Syllabic Consonants
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    • note
    The sound represented by "i" here is complex. Si is often transcribed as /sz̩/ and is considered a "syllabic consonant". Some people analyse the vowel as being /ɯ/ or /ɨ/, which is a bit like ы in Russian, 으 (eu) in Korean or ư in Vietnamese. However, the syllabic consonant analysis is probably more accurate.


    note
    There are only 7 syllabic consonants. In all other cases the letter "i" represents the /i/ vowel like in "bee".


    note
    Comparison of si and shi. In strong northern accents, particularly in Beijing, shi is often more like "shr". In more neutral accents (such as in this recording), si and shi are similar apart from the initial consonant.


    note
    There is only one character in common use pronounced ri (日, with the tone rì). However, it's quite a high-frequency character and the pronunciation is notoriously difficult for beginners. Most people go wrong by trying to pronounce a separate consonant and vowel, when in fact there is only a single phoneme.
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