-- JoAnnAlvarez - 15 Nov 2012

Sometimes we struggle to pronounce our colleagues' names. Many of the people in our department come from China, where tonal languages, including Mandarin, are spoken. This means that the pitch of a sound and changes in the pitch within a sound determine which word a person is speaking. Although Mandarin has a system of written characters, various systems of writing Mandarin words using the Roman alphabet have been developed. One of these is pinyin. Pinyin uses four tone marks over the vowels in words to indicate which of the four tones should be used in a syllable.** Below are the names of department members written in pinyin along with a pronunciation guide. Some of the sounds in Chinese are not found in English, but I've tried to give the best approximation.

This table is intended for any member of our department whose name is sometimes mispronounced. Please add you name if you would like to. What would be most helpful is to link your name to a mp3 file that gives its pronumciation. The first entry in the table can be used as a template for doing this. One way to create such a file is to call your work phone number, leave your name as a voice-male message, extract the .wav file and transate it to mp3 using a program like iTunes.

Name	pinyin	Pronunciation*
Test Person		Test Person
Bian Aihua	Biàn Àihuá	byan eye hwah
Guanhua Chen (Josh)	Chén	gwahn hwah chun
Chen Qiulan (Heidi)	Chén Qīulán	chun chyoo lahn
Chen Qingxia (Cindy)	Chén Qīngxiá	chun ching shyah
Chen Xi (Steven)	Chén Xī	chun shee
Fan Run		fahn roon/ruun
Han Xue	Hán Xuě	hahn shwe
Liu Qi	Líu	lyoo chee
Liu Dandan	Líu Dāndān	lyoo dahn dahn
Liu Zhouwen	Líu Zhōuwén	lyoo joh wun
Liu Xulei (Shirley)	Líu Xùlěi	lyoo shoo lay
Lu Pengcheng	Lù Péngchéng	loo pung chung
Min Gao		meen gow
Nian Hui	Nián Huì	nyan hway
Shi Yaping	Shī Yǎpíng	shr yah peeng
Shyr Yu	Shí Yù	shr yew
Song Yanna	Sòng Yānnà	sohng yahn na
Wang Li	Wáng Lì	wahng lee
Wang Lily	Wáng Lì	wahng lee
Wu Pingsheng	Wǔ Píngshèng	woo peeng shung
Xu Meng	Xù Méng	shoo mung
Ye Fei	Yè Fēi	yu fay
Yu Chang	Yú Chǎng	yoo chahng
Zhu Yuwei	Zhū Yǔwèi	joo yoo way
Zhao Zhiguo (Alex)	Zhào Zhìguó	jow j gwah
Zhengzheng Tang (Jane)		jungjung tahng
Zhong Xue		johng shwe
Zhou Minchun		joh meenchoon/chuun

* Pronunciation spelling is based on the Wikipedia respelling system explained here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Pronunciation_respelling_key. The letter y is used as a consonant only here. ** Taiwan doesn't use pinyin but instead uses a different system. For simplicity, I've only included Pinyin here, even for names from Taiwan.