Zodiac Notes

| Intro | Systems | Characters | Phonetic Guides | Grammar | Common Idioms |
Phonetic Guides
Before PinYin and ZhuYin there was peace in the Chinese land of Sound. Whenever there was a word in doubt, one simply approached the local scholar. Books also came with in-line annotations, including not only witty phrases but also pronounciation help for those obscure words. How did these pronounciation guides work? Some had a simple character of the same sound. Others used a combination of two characters, such that the consonant of one and the vowel of the other made the correct pronounciation.
After the end of dynastic rule in 1911, China ached to be more like the stronger Western countries, and believed that developing a pronounciation system will speed up the learning process. The Phonetic system barged into the land of Sound. First there were the consonants: b,p,m,f, d,t,n,l, g,k,h, j,q,x, zh,ch,sh,r, z,c,s. Then came the vowels: a, o, e, i, u, ü. Finally came the compound vowels: ai, ei, ao, ou, an, en, ang, eng, ong.
Letters
First, don't be scared. Most of the consonants sound the same as in English. The only difference is that "v" doesn't exist, and ü does. Just keep in mind that: g and k are hard consonants, j and c are soft. And here are the other "weird" ones:

consonant sounds like pronounciation

qi chee pronounce the "ch" in "cheat", but slightly purse your lips

xie sheh pronounce "shhhhh", but don't purse your lips

sha schah like the "sh", in "Welsh" or the "Sch" in "Schwartz".

ri rrrr a guttural, hard 'r'

Now, the vowels:

vowel sounds like pronounciation

a ah

o o

e uh pronounce "uh", bring it up an octave, now smile.

i eee

u oooo

ü pronounce "yee", but purse your lips.

Finally, there are a series of compound vowels.

compound sounds like pronounciation

ai eye

ei ay the "ay" in "pay"

ao ow

ou oh

an like "an" with a British accent.

en 'n "en" with less "e" sound to it.

in ing like the "ing" in "playing"

ang awn with a little more guttural at the end.

eng 'n like "en", but with a little more guttural at the end.

ing ying like "in", but with a little more guttural at the end.

ong own

These can then be added to another vowel, but then it's like pronouncing both of them. For example, "iong" is just pronouncing "i", and then "ong".
Tones
There are four tones in Chinese, and they are: even (-), lift (/), dip(\/), and fall (\). There is also the state of having no tones at all, just short and light. They basically look like how they sound.

tone when used sound

even (-) la- long, high, even pitch. Like singing "laa.." or saying "um...."

lift (/) huh? short, ascending pitch. Like asking a question.

dip (\/) uh-huh pitch dips. Like nodding and agreeing to something.

fall (\) yeah! short, descending pitch. Like barking out a command or exclamation.