A sylllable in the common speech of modern Chinese usually consist of an initial, which is consonant that begins the syllable, and a final, which constitutes the rest of the syllable. For example, in the syllable “píng”, “p” is the initial and “íng” is the final.

A syllable can stand without an final, such as “y”, but a syllable must have a final.

In the common speech of modern Chinese, there are 21 initials and 38 finals altogether.

Initials: m, n, l, p are pronounced similarly to their counterparts in the English language:
- b like “p” in “speak”(unaspirated, voiceless)
- p like “p” in “park”(asp)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/08/2010 12:24AM by Olive.

There are some which starts with a vowel and ends with a consonant/consonant clusters. There are some which starts and ends with two or more vowels and no consonants.
In Chinese, at least somewhere, there MUST be a vowel.

-ing is NOT a final! -ng IS! The i is the vowel between the initial, p- and the final -ng.

"There are 21 initials and 38 finals altogether."
There's 23 initials and 9 finals, where the middle vowels might or might not be the same as the finals.

Stop listening to Sinologists. They're wrong!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/2010 09:13AM by Trien.

Trien, according to the concept, "ing" IS a final. The concept of final isn't related to vowel at all, it's just what comes after the initial consonants in the pinyin writing system. There are some that are just a vowel, and some are a combination of vowel(s) and a nasal or the retroflex r. What I'm calling "vowel" is the written vowels, because orally some special cases don't even have a vowel, as in "ri", "zhi", "zi", etc. (well, this is controvertial)

"according to the concept, "ing" IS a final." What concept? Chinese linguistics when made by non-Chinese speakers is always troubling: There's is no such thing as an alphabet in Chinese, so strictly speaking, each person would have their own opinion [depending on what their native European language is], but ASK A Chinese person what they think FIRST!
Most of these "linguists" and their "concepts" are what I call BS! -ng is a FINAL! NOT -ing. -ing is part of a made up structure which isn't really CHINESE at all. "ping" as a syllable isn't really Chinese. It's in "romanized Chinese"!

So called "ping1" should be "ㄆㄧㄥ":
ㄆ = p [onset / initial], ㄧ = (y)i [nucleus/vowel], ㄥ = (e)ng [coda / final] ! ㄥ = ng = final!

In the common speech of modern Chinese, there are 21 initials and 38 finals altogether.
According to Zhuyin Fuhao, "Consisting of 37 letters and 4 tone marks [most commonly used]."
At total of "37 letters", NOT "38 finals...." 37 letters - 21 initials = 16 finals!

Hanyu Pinyin tend to be incorrect concerning FINALS falling into the trap of following the way it's used in other languages. Since Zhuyin Fuhao was created BEFORE Hanyu Pinyin, it would be more accurate. Ask Chinese people what a FINAL [尾音] is and they will tell you mostly the same thing "the last part of a syllable or the end part which rhymes with other words" due to Chinese poetry. There were not enough studies like Modern Chinese linguistics based on the concept known through foreign languages. Yet still that could've been done since there's so many languages in use by so many non-Chinese [Turkic, Arabic, Hindi, Manchu, Mongolian, Persian, etc...] in China during its many dynasties.

Source: [en.wikipedia.org]
[en.wikipedia.org]

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/2010 09:25AM by Trien.

"The romanization system was developed by a government committee in the People's Republic of China (PRC), and approved by the Chinese government on February 11, 1958.

Source: "Pinyin celebrates 50th birthday". Xinhua News Agency. 2008-02-11. [www.china.org.cn]. Retrieved 2008-09-20."

What other Chinese do u want me to search for information?

U r mixing things up: initials and finals don't have anything to do with the linguistic concepts of attack, nucleus, coda. Regarding to those I would agree with you that -ng is the syllable's coda (final). But in pinyin a final would be the sum of what we call "nucleus + coda" in Linguistics.

Don't use the linguistics concepts of syllable structure as if they were the concepts of Chinese pinyin itself.

"The romanization system was developed by a government committee in the People's Republic of China (PRC), and approved by the Chinese government on February 11, 1958."
I don't get your point: There's NOT just ONE romanization system of Chinese in this world! Most were created BEFORE Pinyin: Wade-Giles, Guoyu Romazi, etc...

You and those linguists are mixing things up. Most romanizations and linguistic reforms are made by government bodies, whether they're called commmittees, etc... BUT some are NOT.

What I said was Zhuyin fuhao tend to be more correct due to it being created first, and based on Mandarin, and NOT Putonghua. Pinyin relies more on putonghua and blurs the line between what the real meaning of "final" is and their delusional way of thinking what a "final" should be.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/12/2010 11:14PM by Trien.

"Zhuyin fuhao tend to be more correct due to it being created first"

Oh, that's really a greatly valid point...

Know what? Shut the f*** up, go move to Taiwan and live happily with your 注音符号.