The pinyin x is like an English sh but with the tongue a bit further out so that the sound is higher-pitched.
The pinyin j is to the pinyin x what the English ch is to the English sh.
The pinyin q is like the pinyin j but with an airy sound before the next vowel. Like a British person would pronounce cat, cot or potato.
Pinyin sh-zh-ch follows the same pattern as x-j-q but the tongue is pointing upwards and the tip slightly backwards.
Mandarin does not distinguish voiced and unvoiced consonants, they have a hard time learning the difference between the English z and s. So x, j, and zh may be voiced or not depending on the accent of the speaker.
It was written as a critique of pinyin. The Chinese writing system is used across several languages that are not intelligible with each other, and the poem, when read aloud in Mandarin, only contains the syllable shi in different tones, so it cannot be written as pinyin. It's somewhat decipherable in other Chinese languages that use the same writing system.
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Multiple languages can use the same alphabet logographic system to mean, roughly, the same thing. Mandarin and Cantonese are not really interintelligible and Wu is not interintelligible, but they use the same writing system.
Still, I don't think that's as useful in modern times as it was in centuries past.
i thought "xi" was pronounced "z".
The pinyin x is like an English sh but with the tongue a bit further out so that the sound is higher-pitched.
The pinyin j is to the pinyin x what the English ch is to the English sh.
The pinyin q is like the pinyin j but with an airy sound before the next vowel. Like a British person would pronounce cat, cot or potato.
Pinyin sh-zh-ch follows the same pattern as x-j-q but the tongue is pointing upwards and the tip slightly backwards.
Mandarin does not distinguish voiced and unvoiced consonants, they have a hard time learning the difference between the English z and s. So x, j, and zh may be voiced or not depending on the accent of the speaker.
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Have you heard of the Shī-shì shí shī shǐ poem? It's somewhat like Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo but it's a whole story.
It was written as a critique of pinyin. The Chinese writing system is used across several languages that are not intelligible with each other, and the poem, when read aloud in Mandarin, only contains the syllable shi in different tones, so it cannot be written as pinyin. It's somewhat decipherable in other Chinese languages that use the same writing system.
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Multiple languages can use the same
alphabetlogographic system to mean, roughly, the same thing. Mandarin and Cantonese are not really interintelligible and Wu is not interintelligible, but they use the same writing system.Still, I don't think that's as useful in modern times as it was in centuries past.
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