Putonghua
My uncles travel a lot, and on one of their recent trips, they went to China. Imagine my joy when I discover a conversation guide for travellers of Mandarin. That Mandarin is spoken in Firefly might add to the fun.
Mandarin (putonghua = common speech; zhongwen = centres´ language; hanyu = Han´s language)
Written in pinyin and phonetically in parentheses. Fancy-shmancy lines and squiggles on letters wn´t be written for pinyin. Tough.
B = soft p
P = explosive p
D = soft t
T = explosive t
G = soft k
K = explosive k
R = very soft
W = u (like “oo”)
X = s
Y = i
C = ts
Z = ds
CH = open-mouthen ch
Q = close-mouthed ch
J = dch
ZH = tch
E = e, a (after z, c, r, s, zh, ch, sh)
This applies to en and eng
ER = ar
IAN = ian, ien
IU = iou
O = o, uo (after m, f, b, p)
UN = uen, uin (after j, q, x, y)
Chinese also has 4 different tones of inflections, but I´m going to go right ahead and skip that.
Firefly curse of the day: gou cao de hun dan (dog-humping bastards) Brought to you by michmak (on fanfiction.net) aka writwritewrote. Recommend her series Little Things, a Jayne/River.
Mandarin (putonghua = common speech; zhongwen = centres´ language; hanyu = Han´s language)
Written in pinyin and phonetically in parentheses. Fancy-shmancy lines and squiggles on letters wn´t be written for pinyin. Tough.
B = soft p
P = explosive p
D = soft t
T = explosive t
G = soft k
K = explosive k
R = very soft
W = u (like “oo”)
X = s
Y = i
C = ts
Z = ds
CH = open-mouthen ch
Q = close-mouthed ch
J = dch
ZH = tch
E = e, a (after z, c, r, s, zh, ch, sh)
This applies to en and eng
ER = ar
IAN = ian, ien
IU = iou
O = o, uo (after m, f, b, p)
UN = uen, uin (after j, q, x, y)
Chinese also has 4 different tones of inflections, but I´m going to go right ahead and skip that.
Firefly curse of the day: gou cao de hun dan (dog-humping bastards) Brought to you by michmak (on fanfiction.net) aka writwritewrote. Recommend her series Little Things, a Jayne/River.