The phonology of Standard Chinese has historically derived from the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. However, pronunciation varies widely among speakers, who may introduce elements of their local varieties. Television and radio announcers are chosen for their ability to affect a standard accent. The sound system has not only segments—i.e. vowels and consonants—but also tones, and each syllable has one. In addition to the four main tones, there is a neutral tone that appears on weak syllables.
This article uses the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to compare the phonetic values corresponding to syllables romanized with pinyin.
Consonants The sounds shown in parentheses are sometimes not analyzed as separate phonemes; for more on these, see below. Excluding these, and excluding the glides , , and , there are 19 consonant phonemes in the inventory.
Labial Denti-alveolar Alveolo-palatal Retroflex Velar Nasal Plosive Affricate () () Fricative () ~Liquid ~ ~
Between pairs of plosives or affricates having the same place of articulation and manner of articulation, the primary distinction is not voiced vs. voiceless (as in French or Russian), but unaspirated vs. aspirated (as in Scottish Gaelic or Icelandic). The unaspirated plosives and affricates may however become voiced in weak syllables (see below). In pinyin, an unaspirated/aspirated pair such as and is represented with b and p respectively.
More details about the individual consonant sounds are given in the following table.
Phoneme or sound Approximate description Audio example Pinyin Zhuyin Wade–Giles* Notes Like English p but unaspirated – as in spy b p Like an aspirated English p, as in pie p p῾ Like English m m m Like English f f f Like English t but unaspirated – as in sty d t See . Like an aspirated English t, as in tie t t῾ See . Like English n n n See . Can occur in the onset and/or coda of a syllable. () Varies between l in English let and r in Spanish retar, especially in Taiwan. l l Like English k, but unaspirated, as in scar g k Like an aspirated English k, as in car k k῾ Like ng in English sing ng ng Occurs only in the syllable coda. () Varies between h in English hat and ch in Scottish loch. h h Like an unaspirated English ch, but with an alveolo-palatal pronunciation j ch See . As t͡ɕ/pinyin "j", with aspiration q ch῾ See . Similar to English sh, but with an alveolo-palatal pronunciation x hs See . Similar to ch in English chat, but with a retroflex articulation and no aspiration zh ch See . As ʈ͡ʂ/pinyin "zh", but with aspiration ch ch῾ See . Similar to English sh, but with a retroflex articulation sh sh See . () Similar to g in English beige, but with a retroflex articulation. L2 learners may pronounce it as an English r ([ɹ̠ʷ]) but retroflex and not labialised. r j For pronunciation in syllable-final position, see . Like English ts in cats, without aspiration z tsSee . As t͡s/pinyin "z", but with aspiration c ts῾ See . Like English s, but usually with the tongue on the lower teeth. s s See .*In Wade–Giles, the distinction between retroflex and alveolo-palatal affricates, which are both written as ch and ch῾, is indicated by the subsequent vowel coda, since the two consonant series occur in complementary distribution; for example, chi and chü correspond to pinyin ji and ju, respectively, whereas chih and chu correspond to pinyin zhi and zhu (see ).
All of the consonants may occur as the initial sound of a syllable, with the exception of (unless the zero initial is assigned to this phoneme; see below). Excepting the rhotic coda, the only consonants that can appear in syllable coda (final) position are and (although may occur as an allophone of before labial consonants in fast speech). Final , may be pronounced without complete oral closure, resulting in a syllable that in fact ends with a long nasalized vowel. See also , below.
Denti-alveolar and retroflex series The consonants listed in the first table above as denti-alveolar are sometimes described as alveolars, and sometimes as dentals. The affricates and the fricative are particularly often described as dentals; these are generally pronounced with the tongue on the lower teeth.
The retroflex consonants (like those of Polish) are actually apical rather than subapical, and so are considered by some authors not to be truly retroflex; they may be more accurately called post-alveolar. Some speakers not from Beijing may lack the retroflexes in their native dialects, and may thus replace them with dentals.
Alveolo-palatal series
The alveolo-palatal consonants (pinyin j, q, x) have standard pronunciations of . Some speakers realize them as palatalized dentals , , ; this is claimed to be especially common among children and women, although officially it is regarded as substandard and as a feature specific to the Beijing dialect.普通话是以北京语音为标准音的。那么北京人为什么还要学习普通话语音呢？这是因为北京话也是一种汉语方言。普通话采取北京语音系统作为标准音，并不是不加分析、不加选择地采用，而是要排除北京话的特殊土语成分。北京话的特殊土语成分可以表现在语音的许多方面。例如：在声母上，一部分年轻女性把普通话舌面前音j、q、x读作舌尖前音z、c、s。[...] 所以，北京人也有一个学习普通话语音的问题。" (Translation) "Putonghua takes the Beijing pronunciation as the standard pronunciation. Then why would Beijingers need to learn Putonghua's pronunciation? Because Beijing Chinese is a Chinese dialect. Putonghua does not absorb the Beijing pronunciation indiscriminately, but has to exclude special dialectal constituents. Special dialectal constituents of Beijing may exhibit in many aspects in pronunciation. For instance, in terms of initials, some young females pronounce anterior dorsal j, q, and x as anterior coronal z, c, and s. [...] Therefore, Beijingers still have the problem of learning Putonghua pronunciation." (北京市语言文字工作委员会办公室(2005). 普通话水平测试指导用书（北京版）. Beijing: 商务印书馆. p. 6. .)
In phonological analysis, it is often assumed that, when not followed by one of the high front vowels or , the alveolo-palatals consist of a consonant followed by a palatal glide ( or ). That is, syllables represented in pinyin as beginning , , , , , (followed by a vowel) are taken to begin , , , , , . The actual pronunciations are more like , , , , , (or for speakers using the dental variants, , , , , , ). This is consistent with the general observation (see under ) that medial glides are realized as palatalization and/or labialization of the preceding consonant (palatalization already being inherent in the case of the palatals).
On the above analysis, the alveolo-palatals are in complementary distribution with the dentals , with the velars , and with the retroflexes , as none of these can occur before high front vowels or palatal glides, whereas the alveolo-palatals occur before high front vowels or palatal glides. Therefore, linguists often prefer to classify not as independent phonemes, but as allophones of one of the other three series. The existence of the above-mentioned dental variants inclines some to prefer to identify the alveolo-palatals with the dentals, but identification with any of the three series is possible (unless the empty rime is identified with , in which case the velars become the only candidate). The Yale and Wade–Giles systems mostly treat the alveolo-palatals as allophones of the retroflexes; Tongyong Pinyin mostly treats them as allophones of the dentals; and Mainland Chinese Braille treats them as allophones of the velars. In pinyin and bopomofo, however, they are represented as a separate sequence.
The alveolo-palatals arose historically from a merger of the dentals and velars before high front vowels and glides. Previously, some instances of modern were instead , and others were ; distinguishing these two sources of is known as the . The change took place in the last two or three centuries at different times in different areas. This explains why some European transcriptions of Chinese names (especially in postal romanization) contain , , , where an alveolo-palatal might be expected in modern Chinese. Examples are Peking for Beijing (), Chungking for Chongqing (), Fukien for Fujian (cf. Hokkien), Tientsin for Tianjin (); Sinkiang for Xinjiang (, and Sian for Xi'an (). The complementary distribution with the retroflex series arose when syllables that had a retroflex consonant followed by a medial glide lost the medial glide.
Zero onset A full syllable such as ai, in which the vowel is not preceded by any of the standard initial consonants or glides, is said to have a null initial or zero onset. This may be realized as a consonant sound: and are possibilities, as are and in some non-standard varieties. It has been suggested by San Duanmu that such an onset be regarded as a special phoneme, or as an instance of the phoneme , although it can also be treated as no phoneme (absence of onset). By contrast, in the case of the particle , which is a weak onset-less syllable, linking occurs with the previous syllable (as described under , below).
When a stressed vowel-initial Chinese syllable follows a consonant-final syllable, the consonant does not directly link with the vowel. Instead, the zero onset seems to intervene in between. becomes , . However, in connected speech none of these output forms is natural. Instead, when the words are spoken together the most natural pronunciation is rather similar to , in which there is no nasal closure or any version of the zero onset, and instead nasalization of the vowel occurs.
Glides The glides , , and sound respectively like the y in English yes, the (h)u in French huit, and the w in English we. (Beijing speakers often replace initial with a labiodental , except when it is followed by or .) The glides are commonly analyzed not as independent phonemes, but as consonantal allophones of the high vowels: . This is possible because there is no ambiguity in interpreting a sequence like yao/-iao as , and potentially problematic sequences such as do not occur.
The glides may occur in initial position in a syllable. This occurs with in the syllables written , , , and in pinyin; with in other syllables written with initial y in pinyin (, , etc.); and with in syllables written with initial w in pinyin (, , etc.). When a glide is followed by the vowel of which that glide is considered an allophone, the glide may be regarded as epenthetic (automatically inserted), and not as a separate realization of the phoneme. Hence the syllable , pronounced , may be analyzed as consisting of the single phoneme , and similarly may be analyzed as , as , and as . It is also possible to hear both from the same speaker, even in the same conversation. For example, one may hear the number "one" as either or .
The glides can also occur in medial position, that is, after the initial consonant but before the main vowel. Here they are represented in pinyin as vowels: for example, the i in represents , and the u in represents . There are some restrictions on the possible consonant-glide combinations: does not occur after labials (except for some speakers in , , , ); does not occur after retroflexes and velars (or after ); and occurs medially only in and and after alveolo-palatals (for which see above). A consonant-glide combination at the start of a syllable is articulated as a single sound – the glide is not in fact pronounced after the consonant, but is realized as palatalization , labialization , or both , of the consonant. (The same modifications of initial consonants occur in syllables where they are followed by a high vowel, although normally no glide is considered to be present there. Hence a consonant is generally palatalized when followed by , labialized when followed by , and both when followed by .)
The glides and are also found as the final element in some syllables. These are commonly analyzed as diphthongs rather than vowel-glide sequences. For example, the syllable is assigned the underlying representation . (In pinyin, the second element is generally written or , but is written as .)
Syllabic consonants