Pronouncing yi, yin, ying

[Master Rakoczi]

Till this day I have prononunced

yi as

yin as [in]

ying as [iŋ]

However today I noticed that in two different dictionaries yin and ying are clearly prononounced as [jin] and [jiŋ].

Yet yi in those dictionaries still sounds like and not [ji].

But after checking out the Wikipedia page about the palatal approximant j, I found out that there yi is transcripted as [ji].

I'm confused to what is the "standard" Mandarin pronunciation with these sounds?

[anonymoose]

Somewhere half way between i and ji.

[Hofmann]

The syllables yi, yin, ying, are likely to be spoken without the palatal approximant, and often with a glottal stop. For example, 憶 [ʔi˥˩] 因 [ʔin˥] 英 [ʔiŋ˥]. And I remember another thread which suggests that there might be differentiation between (or [ji]) and [ʔi] for some speakers.

[Master Rakoczi]

Interesting... I've never noticed the glottal stop before. But now that I think of it, I have probably heard it many times in these syllables. Just never paid any attention to it.

Well, good to know there's some variance.

[Jane_PA]

I am a Chinese.

yi is "ee".

yin "in".

ying "ing".

That is what I pronounce. jin is something I don't understand.

Jane

[anonymoose]

jin is something I don't understand.

I assume the OP meant the j here is phonetic representation, thus pronounced like a y in English.

[renzhe]

It's the IPA notation. See Palatal approximant.

In general, pronunciation written in square brackets tends to use the IPA.

[cloudrider]

I glad you created this thread, because I noticed the same thing.

 

I'm Chinese American, learning Mandarin. 

 

Most of the time, I come across the following IPA pronunciations -

 

yi as /i/

yin as /jin/

ying as /jIŋ/

 

but sometimes I come across these alternative IPA pronunciations by native mandarin speakers

 

yi as /ji/

yin as /in/ and /jIn/

ying as /jəŋ/ by northerners

 

Some native speakers don't distinguish between these.  I recommend you just stick to what you hear the most to fit in, but be aware of these differences, as you will hear them from other speakers.

 

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Another common pronunciation difference I hear is, -iu which I hear mostly pronounced as /ioʊ/ but have heard /iu/ .

 

Especially, "6" which is in pinyin liu or IPA as /lioʊ/.  But I hear /liu/ a lot.

 

I hear both pronunciations used interchangeable, so seems speakers don't distinguish the two. 

 

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Stick to one for yourself, and be flexible when you hear the differences. 

[Jan Finster]

I wonder what rules there are regarding the pronunication of yi:

 

For 可以 I mostly hear ke-ii 
but for 刻意 I hear ke-yi ("y" as in "yo baby!" ?)

?

[889]

My recollection is that there's one thread perhaps more here from years back discussing what to do with the y.