Help:IPA/Mandarin

This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of Mandarin on Wikipedia.

It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Mandarin in Wikipedia articles, and example words that illustrate the sounds that correspond to them. Integrity must be maintained between the key and the transcriptions that link here; do not change any symbol or value without establishing consensus on the talk page first.

For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Shortcut

H:IPA-CMNH:IPA-CMN

The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Standard Mandarin pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see {{IPA}}, Template:IPA and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters. To use the below key in {{IPA}}, use ISO 639-3 code cmn (Mandarin Chinese).

See Standard Chinese phonology for more detail on the sounds of Mandarin Chinese.

Consonants
IPA	Pinyin	Wade–Giles	Bopomofo	Chinese example	English approximation
ɕ	x	hs	ㄒ	晓/曉/xiǎo^ⓘ	sheep,^[a] but more y-like (without lip rounding)
f	f		ㄈ	非/fēi^ⓘ	fan
j	y-/-i-		ㄧ	牙/yá^ⓘ	yes
k	g	k	ㄍ	干/gān^ⓘ	skin
kʰ	k	k'	ㄎ	口/kǒu^ⓘ	kin
l	l		ㄌ	来/來/lái^ⓘ	leaf
m	m		ㄇ	明/míng^ⓘ	moon
n	n		ㄋ，ㄣ，ㄢ	泥/ní^ⓘ	noon
ŋ	-ng		ㄥ，ㄤ	江/jiāng^ⓘ	song
p	b	p	ㄅ	帮/幫/bāng^ⓘ	span
pʰ	p	p'	ㄆ	滂/páng^ⓘ	pan
ʐ^[b]	r-	j	ㄖ	日/rì^ⓘ	pleasure, but with tongue curled or pulled back
s	s		ㄙ	私/sī^ⓘ	same
ʂ	sh		ㄕ	矢/shǐ^ⓘ	show, but without lip rounding and with tongue curled or pulled back
t	d	t	ㄉ	端/duān^ⓘ	stop
tʰ	t	t'	ㄊ	透/tòu^ⓘ	top
tɕ	j	ch	ㄐ	叫/jiào^ⓘ	cheap,^[a] but more y-like (without lip rounding)
tɕʰ	q	ch'	ㄑ	去/qù^ⓘ	Above, but with a strong burst of breath (aspiration)
ts	z	ts	ㄗ	子/zǐ^ⓘ	outset
tsʰ	c	ts'	ㄘ	此/cǐ^ⓘ	let's help
ʈʂ	zh	ch	ㄓ	之/zhī^ⓘ	Below, but unaspirated
ʈʂʰ	ch	ch'	ㄔ	吃/chī^ⓘ	cheer, but without lip rounding and with tongue curled or pulled back, with a strong burst of breath (aspiration)
w	w-/-u-		ㄨ	我/wǒ^ⓘ	water
x	h		ㄏ	火/huǒ^ⓘ	loch (Scottish English)
ɥ	yu-/-ü-^[c]	yü-/-ü-	ㄩ	月/yuè^ⓘ	between wet and yet

Vowels
IPA	Pinyin	Wade–Giles	Bopomofo	Chinese example	English approximation
a	a		ㄚ，ㄢ	阿，安	plastic (UK Received Pronunciation)
a	er	êrh	ㄦ	二，兒（儿）	plastic (UK Received Pronunciation)
ɑ	yang/-iang		ㄤ	亮	farther
ɛ	yan/-ian	yen/-ien	ㄧㄢ	言	set
ɛ	yuan/-üan		ㄩㄢ	元	set
e	ye/-ie, yue/-üe	eh	ㄝ	也，月	hey
ə	en,^[d] eng	ên, êng	ㄣ，ㄥ	本，冷	atop
ɚ	er	êrh	ㄦ	二，兒（儿）	furry^[e]
ɤ	e	ê / o^[f]	ㄜ	厄，餓	between bush and but
o	wo/-uo^[g]	o^[h]	ㄛ	果，我	story
i	yi/-i		ㄧ	李	city
ɻ̩	zhi, chi, shi, ri	ih	ㄭ^[i]	之，吃，師（师），日	Below, but with tongue curled or pulled back^[j]
ɹ̩	zi, ci, si	ŭ	ㄭ^[i]	子，次，私	roses, cousin
u	wu/-u		ㄨ	土	cool
ʊ	-ong	-ung	ㄨㄥ，ㄩㄥ	冬，用	book
y	yu/-ü^[c]	yü/-ü	ㄩ	雨	refute, beet, but with the lips rounded as for boot
Diphthongs
aɪ	ai		ㄞ	艾	time
aʊ	ao		ㄠ	凹	cow
eɪ	ei^[d]		ㄟ	杯	face
oʊ	ou^[d]		ㄡ	又，狗，歐（欧）	goal or go (modern UK), realized with or without backing

Tones
IPA	Pinyin	Wade–Giles	Bopomofo	Chinese example	Tone number	Description
á	ā	a¹	ㄚ	巴/bā^ⓘ	tone 1	high level [˥]
ǎ	á	a²	ㄚˊ	拔/拔/bá^ⓘ	tone 2	mid rising [˧˥]
à	ǎ	a³	ㄚˇ	把/bǎ^ⓘ	tone 3	medially, low [˩]; initially, mid falling [˧˩]; finally, low rising [˩˧]; in isolation, dipping [˧˩˧]
â	à	a⁴	ㄚˋ	爸/bà^ⓘ	tone 4	high falling [˥˩]
a	a	a⁰	˙ㄚ	吧/ba^ⓘ	tone 0 or 5 (toneless)	mid [˧] after all tones but 4, where it is low [˩]
Note: Pinyin uses three of the same diacritics as IPA but with different values.

Notes

1 2 [ɕ, tɕ, tɕʰ] are always followed by [i] [j], [y], or [ɥ].
↑ Also transcribed as ɻ in some literature.
1 2 ü (/y/) is spelled u after j, q, x in pinyin since /u/ cannot occur after them.
1 2 3 In Pinyin/Wade-Giles wei, you/yu, wen/wên are spelled ui, iu, un respectively when they are preceded by a consonant. It doesn't affect the pronunciation.
↑ The rhotic vowel also appears in erhua.
↑ This sound is spelled ⟨o⟩ after ⟨k, k', h⟩ in Wade-Giles.
↑ This sound is spelled ⟨o⟩ after ⟨b, p, m, f⟩ in Pinyin.
↑ ㄨㄛ is spelled as ⟨o⟩, except for ⟨k, k', h, sh⟩ (as ⟨kuo, k'uo, huo, shuo⟩) in Wade-Giles.
↑ This symbol is rarely used and usually omitted during writing.
↑ Voiced continuants (also transcribed [ɨ, ɯ] or [ʐ̩, z̩]) reflecting the character of the preceding consonant^{[clarification needed]}

References

Duanmu, San (2007). The Phonology of Standard Chinese (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lee, Wai-Sum; Zee, Eric (2003). "Standard Chinese (Beijing)" (PDF). Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 33 (1): 109–112. doi:10.1017/S0025100303001208.
Lin, Yen-Hwei (2007). The Sounds of Chinese. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

External links

Chinese Phonetic Transcription Converter—Free Online Tool to convert Chinese Text to Pinyin and International Phonetic Transcription

[palatal-1] 1 2 [ɕ, tɕ, tɕʰ] are always followed by [i] [j], [y], or [ɥ].

[r_sym-2] Also transcribed as ɻ in some literature.

[v-3] 1 2 ü (/y/) is spelled u after j, q, x in pinyin since /u/ cannot occur after them.

[short_form-4] 1 2 3 In Pinyin/Wade-Giles wei, you/yu, wen/wên are spelled ui, iu, un respectively when they are preceded by a consonant. It doesn't affect the pronunciation.

[5] The rhotic vowel also appears in erhua.

[eo-6] This sound is spelled ⟨o⟩ after ⟨k, k', h⟩ in Wade-Giles.

[py-o-7] This sound is spelled ⟨o⟩ after ⟨b, p, m, f⟩ in Pinyin.

[wg-o-8] ㄨㄛ is spelled as ⟨o⟩, except for ⟨k, k', h, sh⟩ (as ⟨kuo, k'uo, huo, shuo⟩) in Wade-Giles.

[rare_sym-9] This symbol is rarely used and usually omitted during writing.

[10] Voiced continuants (also transcribed [ɨ, ɯ] or [ʐ̩, z̩]) reflecting the character of the preceding consonant^{[clarification needed]}

[a]

[b]

[c]

[d]

[e]

[f]

[g]

[h]

[i]

[j]

v t e International Phonetic Alphabet keys
Abkhaz Acehnese Adyghe Afrikaans Albanian Altai Amharic Arabic Modern Standard Egyptian Hejazi Lebanese Tunisian Armenian Assamese Asturian Australian languages Aymara Azerbaijani Bashkir Basque Belarusian Bengali Berber Bislama Bosnian Breton Bulgarian Burmese Catalan Standard Insular Chamorro Chinese Mandarin Cantonese Hokkien Jin Wu Xiang Corsican Croatian Czech Danish Dari Dutch Dzongkha English Old English Emilian-Romagnol Esperanto Estonian Extremaduran Fijian Finnish Franco-Provençal French Galician Georgian German Standard Alemannic Colognian Greek Greenlandic Gujarati Guadeloupean Creole Haitian Creole Hawaiian Hebrew Hindi Hmong Hungarian Icelandic Igbo Indonesian Inuktitut Inupiaq Irish Isan Italian Central Japanese Kannada Kazakh Khmer Korean Kurdish Kyrgyz Lakota Lao Latin Latvian Laz Ligurian Lithuanian Lombard Luxembourgish Macedonian Maithili Malagasy Malay Malayalam Maldivian Maltese Manx Māori Marathi Marshallese Mauritian Creole Mayan Mongolian Montenegrin Mirandese Nahuatl Navajo Neapolitan Nepali Northern Thai Norwegian Occitan Odia Okinawan Old Church Slavonic Ossetian Pashto Persian Piedmontese Polish Portuguese Punjabi Quechua Romanian Romansh Russian Samoan Sanskrit Sardinian Scottish Gaelic Serbo-Croatian Shan Sicilian Sinhala Slovak Slovene Somali Sorbian Spanish Swahili Swazi Swedish Sylheti Tagalog Tahitian Tai Lue Tajik Tamil Tatar Telugu Thai Tibetan Tigrinya Tok Pisin Tongan Turkish Turkmen Tuvaluan Tuvan Ukrainian Urdu Uzbek Uyghur Venetian Vietnamese Walloon Welsh West Frisian Xhosa Yiddish Yoruba Zhuang Zulu
Comparisons	IPA conventions for English English dialects Wikipedia pronunciation respelling Other English pronunciation respellings
Introductory guides	Symbols For English speakers Manual of Style: Pronunciation

This page was redesigned at the edge.

A page that knows where it met you.

Help:IPA/Mandarin

See also

Notes

References

External links