Pinyin misunderstood - Part 1

 

What are some reasons why some people believe that pinyin in Mandarin is not useful?

The above was a question on Quora.

Jojo Dennis Lee answered as below:

Pinyin is hard to read and write specially for English and Spanish speaking people. This is because the letters that are used are pronounced differently. For example, 北京 which was originally named in English as Peking and later changed to Beijing to adopt to Pinyin. But the pronunciation is actually “Pei Ching” or “Pay Tsing”. Another example is 道 (Dào in Pinyin) which means road but is actually pronounced as Tao. There are no B, D, G, J, V, X, Z sounds in Mandarin.

Pinyin was designed for people in China who don’t speak English. But for people who already know English, it is confusing and will mispronounce it.

Luqman Michel:

I am an Indian from Malaysia who speak English, Malay and Tamil. I had no problem learning to read using Pinyin as the sounds are very similar to English.

I learned my Mandarin using free websites on the Internet. I believe I can speak at HSK level 4. I am now learning HSK 5 level by my own from free websites on the Internet.

I am not sure about there being no sounds B D G in Mandarin. Bie, Bi are exactly the same initial sounds as in English. Duo, Dan, is the same sound as in English for the initial letter. Etc.

Jojo Denis:

Obviously, because you already studied how to pronounce Pinyin. But for those who did not study Pinyin, they will definitely mispronounce it.

I am Chinese and my grandparents were born and raised in China. I studied Chinese in elementary and high school. You are a foreigner that means you are mispronouncing it, LOL.

Luqman Michel

I am not sure why you say I am mispronouncing it. You may like to take a look at one of my many posts on Pinyin. Read this and try understanding what I am saying and then we can move on from there. Pinyin Chart

Jojo Denis:

Your chart uses alphabets as pronunciation. Know that Chinese never used alphabets before, they were using Zhuyin for pronunciation which was just replaced in 1956 by Hanyu Pinyin. Show me the Chinese characters here, and I will give you the correct pronunciation the way it is read in English.

Luqman Michel

We all know that alphabets were used by China only in the 50’s to teach kids Hanyu Pinyin. Hanyu Pinyin uses alphabets. This replaced Zhuyin Fuhao. You give me the Chinese character or characters here and I will show you exactly how it is pronounced in the chart above.

Jojo Denia

Your chart is obviously pronounced wrong as you are using b, d, g, x, z. (note)

Ok then use your chart for this: 北京

Luqman Michel:

Exact pronunciation using the Pinyin chart. Click on the syllable bei and click on the 3rd tone. Then click on the syllable jing and click the first tone. Together it will sound bei3jing1 exactly as it should be sounded.

Jojo Denis:

Yes, the pronunciation is correct in the chart. But as I told you, the spelling is wrong and if an English speaker will pronounce it with the spelling, it would be wrong.

Luqman Michel

I am sorry if you want to keep at this the way you do. Hanyu Pinyin was implemented by China to get kids to read the way it is in the Pinyin chart.

If you want to pronounce it any other way than the way it was intended then I don’t have time for this discussion.

I wish you well.

Note: This is the mistake made by many teachers in China. they are teaching kids sounds of letters as was taught under Zhuyin Fuhao. Read my post at LINK