Pronunciation guide in Chinese (Mandarin)-

a m'a'sh'a'ng (ma3shang)
e f'e'i (fei1)
i b'i'ngl'i' (bing1li4)
o du'o', w'o' (duo1, wo3)
u daol'u', g'o'ngf'u', g'u'w'u' (dao4lu, gong1fu1, gu3wu4)
y shenm'e', wo lai l'e' (shen2me5, wo3 lai2 le5)



ai l'ai', b'ai'c'ai' (lai2, bai2cai4)
au l'ao', z'ao'g'ao' (lao3, zao1gao1)
ei F'ei'zhou, M'ei'guo, B'ei'jing
oi fat ch'oy' in Cantonese (fa3 cai4)



ia 'Ya'zhou, 'ya'zi, 'ya'ngren (ya1zi, yang2ren2)
ie l'ie'feng, m'ie'wang (lie4feng1, mie4wang2)
ii 'Yi'ngguo", 'yi', 'yi'wen (yi1, yi4wen2)
io peng'yo'u, n'iu'rou (peng2you3, niu2rou4 -> "n'yo'u (!)
iu 'yo'nggong (yong4gong1)



ua bag'ua' (ba1gua4)
ue 'w'u + y'e' -> 'we'
ui P'u-yi' (don't pron. the "y"!)
uo L'uo'ma (Rome)
uu 'wu'bi (wu2bi3)



b 'b'u'b'ian, 'b'ing'b'ao (bu2bian4, bing1bao2)
c 'sha'wei, 'sh'an 'sh'ang (sha1wei3, shan1 shang)
d 'D'atong, 'd'ongfang, 'd'a'd'ao (dong1fang1, da3dao3)
f 'f'engshui, "'f'ei long wu 'f'eng" (feng1shui3)
g 'g'aoliang, zao'g'ao (gao1liang2, zao1gao1)
j -
k 'k'eren, 'k'ai'k'ou (ke4ren2, kai1kou3)
l "Ao'l'ung" ;-), 'l'un'l'iu (long2, lun2liu2)
m 'm'afan, 'm'ing'm'ei (ma2fan4, ming2mei4)
n 'N'a'nn'ing, 'n'engli, 'n'ongren (neng2li4, nong2ren2)
p 'p'inyin, he'p'ing (he2ping1)
r 'r'en, 'r'ang, e'r'tong (ren2, rang2, er2tong2)
s 's'anjiao, 's'angmenr, (san1jiao3, sang3menr2)
t 'T'ang, 't'ebie (te4bie2)
v -
x 'h'en 'h'ao! ;-)
z -


  • If you give me the unicode codepoints for these, I will try and include the Chinese characters. If any of the above are ü rather than u, please indicate.


Following the opinion mentioned by Nick and John (rather to give discernible contrasts than produce the character's exact Lojban value in the foreign language), which BTW I do share, I decided to also add an r-entry _or_ j-entry. Given that there is no "real" r-sound in Putonghua phonology nor a "real" j-sound (is there a "real" r-sound in English?!), we have the choice to represent Lojban R or' J by the Chinese sound given as 'r' (in Pinyin) or 'j' (in W-G) respectively ('rì' or 'jih4': "sun/day"). The sound described by these conventions is pronounced somewhat between American 'r' (in 'are' - this English word sounding pretty close to py 'èr' or W-G 'erh4'!) and French 'génie', maybe comparable to the r-j mix in the Czech composer's surname 'Dvorák' ('r' with 'hacek'!) - but without the trill! Maybe persuaded by the Pinyin convention, I usually hear this sound like American 'r', but - on my way across the whole country - I also would hear a native of Peking area pronounce his surname 'rén' as 'jen2' (W-G), i.e. much closer to the 'génie' initial. So what? I decided to take this Chinese (Putonghua) sound to represent Lojban 'r'. --.aulun.''

  • My Mandarin dictionary lists the pronunciation of Pinyin initial r as IPA z-with-tail, which CLL explicitly lists as an allowed pronunciation of lojban j... --mi'e .braiyn.
  • Yes, we're having the choice, as mentioned above, Yet, we only can take one to represent this phonem, and i decided/proposed to take the 'r'. --.aulun.
    • You're choosing to represent lojban 'r' with lojban 'j'? Well, to each his own... --braiyn
    • There's a sound in Putonghua (represented by 'r' in py) that - in my impression - seems to be closer to American 'r' than to Lojban {j}. But that is not the question, since the Chinese language is nontheless defective with regard to - at least - these two consonants: choose what you want to - and drop the other one repectively! --.aulun.


Pronunciation Guide Putonghua - with character code BIG5


Created by admin. Last Modification: Friday 30 of November, 2001 12:31:04 GMT by admin.