savah Posted February 16, 2015 at 02:50 PM Author Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 at 02:50 PM @edelweis, I am talking about pinyin, a phonetic system, purported to serve as a guidepost, which, as with IPA, is supposed to be a tool, as 'useful' as IPA, itself. If not, what is the purpose of pinyin? What is the purpose of entering pinyin next to each entry word of dictionaries? And each sign represents the only one sound it represents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorin Posted February 16, 2015 at 03:00 PM Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 at 03:00 PM Do you have some problems with the font types on your computer? Renzhe didn't say it represents the sound tsung , he wrote ʈ͡ʂʊŋ. Does that look like it's the same to you? Because if it does, someone should provide you with a screenshot of this posting. There is no "t", no "s", no "u", no "n" and no "g" in ʈ͡ʂʊŋ. t is not ʈ͡ s is not ʂ u is not ʊ n is not ŋ Do you understand that? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edelweis Posted February 16, 2015 at 03:07 PM Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 at 03:07 PM pinyin is not IPA. IPA is for all languages. Pinyin is only for mandarin Chinese. In pinyin, one letter does not always represent the same sound. Example: pinyin "chi" and pinyin "mi" have different vowels. Pinyin is phonetic at the syllable level, not at the letter level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demonic_Duck Posted February 16, 2015 at 03:19 PM Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 at 03:19 PM @renzhe, I'm not trolling, but asking. The Yabla dictionary, as I cited above, never says "zhong' as 'tsung'. You said, although it being written as 'zhong', it represents the sound of 'tsung', when pronounced. Please explain the inconsistency between your assertion and the reality. I'm outta here. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
renzhe Posted February 16, 2015 at 03:21 PM Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 at 03:21 PM I've never written 'tsung' in my entire life, until this very post. This thread has explained everyting for any future member who might have a similar question, and it's time to stop feeding the troll. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
savah Posted February 16, 2015 at 03:33 PM Author Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 at 03:33 PM @Yorin, thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
savah Posted February 16, 2015 at 03:44 PM Author Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 at 03:44 PM @renzhe, Those who can not explain things to people do not know the things themselves. Maybe some people knowledgeable enough about the questions I've raised may answer the questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geraldc Posted February 16, 2015 at 04:45 PM Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 at 04:45 PM Have you considered moving to China and joining the PLA, or mastering Chinese from scratch in 30 days, as if you do those, this will be my all time favourite thread. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lechuan Posted February 16, 2015 at 04:50 PM Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 at 04:50 PM The question is "how should I pronounce 'zhong'", right? Find a native speaker, ask them how to say it, then copy them. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorin Posted February 16, 2015 at 04:56 PM Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 at 04:56 PM Have you considered moving to China and joining the PLA, or mastering Chinese from scratch in 30 days, as if you do those, this will be my all time favourite thread. Once you accept this is going nowhere, this thread has great entertainment value indeed. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
savah Posted February 16, 2015 at 05:00 PM Author Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 at 05:00 PM Don't online dictionaries serve the purpose? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anonymoose Posted February 16, 2015 at 05:10 PM Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 at 05:10 PM If you think pinyin is bad, you should try Russian. Вор mean Thief. But the B is pronounced like a V and the p like an r. I mean, why spell it bop when it's pronounced vor? Ridiculous I say. Mind you, being Korean, maybe you can't distinguish B and V anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edelweis Posted February 16, 2015 at 05:17 PM Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 at 05:17 PM yes, online dictionary serve the purpose. They show pinyin, or they show IPA. In order to read IPA, you have to learn the IPA letters. There are many IPA letters. Some letters look like roman alphabet letters. Somer letters look different (as Yorin explained). And they are difficult to type on a computer keyboard. In order to read pinyin, you need to learn the pinyin syllables. There are many syllables. But at least they are easy to type. Because they use only letters of the qwerty keyboard (except ü). Learn the pinyin syllables. Remember in pinyin the "signs" are the syllables, not the letters. 1 pinyin syllable = 1 sign = 1 basic sound of Mandarin Chinese. This way pinyin is phonetic. But not the same phonetic as Korean or Japanese. You need to learn each pinyin syllable. Then you can read the pinyin in the dictionaries. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edelweis Posted February 16, 2015 at 05:28 PM Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 at 05:28 PM @all there's some suspense, some drama, some humor, greatly entertaining indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geraldc Posted February 16, 2015 at 05:41 PM Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 at 05:41 PM Here's how they did it before Pinyin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rime_dictionary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
savah Posted February 16, 2015 at 10:17 PM Author Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 at 10:17 PM One hypothesis suggests the fact that the pinyin authors had stuffed different sounds into a phonetic sign, confounding people to match different sounds to one sign. For example, people are to pronounce 'chungguo' for China in Chinese against the sign of 'chongguo'.That's the reason why people are confused about pinyin. People are to adjust to the confusion by and by, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorin Posted February 16, 2015 at 10:38 PM Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 at 10:38 PM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edelweis Posted February 16, 2015 at 10:48 PM Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 at 10:48 PM Yes. You need a teacher that speaks Korean. Then you can adjust to pinyin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skylee Posted February 16, 2015 at 10:48 PM Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 at 10:48 PM I thought this website was better than allowing such threads to go on for so long. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
savah Posted February 17, 2015 at 08:39 AM Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2015 at 08:39 AM I am eighty years old. I have never been so hurt as now by so mighty people. I myself felt so mighty in the past, I told one man, 'You scarce open your mouth before you utter nonsense'. He was so hurt that he wished me dead.. Why was I so wayward then, I don't know. Maybe just playful. I didn't mean it. Joke was intended. But I regret what I did and I miss him. Some of here are bad and some others are good. Wish them all the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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