I’m having some trouble with the pronunciation of some Mandarin words.
These are:
1) Qin, Qi, and Qing. Being a Cantonese speaker, I always thought that the "q’s" were pronounced like the "q’s" in Cantonese (which has no equivalent in English). For instance like 請 when pronounced in Cantonese. But, people always say that instead of like "q" in Cantonese, it’s like "ch" in English. I simply had a hard time believing that it would be as easy as just "ch" in English, but sometimes when I hear it, it really sounds closer to "ch" than "q" in Cantonese. Is it really just "chin" "chi" and "ching" EXACTLY, or something like it but slightly different? It seems like "Cong" has the "q" sound I’m looking for more than "Qing." Or is it that in some tones, the qin/qing/qi is pronounced exactly like the "ch" in English, in some tones, slightly different, and in some more like "q" in Cantonese?
2) Guan. I use mdbg.net a lot. The way they pronounce it on there makes it sound like "Gwun" not something like "gwaan" or "gwon." I just want confirmation that it’s "gwun."
3) Zhang. So when a Chinese word is written in pinyin with "zh" it’s actually usu. pronounced with a absolute "j" not a "zh" like the beginning of 真 in Cantonese? Words that begin with "zh" confuse me a lot because when I hear it, it seems like the "zh" is a downright "j" sound.
4) Shan. I know in English they just say "shan" outright, but in Mandarin, it’s rarely the same. Is it really just "shan" or is it "shaan" (rhyming with 山 in Cantonese [saan] or Ban in Mandarin) or "shun" or what?
Also (5) Jing. As in Beijing or Nanjing. Is it just "jing" or is it more like "zhing" like 靜 (quiet/calm) in Cantonese? I’m sorry that I compare the sounds to Cantonese so much, but I don’t know how to represent the sounds I’m talking about in any other way.
Yeah, Beijing in Cantonese is "buht ging." I started wondering over it because in the Mandarin news sometimes I thought I heard a mix of "j" and "zh" in the "jing" sound. I actually still kinda hear it too in the link that the first person gave me, but only in the top tone not the other tones. Maybe it’s just because I’m inexperienced in Mandarin so I keep on hearing the wrong things.
I’m still hearing a closer to "j" sounds than "z" in the "zh" row. Actually, zh is what I keep on calling for the sounds of the "z" row. Maybe that’s my mistake, and maybe there’s no "zh" sound in Cantonese? I’ll have to think about that.
But thanks for the help so far guys! x]
Nevermind, I realized what I was hearing wrong for the jing in the top tone. So that’s settled lol.