Page 76 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

TRANSLITERATION AND PRONUNCIATION GUIDE

Transliteration is not an exact science, especially when applied to an alphabet other than
English.

Chinese words and names are transliterated with the standard pinyin [spelled phonetic
sound]; this is the official phonetic system of notation used by the People’s Republic of
China and has been since the 1950’s when it replaced the 19th century Wade-Giles
system. Wade-Giles is often still used in academia.

Using the pinyin system, the majority of consonants are pronounced the same as in
English. The exceptions are:

b is pronounced p ie: spit
c is pronounced ts ie: hats
d is pronounced t ie: stop
g is pronounced k ie: skate
h is pronounced ch ie: loch
q is pronounced ch ie: quán = chen
x is pronounced sh ie: cixi = tsishi
zh is pronounced j ie: junk
ch is pronounced ch ie: bench

pinyin vowel sounds:

a ah
e uh
i ee or ih [when preceded by c, s, sh or z]
o awe
u oo
ai eye
ei ay
ao ow
ou o
ui way
uai why
ia yah
ian yen
ie yeh