Spencer Museum of Art

More people speak Chinese than any other language. Mandarin is the official language historically used by the government and pinyin is the system to transcribe the sound of Chinese words into English.

a is always pronounced like the ‘a’ in father
ai ‘eye’
ao ‘ow’ as in now

e ‘u’ as in plum

i ‘ee’
o ‘o’ as in orange
ou ‘ou’ as in through

u ‘oo’
c ‘ts’
q ‘ch’
x ‘sh’
zh ‘j’

Japanese vowels have standard pronunciations that remain constant even in combinations:

a again, is always pronounced like the ‘a’ in father
e as in bedb
i as in ink
o as in over
o with a line above it rounded and long, as in loath
u as in pull
u with a line above it as in through