Pronunciation guide in Mandarin Chinese

a	mashang (ma3shang)
e	fei (fei1)
i	bingli (bing1li4)
o	duo, wo (duo1, wo3)
u	daolu, gongfu, guwu (dao4lu, gong1fu1, gu3wu4)
y	shenme, wo lai le (shen2me5, wo3 lai2 le5)
ai	lai, baicai (lai2, bai2cai4)
au	lao, zaogao (lao3, zao1gao1)
ei	Feizhou, Meiguo, Beijing
oi	fat choy in Cantonese (fa3 cai4)
ia	Yazhou, yazi, yangren (ya1zi, yang2ren2)
ie	liefeng, miewang (lie4feng1, mie4wang2)
ii	Yingguo", yi, yiwen (yi1, yi4wen2)
io	pengyou, niurou (peng2you3, niu2rou4 -> "nyou !)
iu	yonggong (yong4gong1)
ua	bagua (ba1gua4)
ue	wu + ye -> we
ui	Pu-yi (don't pron. the "y"!)
uo	Luoma (Rome)
uu	wubi (wu2bi3)
b	bubian, bingbao (bu2bian4, bing1bao2)
c	shawei, shan shang (sha1wei3, shan1 shang)
d	Datong, dongfang, dadao (dong1fang1, da3dao3)
f	fengshui, "fei long wu feng" (feng1shui3)
g	gaoliang, zaogao (gao1liang2, zao1gao1)
j
k	keren, kaikou (ke4ren2, kai1kou3)
l	"Aolung" ;-), lunliu (long2, lun2liu2)
m	mafan, mingmei (ma2fan4, ming2mei4)
n	Nanning, nengli, nongren (neng2li4, nong2ren2)
p	pinyin, heping (he2ping1)
r	ren, rang, ertong (ren2, rang2, er2tong2)
s	sanjiao, sangmenr, (san1jiao3, sang3menr2)
t	Tang, tebie (te4bie2)
v
x	hen hao!  ;-)
z

Correspondencies according to la gleki

Mandarin phonology (IPA)

	Labial	(Denti-)Alveolar	Retroflex		(Alveolo-)Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m	n̪				ŋ
Stop	pʰ p	t̪ʰ t̪				kʰ k
Affricate		t͡sʰ t͡s	ʈ͡ʂʰ ʈ͡ʂ		t͡ɕʰ t͡ɕ
Fricative	f	s	ʂ	ʐ~ɻ	ɕ	x
Approximant		l̪			(j) (ɥ)	(w)

Lojbanic phonology

	Labial	(Denti-)Alveolar	Retroflex		(Alveolo-)Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m	n, ni				[ŋ]
Stop	p b	t d				k g
Affricate		ts dz	tc dj		tsi dzi
Fricative	f [v]	s [z]	c	r j	si	x
Approximant		l			i ‘	u

[v] and [z] are present in Lojban but not in Mandarin.

Li'a vy fa'u zy na'e zasti sepa'u lo bancumunu ke sance ciste. I zo'oi ngy na'e zasti sepa'u lo jbobau ciste (to zo'oi ngy mintu ny toi).

Discussion

• There is no "real" r-sound in Putonghua phonology nor a "real" j-sound (is there a "real" r-sound in English?!).
  • There is the choice to represent Lojban r or j by the Chinese sound given as 'r' (in Pinyin) or 'j' (in W-G) respectively:
    • 'ri4' or 'jih4': "sun/day"
  • The sound described by these conventions is pronounced somewhat between American 'r' (in 'are' - this English word sounding pretty close to pinyin 'èr' or W-G 'erh⁴'!) and French génie, maybe comparable to the 'r-j' mix in the Czech composer's surname Dvořák but without the trill.
  • .aulun.:

    Maybe persuaded by the Pinyin convention, I usually hear this sound like American 'r', but - on my way across the whole country - I also would hear a native of Peking area pronounce his surname 'rén' as 'jen2' (W-G), i.e. much closer to the 'génie' initial. So what? I decided to take this Chinese (Putonghua) sound to represent Lojban 'r'.

  • .braiyn.:

    My Mandarin dictionary lists the pronunciation of Pinyin initial r as IPA "z-with-tail", which CLL explicitly lists as an allowed pronunciation of lojban j...

    • .aulun.:

      Yes, we're having the choice, as mentioned above. Yet, we only can take one to represent this phoneme, and i decided/proposed to take the 'r'.

  • .aulun.:

    There's a sound in Putonghua (represented by 'r' in pinyin) that - in my impression - seems to be closer to American 'r' than to Lojban j. But that is not the question, since the Chinese language is nontheless defective with regard to - at least - these two consonants: choose what you want to - and drop the other one respectively!

See also

• Pronunciation Guide Putonghua - with character code BIG5