Help me find a syllable table?

[leosmith]

I was using this great little chinese syllable table

http://www.hello-han.com/ch-education/yinjieku/hanziyinjieku-en.php

or

http://www.newconceptmandarin.com/support/Intro_Pinyin.asp?TCode=IF7LE8HO

(I think one copied the other)

It has all the syllables, with all the tones. A click, and the pronunciation comes out very quickly (no waiting for a sound file to open).

Trouble is, some of the pronunciations are wrong. Check out initial 'c'. Sounds like an 'h'. I think it's just a slurred recording. Does anybody know where I can find a table like this (with tones) with correct pronunciation?

Thanks,

Leo

(PS - here's one without tones that has correct pronunciation, and fly-over pronunciation. Sweet! I wrote them a letter asking to add tones, but I'm not too hopeful.........)

http://www.instantspeakchinese.com/pinyin/pinyincombination1.cfm)

[HashiriKata]

Trouble is, some of the pronunciations are wrong. Check out initial 'c'. Sounds like an 'h'. I think it's just a slurred recording. Does anybody know where I can find a table like this (with tones) with correct pronunciation?

I think the pronunciation page by newconceptmandarin.com is a disgrace (see my posts spot-checking their mistakes: http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/8218-do-i-have-to-learn-by-heart-the-tones&page=2), because it can only harm unsuspecting learners and will take these learners years to unlearn their mistakes. The simplest and best website for a Mandarin syllable chart with sounds in my view is this one:

http://lost-theory.org/chinese/phonetics/

[leosmith]

The simplest and best website for a Mandarin syllable chart with sounds in my view is this one:

http://lost-theory.org/chinese/phonetics/

Thanks HashiriKata. I have some problems with this table though.

First, it's slow. Click a syllable, and the possible tone versions pop up. Click a tone version, a sound file pops up. Listen to the pronunciation, then close the sound file. It's much faster than using a dictionary, but still slow for drilling.

Second, they put the "solo" initial pronunciation before the syllable pronunciation in the first tone version. This makes it awkward to check pronunciation of the syllable. The other 4 tone versions are fine though.

Third, and this is minor, the recordings are low quality; they sound a little muffled to me.

Any body know of others?

[HashiriKata]

Hi Leo,

If you can find a more suitable version, that will be good but meanwhile I need to say something about your experience with The lost-theory version:

1. It's not slow: you don't need to close the sound page at all (just click anywhere on the chart page and the sound page will go behind the chart page and never appear again!). Then you just click on the next sound you want to hear and you will hear it. Click another sound, and another one,... you will always hear the new sounds you want to hear without ever having to see or to close the sound page.

2. I don't understand what you're saying about this one but if you don't find any use for it, why not just ignore it. I don't think it requires any attention at all. It's just a common method for spelling a syllable aloud.

3. The sounds are clear and accurate, and that is most important to me.

Anyway, good luck!

[imron]

I second HashiriKata. The first option given (the one without the tone) is a standard way that Chinese people will tell you how to pronounce a sound. They first give you the initial, then the final, and then put the two together. There's no reason to listen to it though if you don't like it, as the 4 tones are there as normal.

Regarding the opening and closing of sound files. If you really wanted, you could spend a bit of time downloading all the files then just create a playlist with them all - they'll all be in order if you sort alphabetically, then just open up your media player of choice and drill to your heart's content.

[leosmith]

Oh, I see what you mean about the first option there. Thanks for the suggestion about speeding things up; I may do that. Did they leave out neutral, or no-tone, or am I wrong again?

[imron]

No, you're not wrong. That page doesn't have sounds for the neutral tone, but it's pretty easy to figure it out if you've got a good grasp of the other sounds.