The University of Kansas

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

Japan, 1839-1892
Looking in Pain: the Appearance of a Prostitute of the Kansei Era
from the series "32 Aspects of Customs and Manners," 1888
woodcut
Musuem purchase: Lucy Shaw Shultz Fund, 93.317

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 bed
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