Chinese

Mandarin
Pronunciation
The Chinese Pinyin

Pinyin means “join together,

spell out” sounds.
Who is Zhou Yougang?

In 1950’s, a group of Chinese linguists

began work on a romanization system in
order to increase literacy. Soon, linguist
and sinologist Zhou Yougang produced a
major breakthrough: the Hanyu Pinyin.
People considered him to be the “father
of Pinyin”.
Pinyin as the Official Chinese
Writing System

On February 11, 1958, pinyin

officially replaced all other
romanization methods in China.
The Pinyin Tones

Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language

and it is said to have four main tones
and one neutral tone. Each tone has a
distinctive pitch contour.
Four Tones of Pinyin
Several Rules in Placing Tone
Marks:

1. When a syllable contains a

single vowel only, the tone mark is
placed above the vowel sound.
Ex. nǐ ， mǎ ， kè
Several Rules in Placing Tone
Marks

2. When a syllable contains two or

more vowels, the tone mark is
usually placed above vowels in the
order of a ， o ， e ， i ， u ， ü.
Ex. hǎo ， xiè ， ɡuān
Several Rules in Placing Tone
Marks

3. When a tone mark is placed

above the vowel “i” ， the dot
over it should be omitted.
Ex. nín ， jìn ， shī
Several Rules in Placing Tone
Marks

4. When “iu” or “ui” comes, the

tone mark should be placed above
the terminal vowel.
Ex. liú ， ɡuǐ
That’s all. Thank You.