ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE IPA

Standard Chinese (Beijing)

Wai-Sum Lee
Phonetics Lab
Department of Linguistics, University of Hong Kong
wsleeba@hku.hk

Eric Zee
Phonetics Lab
Department of Chinese, Translation and Linguistics
City University of Hong Kong
ctlzee@cityu.edu.hk

The style of speech illustrated is that typical of the educated younger generation in Beijing.
The recording is that of a 25-year-old female graduate student who has lived all her life in
Beijing.

Consonants
Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Post-alveolar Palatal Velar

Plosive p ph t th k kh

Affricate ts tsh tS¡ tS¡ h tÇ tÇh

Nasal m n N

Fricative f s S¡ Ç x

Approximant w ®¡ j

Lateral
Approximant 1

p paâ ‘eight’ t taâ ‘to build’ k kØâ ‘song’

ph ph aâ ‘to lie prone’ th th aâ ‘he/she’ kh kh Øâ ‘subject’
m maâ ‘mother’ n naë ‘to include’ N aNâ ‘dirty’
f faâ ‘to send’ s saâ ‘to cast’ S¡ S¡ aâ ‘sand’ x xØâ ‘to drink’
ts tsaâ ‘to circle’ tS¡ tS¡ aâ ‘residue’
tsh tsh aâ ‘to wipe’ tS¡ h tS¡ h aâ ‘to insert’
Ç Çiaâ ‘shrimp’
tÇ tÇiaâ ‘to add’
tÇh tÇh iaâ ‘to nip off’
w waâ ‘frog’ l laâ ‘to pull’ ®¡ ®¡´nü ‘person’ j jaâ ‘duck’

Journal of the International Phonetic Association (2003) 33/1

C International Phonetic Association
DOI: 10.1017/S0025100303001208 Printed in the United Kingdom
110 Journal of the International Phonetic Association: Illustrations of the IPA

Syllabic consonants
® s ®â ‘to think’
" S¡ ®" â ‘poem’
"

Vowels
i iâ ‘clothes’ inâ ‘sound’
y yü ‘fish’ ynâ ‘dizzy’
a faâ ‘to send’ anâ ‘safe’
´ „ü ‘son’ ´nâ ‘favour’
u uâ ‘house’ xuNâ ‘bombing’
Ø Øü ‘goose’

Diphthongs
ai aiâ ‘sorrow’
au auâ ‘hollow’
ou ouâ ‘Europe’
uo S¡ uoâ ‘to speak’
ei xeiâ ‘black’
ye Çyeâ ‘boot’ Çyenâ ‘to announce’
ie Çieâ ‘some’ Çienâ ‘fresh’
ia Çiaâ ‘shrimp’ ÇiaNâ ‘fragrant’
ua xuaâ ‘flower’ xuanâ ‘merry’
u´ xu´nâ ‘marriage’
iu ÇiuNâ ‘chest’
Triphthongs
iau Çiauâ ‘to disappear’
uai S¡ uaiâ ‘to fall down’
iou Çiouâ ‘to rest’
uei xueiâ ‘ash’

Tones (citation forms)

[â] (high level) [paâ] ‘eight’
[ü] (mid to high rising) [paü] ‘to pull out’
[Ä] (mid to low to mid dipping) [paÄ] ‘to hold’
[ë] (high to low falling) [paë] ‘father’

Conventions
Consonants, syllabic consonants, vowels, diphthongs, and triphthongs
Syllable-initial [t, th , n] and syllable-final [n] are apico-laminal denti-alveolar; syllable-
initial [s, ts, tsh ] are apico-laminal or laminal denti-alveolar; syllable-initial [ S,¡ ®,¡ tS¡ , tS¡ h ] are
apical post-alveolar; syllable-initial [Ç] is lamino-anterodorsal post-alveolar or pre-palatal;
syllable-initial [tÇ, tÇh ] are apico-anterodorsal or lamino-anterodorsal alveolo-palatal; and
 W.-S. Lee & E. Zee: Standard Chinese 111

syllable-initial [l] is apical denti-alveolar or apical alveolar. [Ç, tÇ, tÇh ] occur only before [i]
or [y]. Voiceless syllable-initial obstruents often become voiced when the following rhyme
is associated with the neutral tone. [m] occurs only in syllable-initial position; [n] occurs in
both syllable-initial and syllable-final positions; and [N] occurs only in syllable-final position.
[w] has a free variant form of [√].
[ ®] occurs only in isolation or after [s, ts, tsh , S¡ , tS¡ , tS¡ h ]. [ ®] in isolation or when
following" "
[ S¡ , tS¡ , tS¡ h ] is a syllabic apical post-alveolar approximant; when following [s,
h
ts, ts ] it is a syllabic apico-laminal or laminal denti-alveolar approximant. Syllabic
apico-laminal or laminal denti-alveolar and syllabic apical post-alveolar approximants, oft-
en called apical vowels, occur only in open syllables.
Vowels [i, y, a, u] occur in open syllables as well as syllables closed by a nasal; [Ø] occurs
only in open syllables. In open syllables, [i, y, u] are about cardinal, [a] = [a], and [Ø] is
slightly diphthongized from [Ø] to [ø]. In syllables closed by a nasal, [i, y] are about ¯ cardinal,
[a] = [a6], and [u] = [U]. [´] is a plain mid-central schwa in syllables closed by a nasal; in open
syllables [´] is rhotacized, i.e. [„].
Diphthongs [ai, au, ou, uo, ei] occur only in open syllables; [ie, ia, ye, ua] occur in open
syllables and syllables closed by a nasal; and [u´, iu] occur only in syllables closed by a nasal.
[ai] = [aI], [au] = [a6 U], [ou] = [o™u], [uo] = [uo™], [ei] = [ei], [ie] = [iefl], [ye] = [yefl], [ua] = [u™a],
and [iu] = [iu™]. ¯
All triphthongs occur only in open syllables. In [iau, uai, iou, uei], [a] = [a6], [o] = [o™], and
[e] = [e].
A ¯rhyme which may be a monophthong, diphthong, triphthong, ‘vowel+nasal’, or
‘diphthong+nasal’ may undergo er-hua. er-hua refers to suffixation of a rhotacized subsyllabic
[„] to a rhyme, or to rhotacization of a vowel or a sequence of two vowels in a rhyme. In
the cases where the rhyme ends with [o], [Ø] or [u], the vowel is rhotacized, i.e. [o±], [ر] or
[u±], instead of the rhyme being suffixed with [„]; and in the cases where the diphthong or
triphthong ends with [i] or [e], [i] or [e] is deleted. Thus, [i, y, ®, a, u, Ø] → [i„, y„, ®„,
a„, u±, ر], respectively; [ie, ye, ai, ei, ia, ua, uo, ou, au] → [i„, y"„, a„, ´„, ia±„, ua±„, uo " ±,
ou±, au±], respectively; and [uai, uei, iou, iau] → [ua±„, u´„, io±u±, ia±u±], respectively. In the
cases where the rhyme ends with [n], the nasal ending is deleted. Thus, [in, yn, ´n, an] →
[i„, y„, ´„, a„], respectively; and [ien, yen, u´n, uan] → [i´„, y´„, u´„, ua±„], respectively.
And, in the cases where the rhyme ends with [N], the nasal ending is deleted and the rhyme
is nasalized. Thus, [iN, ´N, aN, uN] → [ı̃„˜ , ´˜ „˜ , ㄘ , ũ±], respectively; and [iaN, uaN, iuN] →
[ ı̃㱄˜ , ũ㱄˜ , ı̃ũ±], respectively.

Tones
[Ä] on monosyllables may realize as [ö] or [ö]+silence+[ï]. On compounds, [Ä] → [ü] before
another [Ä], and [Ä] → [ö] before [â, ü, ë] or the neutral tone; and optionally, [ü] → [â] after [â]
or [ü] and before any tone, and [ë] → [ÿ] or [â] before another [ë]. On a component syllable
of a compound, [â], [ü], [Ä] or [ë] may lose its citation form and become the neutral tone. The
pitch value for the neutral tone varies, depending mainly on the preceding citation tone. The
general rules are: (ö) when following [â], (ë) when following [ü], (î) when following [ö], or
(û) when following [ë].

Transcription of recorded passage

iouö iâ xueiü | peiö f´Nâ k´nâ th aië iaN(û) tS´Nâ ¡ tsaiÿ na„ë tS´Nâ
¡ lu´në Seiü
¡ d´(â)
p´nü liNö taë || S¡ uoâ dZ¡´(ö) S¡ uoâ tS¡ ´(ö) | laiü l´(â) iâ k´(ö) kuoÿ luë t´(û) | S´nâ
¡
S¡ aN(ö) tSh¡ uanâ l´(ö) iâ tÇienâ xouë ph auü ts®Æ(ë) || th aâ m´n(ö) liaNö tÇiou(î) SaNâ
¡
liaN(ö) xauö l´(î) | S¡uoâ | S¡eiü n´Nü Çienâ tÇiauë tS¡eië g´(û) kuoÿ luë t´(û) paö dfi aâ
t´(ö) ph auü ts®Æ(â) th uoâ Çiaë laiü | tÇiouâ suanë Z¡®Æ (û) th aâ d´(ö) p´nü liNö taë 
112 Journal of the International Phonetic Association: Illustrations of the IPA

peiö f´Nâ tÇiouë mauö tsuü l´(â) tÇi„ë | ph inâ miNë d´(û) tSh¡ ueiâ  kh Øö S®¡ Æ ë | th aâ
tSh¡ ueiâ d´(ö) yeÿ lië xai(û) | neië g´(û) ®¡´nü tÇiouë baö th aâ d´(ö) ph auü ts®Æ (ë)
kuoö d´(î) yeë tÇinö  tauâ muoë lia±u±Ä | peiö f´Nâ meiü tS¡ Øü l´(ë) | tS¡®Æ ü xauö
tÇiou(î) suanë l´(û)  iâ xu´„ë | th aië iaN(û) tSh¡ uâ lai(ö) iî S¡aië | neië g´(û)
®´¡ nü maö SaNë
¡ tÇiou(î) baö ph auü ts®Æ (â) th uoâ l´(ö) Çiaë lai(û)  suoü iö | peiö
f´Nâ puë d´(û) puë tSh¡ ´Nü ®¡´në | xaiü S®¡ Æ (â) th aië iaN(û) piö th aâ d´(ö) p´nü liNö taë

Orthographic version

Notes
1. The palatographic and linguagraphic data collected by the authors of this study from
the native speakers of Beijing, male and female, in their early twenties show that there are no
retroflex sounds in their speech.
2. [®¡], an apical post-alveolar approximant, in this study was transcribed as [Ω ], represent-
ing a voiced apical pre-palatal fricative in Karlgren (1915–1926) and as [®], representing a
retroflex approximant in Chao (1968).
3. [ S¡ , tS¡ , tS¡ h ], apical post-alveolar fricative and affricates, in this study were trans-
cribed as [ß, úß, úßh ], representing apical pre-palatal fricative and affricates in Karlgren (1915–
1926) and as [ß, tß, tßh ], representing retroflex fricative and affricates in Chao (1968).
4. [ ®], a syllabic apico-laminal or laminal denti-alveolar approximant when following [s,
ts, tsh ], "in this study was transcribed as [ę], representing an apical alveolar vowel in Karlgren
(1915–1926) and as [zÆ ], representing a syllabic voiced dental fricative in Chao (1968).
5. [ ®], a syllabic apical post-alveolar approximant when following [ S¡ , tS¡ , tS¡ h ] or in isolation,
"
in this study was transcribed as [ğ], representing an apical post-alveolar vowel in Karlgren
(1915–1926) and as [ ®], representing a syllabic retroflex approximant in Chao (1968).
6. The non-IPA symbols, " [ę] and [ğ], representing the ‘apical vowels’ in the Peking
(Beijing) dialect first appeared in Karlgren (1915–1926) and are widely used by the linguists
in China.

References
CHAO, Y.-R. (1968). A Grammar of Spoken Chinese. Berkeley: University of California Press.
KARLGREN, B. (1915–1926). Etudes sur la phonologie chinoise. Leyde: E.-J. Brill.