tuan - 团- how to pronounce

bingkk32
 May 05, 2009, 11:17 AM posted in General Discussion

hi all

i am new to this site (and to the language) so please bear with me

I know that the pinyin spellings such as "xuan" is pronounced more like "xuen" - e.g. xuan ze is pronounced like "xuen ze" and "quan" is more like "quen"

so is "tuan" pronounced more like "tuen" or is the "a" in "tuan" actualy heard? e.g. like how  "duan" or "guan" is pronounced.

many thanks!

 

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tingyun
 May 05, 2009, 11:21 AM

The a is heard, like duan or guan.

 

The thing to remember is, a u after q, j, or x isn't a u at all - its a u with that umlaut symbol above it, the dots, or whatever you call it. 

 

I'll let John handle the heavy lifting here:

http://www.sinosplice.com/lang/pronunciation/01/

Or for an even more intensive/obsessive focus, try the US Foreign Service's old course - the first set of 6 tapes, pronounciation and romanization, and especially the incredible detailed pronounciation and romanaization text and workbook (which after the workbook pages has somehting like a 10-15 page discussion of all the sounds...

http://www.fsi-language-courses.com/Chinese.aspx

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antony73
 May 05, 2009, 11:26 AM

bingkk32

Great pronunciation guide right here on your doorstep: http://chinesepod.com/resources/pronunciation

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tingyun
 May 05, 2009, 11:27 AM

PS - the foreign service text is great, even if you are already fairly advanced.  It almost randomly scatters these incredibly useful observations you rarely encounter elsewhere - like very understandable discussion of how the tone level of the entire sentence is influenced by different kinds of statements, or how shi can often lose both its tone AND vowel sound for some native speakers, or discussions of how different groups of native speakers pronounce yuan differently...I keep meaning to plow through the entire text, and import its most useful obsrvations into a 2 page word document.

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bingkk32
 May 05, 2009, 11:31 AM

thank you all so much!!

I'm amazed by the speed of response!

I am currently in the process of familiarising myself with the vast resources on this site and will check out those links suggested.

 

thanks again!

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changye
 May 05, 2009, 11:50 AM

Hi timbendersls

Thanks a lot for the link to the very educational article in Sinosplice, which I've bookmarked. I'm always impressed with John's insights towards Mandarin learning shown in his blog.

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tingyun
 May 05, 2009, 12:50 PM

Yep, he's an incredibly impressive guy.  The page I linked, the first part of his pronounciation guide, isn't even the most useful - really the guide on tongue positions and how to create some of the more difficult sounds, a couple of sections over, is my favorite part.