female. Simplified Chinese are really for simpletons.

THEY MUST HAVE COMPLETELY LOST THEIR MINDS CONJURING UP the simplified Chinese

[DrSpeakwell]

In summary, for dilettants the Yale system is more natural and much better and bopomofo is the only way to go for enthusiasts because it was developed by native Chinese speakers for the native Chinese speakers using the pronunciation fundamentals of the Chinese language. The speaking of the Chinese language is the easiest part of learning the language. The modern Chinese (Mandarin) has ONLY 417 unique integrated utterances based on 59 phonemes specified using its 37 phoneme symbols.

[DrSpeakwell]

It is always important to remember that any approximation (using romanisation) is just an approxoimation, which can easily fool the speaker that Chinese (Mandarin) is a spelling language, which it is NOT. The Chinese pronunciations are integrated NOT sequential (like English, French, Spanish, etc.) This is exactly what a westerner's accent is about in speaking Chinese even though every phoneme is pronounced OK.

[DrSpeakwell]

Given the fact that both Yale and Pinyin are approximations to the true Chinese Mandarin pronunciation, one tend to trust the one developed by the native English speakers than that by the native Chinese (Mandarin) speakers, simply because the native English speakers know their own language better to approximation job. Pinyin in this case is a complete rubbish, because it was developed by native Chinese speakers who cannot even say proper English.

[loksinsan]

@goatpunch Sorry for all my typos.That tends to happen when i'm passionately typing in a hurry.

[loksinsan]

@goatpunch Same thing happened with the simplified chinese characters.The chinese government decided that in order to differentiate the mainland chinese from all the other "illegitimate chinese",they decided that a 2000 year history of learning traditional chinese writing was suddenly no good anymore...All these changes have nothing to do with linguistics,and everything to do with politics

[loksinsan]

@goatpunch And the E many times sounds closer to an A in english.I could go on and on with examples like this.Bottom line is that if the silly rules of pinyin would be dispensed with,english speakers would leran the language much quiker.I speak 6 languages,Cantonese included,and let me tell you,pinyin is a COMPLETE waste of time.It was enforced by the chinese government in 1958 as a means of asserting mandarin as the dominant force,and as a means of seperating the "real" chinese,from the others

[loksinsan]

@goatpunch And why is Z prounounced like DS or DZ just Z as in ZEBRA?.The other thing is that unlike Cantonese or other languages,there seems to be no consensus for pronounciation in mandarin.For instance,Most chinese pronounce the pinyin R as ZH as in the last part of the word PLEASURE.Others pronounce it more like a J as in JUST.Still very few prounounce close to what an actual R would be in english- such as RUN,REAL, or RIGHT. Even the vowels are confusing.The "i" pinyin sounds closer to "u"

[loksinsan]

@goatpunch I totally beg to differ.I agree that while Yale is not an exact equivalent to roman letter,it is much closer pinyin will ever be.Anyhow,i'm not suggesting we use Yale.How about just using the English sound that comes closest?.In the case of the pinyin "QING", why not write TSING,or CHING or DZING? It has nothing to do with the Q sound in english.When people see Q we think of words like QUIT, or QUIET.No where near the way it's pronounced in pinyin.

[loksinsan]

Sorry for all the typos

[loksinsan]

The Yale system of romanization has been used for ages for teaching cantonese.And it has proven itself to work extremely well.Probably because it is very close and at times identical with how someone in english would pronounce the letters.Let us not forget that the one of the main reasons pinyin is so popular has nothing to do with liguistics,and everything to do with politics.The chinese government introduced this system as`a means of seperating the "real" chinese from the "illegitimate' ones.

[goatpunch]

@loksinsan Neither Yale or pinyin are intrinsically better or worse than each other; both approximate English with some sounds, and both require rules to be memorised for sounds that can't be represented directly in English. Pinyin however is now a completely accepted standard, and so every minute spent learning another system is a minute wasted, even if pinyin were to take a few extra minutes to learn in the beginning.

[goatpunch]

@loksinsan Oh and by the way, Yale for Cantonese is closer to pinyin than it is to Yale Mandarin; Yale Mandarin was a hastily developed patch knocked together by the US Army during WWII, and it is a waste of your time to learn it.

[loksinsan]

No disrepect,but i think that pin yin only serves to confuse the english speaking person.Doesn't it make more sense to actually use the letters that actually approximate the english sound? For instance instead of using C as TS sound,why not just write TS? Instead of R for Z or DJZ sound as in the last part of the word PLEASURE,why not just use that? instead of Q sound for CH as in CHANGE,just use CH.It's much more practical and less confusing,and it will speed up progress.What do you think?

[goatpunch]

@loksinsan With the greatest respect, learning any system of romanisation system other than Pinyin is a complete waste of time for people learning Mandarin with simplified characters. Dictionaries, computer IMES, etc. are all accessible.

For your Q=CH example, there is already a pinyin sound CH, and it is distinct from Q. There is no way for a romanisation system to represent this difference, as it does not exist in English. Same for the difference between pinyin SH and X.

[Asvaghosa]

Intenational phonetic system symbol for r isnt proper it'd be retroflex alveolar ~ post alveolar approximant

[Apisyo]

You speak almost perfect English but you arr putting the emphasis on the wrong syllable of consonants. It is not conSUHnants, it is KON-suh-nuhnts.

[steve4123253526262]

Thank you, your video is really helpful :)

[SuperNEKO64]

holy shit

[DrSpeakwell]

Two different languages are like two different sports. You do not teach a soccer player to play basketball by using the fundamentals of soccer. JUST TEACH HIM BASKETBALL AND CONSTANTLY REMIND HIM TO FORGET ABOUT SOCCER.

[DrSpeakwell]

In a real spelling language, like English, the consonants can also be at the end of a pronunciation, such as the t,s in “cats”. In Mandarin, this is NOT true with the so-called consonants. And the so-called consonants in this video can each independently be a complete pronunciation, which is not true in a real spelling language, like English.

[DrSpeakwell]

The Chinese language is NOT a spelling language. There are NO consonants and Vowels in Mandarin. Instead, it has 37 phoneme symbols to represent the 59 phonemes used to generate 417 unique integral sounds w/ various tones. In a spelling language, like English, multiple consonants can be together and each giving out its own sound when pronouncing the word, like the s,p,r in “spring”. There is no such a thing in Mandarin with the so-called consonants.

[SUPERPOIIPOII]

thank you :)

[amayachoify]

You remind me of Gong Li. Thanks so much for the help!!

[9wheeloflight]

so very helpful thanks for posting



[panbora]

The first three sound like Serbian џ, ч, ш, but r seems to be something between flapping r and ж. Can anyone confirm this? It should be similar in other Slavic languages as well, I think.

[Mili3510]

@panbora Well, џ, ч and ш (dž, č, š) are similar to zh, ch and sh, but have to raise your tongue a little bit more to pronounce it. And so is with r. (Raise it up, and then say r)

[panbora]

@Mili3510

It works! :) Thanks a lot.

[AAmirkhanov]

There is something I don't understand about 'r'. Many times I hear it sounding like 'zh'(not Mandarin zh), or like the 's' in viSion. I speak Russian so I can easily say a 'zh/ж' sound, but sometimes the 'r' sounds like a normal 'r'. Will Chinese people understand if I pronounce the r like an r in English?

[dyld921]

@AAmirkhanov it's just a difference in dialect. In many dialects it's pronoun like a zh in english, but in beijing it's pronounced like a r :D

[JorEl7771]

The "r" is a little difficult. Are you saying the "r" with a "z" sound, like "zur"?

[BiReal]

Only the C is hard to pronounce in my case.

[0innavoig]

For Spanish is very difficult

thanks to the video

[Fnorder23]

I'm so glad I'm Polish, and all those sounds do exist in my native language!

[jemencode]

Hello 小千, actually, we have a few English equivalent for

ZH = Jerk

CH = Cheat, Chop

SH = Shoot, Shut

R = Roll

I really appreciate your lessons and refer them to my friends so they can understand how to speak Mandarin. Thanks! :)

[btkw]

@jemencode The pronunciation for 'zh' isn't the same as the j in 'jerk'. In 'jerk', it's kinda more emphasized, i would say as i do speak fluent mandarin.

[Routetosomewhere]

@jemencode

Not at all =O

Don't try to find equivalents for ZH, CH, SH, R in English because there just aren't any.

Trying to find equivalents in English and pronouncing the sounds as such will initially work out for you, but when you start to speed up your speaking people will find it hard to understand you plus you will stumble over your own words a lot.

Your Chinese will sound awkward and it will develop into a bad accent.

STOP relating Chinese to English, it is nothing like it

[jemencode]

@Routetosomewhere hi hi, i saw this reply real late. hardly do youtube. :) I'm a full-blooded Chinese and I speak/write both Chinese/English extremely well and I'm shocked with what you've said. Then there is no need to try to teach Mandarin in English. Haha. I'm not relating anything to anything, I'm "bridging" the phoenics between them and if you would repeat the 'Eng-equivalent' I've mentioned it is extremely close or same if you speak both languages well. Cheers! :)

[E24M6shark]

@jemencode

Singlish is not English. And the Chinese spoken in Singapore is hardly Mandarin.

Stop faking your knowledge about both languages, PLEASE.

[XiaoXiong96]

@Routetosomewhere you're right, Chinese is NOTHING like English! I don't know a single word with the zh, ch, sh, or r sounds... maybe there are some with sh and r but I can't think of any right now and I'm a native English speaker!

[MadM1968]

thank you very much it is very hard but i am trying keep the lessons coming.peace