PRONUNCIATION GUIDE
Mandarin Chinese is the official state language of mainland China, and pinyin is the official system of romanization in which it is written. As Mandarin is a tonal language, pinyin uses diacritical marks (e.g., ā, á, ǎ, à) to indicate these tonal inflections. Most words use one of four tones, though some are a neutral tone. Furthermore, regional variance can change the way native Chinese speakers pronounce the same word. For those reasons and more, please consider the guide below a simplified introduction to pronunciation of select character names and sounds from the world of Guardian.
More resources are available at sevenseasdanmei.com
NOTE ON SPELLING: Romanized Mandarin Chinese words with identical spelling in pinyin—and even pronunciation—may well have different meanings. These words are more easily differentiated in written Chinese, which uses characters.
Zhènhún
zh as in john.
en as in understand.
h as in horse.
un as in when.
(juhn hwen)
Zhào Yúnlán
zhao as in joust.
y as in you.
un as in boon.
lan as in leaf.
an as in run.
(jow yoon lahn)
Shěn Wēi
shen as in shun.
wei as in way.
(shun way)
Guō Chángchéng
guo as in Gordon.
ch as in challenge.
ang as in tongue.
ch as in challenge.
eng as in uh+ng.
(gwo chahng chuhng)
Note: The difference between ang and eng is that chang leans more towards ah-ng and eng leans more towards uh-ng.
Dàqìng
da as in darling.
q as in cheap.
ing as in English.
(da ching)
Zhù Hóng
zh as in john.
u as in fool.
ho as in home.
ng as in long.
(joo hohng)
Lín Jìng
lin as in lean.
jing as in jingle.
(leen jing)
Wāng Zhēng
wa as in want.
ng as in long.
zh as in john.
eng as in uh+ng.
(wahng juhng)
Sāngzàn
sang as in sung.
z as in regards.
an as in run.
(sung zun)