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Pronunciation of te4bie2 特 别
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chris(普通话学生) -

Errrm perhaps I am unique but the Mandarin t often sounds a little like English p to me.

Especially Jenny from Chinesepod.



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achiese -

I did hear few people say "刻別" which has the same meaning as "特別".
I have no idea which dialect is that, I think it may be some northern mandarin.










Janedcm -

my review:
in mandarin, 特 its pronuncitation should be as "te" sound like the english letter t.
someone dont say it like tei or others , that is not mandarin.










inowhavea -

My theory:

Sound position diagram

[back of throat] ---[ch k]--------[en k]----[ch t]-------[en t]----- [front of mouth]

To an ear trained for english, the chinese "t" can sound more like the english "k". It all depends
on the distinguishable variance that the chinese t sound can have before becoming confused with
the chinese k. The english sounds are shifted forward, so the English k and and Chinese t "zones"
overlap.

Pinyin is only a representation of Mandarin sounds, using the English sound as a reminder or
mnemetic of what the actual sound is.

Hope this is helpful.










adrianlondon -

That "sound position diagram" is really useful!

Another sound I find very very hard to imitate (and all the Chinese people I speak with don't know
what I'm on about, and say "but your pronunciation is perfect!" is the "iyin" sound.

When they say 行, for example, the "i" has a sort of "y" in it. Not at the start, but right in
the middle of it. It kind of sounds like "shiyiing". I think it's a Beijing thing, but unlike the
er-hua, I really like it. Any tips? I can't seem to get it right.










ann_snow -

Adrianlondon

I will try to make it clear about your problem.
In Mandarin, 'x' sounds like 'c' in English. but when we pronounce it, we never prevent the
airflow like pronounce 'c' in English.

so '行' is 'xing' in pinyin, you can try it pronouce the 'x' first.










Gulao -

Adrianlondon:

Your question can be answered by looking at the zhuyin fuhao for the same sound structure. They
are: ㄒ一ㄥ. ㄒ means the x sound in Pinyin. 一 is the i/y sound. ㄥ is not "ing"; rather it
is eng. So what you're really looking at is "xieng." The "i" part of the sound is not a straight
vowel, but a diphthong, from high forward to neutral. This also illuminates the way words like
"xiong" are pronounced. This time, the the diphthong is rounded. Essentially, you say, "xieng",
but you round your lips like when saying "oo."

This is the same reason that you pronounce words like "hun" more like "huen," and so on. A lot of
the sounds are just said so quickly that one can't tell without listening closely.










adrianlondon -

Thanks for that! I'm going to sit here and practice ...










djwebb2004 -

Yes, strong aspiration is what it is. But it is not restricted to "tebie". Basically, the
aspirated Chinese consonants often sound like they have a "kh" sound - ie like a Spanish j, or a
Russian x, or the "ch" in the German word "ach" or the Scottish word "loch". The rude word c-a-o4
often sounds like: ts-kh-ao.










djwebb2004 -

Adrian, in some other Romanization systems, xing is "sying" or "hsying", which represent the sound
better (to an English speaker that is, not necessarily to anyone else!)












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