In Pictogram Palace (free sample) I did not discuss proper pinyin pronunciation. This is because I am obviously not a native speaker. I have however been reading what lots of native speakers write and listening to what they say. Problem pinyin initials follow in the table below.
Common pronunciation points for each row are on the right.
Common pronunciation points for each coloumn are at the final row.
| J
unaspirated
|
Q (it’s a heavily aspirated j) It is equal to pinyin T + pinyin X TX tch
|
X tip of tongue touching back of lower front teeth, middle top of tongue touching top of mouth at the hard palate. This sound doesn’t exist in English but can be approximated as HS or HSH This sound should be easy to make while smiling, unlike pinyin sh. hs, hsh, khs, khsh
|
these sounds stress the surface of the tongue.they don’t exactly correspond to sounds in English. the tip of the tongue touches the back of the lower teeth. the top of the tongue is raised toward the roof of the mouth (hard palate) |
| Zh (this is much gentler, subtler than the Russian Zh) |
Ch | Sh | tip of tongue is touching the top of the teeth |
| Z (ds, tz, z) |
C (ts) |
S (sss) |
tongue is flat |
| hard, NOT ASPIRATED |
ASPIRATED | sound is soft and prolonged |