pinyin initials

ptsmith
 October 01, 2009, 02:37 AM posted in General Discussion

After 3 years of study, I just noticed that in my text, 'w' is not listed as an initial.  This is also true in the wonderful CP pronounciation tool.  So, why is 'w' not considered an initial?

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go_manly
 October 01, 2009, 04:57 AM

ptsmith

w is actually u.  It is used in place of u at the start of a word.

eg.

huang consists of the h initial and the uang final

wang is the uang final without an initial - the u has become a w.

 

Similarly, 'i' is replaced by 'y' at the start of a word, so yang is actually 'iang'  without an initial.

 

There are some special cases which need treatment, but that answers your question.

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ptsmith
 October 05, 2009, 06:05 PM

I see how it works now.  Thank you!