Pinyin (拼音, pīnyīn) literally means "join together sounds" (a less literal translation being "phoneticize", "spell" or "transcription") in Chinese and usually refers to Hanyu pinyin (汉语拼音;, literal meaning: "Hanlanguage pinyin"), which is a system of romanization (phonetic notation and transliteration to roman script) for Mandarin used in the People's Republic of China. Pinyin was approved in 1958 and adopted in 1979 by its government. It superseded older transcriptions like the Wade-Giles system (1859; modified 1912) or Bopomofo. Similar systems have been designed for Chinese dialects and non-Han minority languages in the PRC. Cantonese also has a pinyin-type system called Penkyamp, whose name derives from the same word as pinyin, albeit articulated in the Cantonese dialect.
Since then, pinyin has been accepted by the Library of Congress, The American Library Association, and most international institutions as the transcription system for Mandarin. In 1979 the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) adopted pinyin as the standard romanization for Modern Chinese.
It is important to maintain the distinction that pinyin is a romanization and not an anglicization; that is, it is equally applicable for transliteration into any language that uses a roman alphabet. Indeed some of the transliterations in pinyin such as the "ang" ending, do not correspond to English pronunciations. Pinyin has also become a useful tool for entering Chinese language text into computers.
1 "ü" becomes "u" after j q x. 2 "o" is used after b p m f, "uo" everywhere else. 3 /ər/ (而,二, etc.) is written as er. For other -r rhymes formed by the suffix -r, pinyin does not use special orthography; one simply appends -r to the rhyme that it is added to without regard for any sound changes that may take place along the way.
a: IPA [ɑ] if ending a syllable, then as in "father"
ai: IPA [aɪ], like English "eye", but a bit lighter
an: IPA [an], [ən] as in fan in British Received Pronunciation or as in ton as in the American Midwest. If occurring in the combinations ian, üan, juan, quan, xuan, yuan, then like pen in British RP, fan in the American Midwest.
ar, anr, air: IPA [aɹ], like a, but pronounced with the tongue curled up against the palate; like rhotic are in North American English
angr: same as ar but nasalized (i.e., pass the sound through your nose as well)
ao: IPA [aʊ], approximately as in "cow"; the a is much more audible than the o
aor: like ao but with an -r added to the back; comparable to American tower (but much more compact)
e: IPA [ɤ], when occurring at the end of a syllable and not in the combinations of ie, üe, ue, then a backward, unrounded vowel, which can be formed by first pronouncing a plain continental "o" (British RP law) and then spreading the lips without changing the position of the tongue. Many unstressed syllables in Chinese use the schwa (idea), and this is also written as e.
eir, enr: IPA [ɝ], like e, but pronounced with the tongue curled up against the palate; similar to the vowel in rhotic her in English
eng, like e above but with ng added to it at the back
er, if occurring not as a result of the suffix -r (e.g. 而, 二), then like ar; if occurring as a result of the suffix -r (e.g. 歌儿, 车儿), then like e but with an -r added at the end. see also ier, uer, üer:
h: IPA [x], like the English "h" if followed by "a"; otherwise it is pronounced more roughly (not unlike the Scots "ch")
i: IPA [i], like English "ee", except when preceded by "c", "ch", "r", "s", "sh", "z" or "zh"; in these cases it should be pronounced as a natural extension of those sounds in the same position, but slightly more open to allow for a clear-sounding vowel to pass through
ie: IPA [iɛ], the initial i sounds like English "ee", but is very short; e (pronounced like ê) is pronounced longer and carries the main stress
j: IPA [tɕ], like q, but unaspirated. (To get this sound, first take the sound halfway between joke and check, and then slowly pass it backwards along the tongue until it is entirely clear of the tongue tip.)
q: IPA [tɕʰ] like church; pass it backwards along the tongue until it is free of the tongue tip
r: IPA [ʐ], similar to the English "r" in "rank", but with the lips spread, and with a bit of the sound in camouflage in it (I know this sounds strange at first, but try it!)
