Page 7 - EALC C306/505

III.3 Nasal finals (simple) -n -ng

Simple nasal final ‘n’ appears after a medial. Simple nasal final ‘ng’ may appear after medials
‘i’ or ‘u’ – in the latter case, the transcription of the medial changes to ‘o’.

III.4 Nasal finals (compound) an en ang -eng

Compound nasal finals are an analytic device that allows the preservation of the “three-medial”
model for Mandarin. These finals may follow a consonant initial directly or a medial (not all
combinations occur). The first three can also serve as independent syllables.

Follow these pronunciation rules:

an pronounced as ɑn (like English ‘upon’) after simple initials, but close to
ɛn (like English ‘pen’) after medials ‘i’ and ‘ü’.

en pronounced as ən (like English ‘sun’).

ang pronounced as ɑŋ (like English ‘ping-pong’ [not like ‘bang’]).

eng pronounced as əŋ (like English ‘lung’).

III.5 Lateral final er

In standard Mandarin, this is only used without initial and medial. It is a fusion of final ‘a’ and
a lateral ‘r’ (not retroflex ‘r’ – this is much closer to an English ‘r’ sound, and derived from a
common root with initial ‘n’ [thus: Chinese èr 二; Sino-Japanese ni]). The syllable is close to
English ‘are’. (‘Er’ is also used in contemporary northern Mandarin dialects as a reduction of
final ‘-ng’, but this is not relevant to Literary Chinese readings.)

Early 20 century Chinese phonetic 37-element “alphabet,” as pronounced,
th
rendered in pinyin:

Initials:
Bo Po Mo Fo | De Te Ne Le | Ge Ke He
Ji Qi Xi | ZHi CHi SHi Ri | Zi Ci Si

Finals:
A O E E(ɛ) | AI EI AO OU | AN EN ANG ENG | ER

Medials:
I U Ü

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