Hi Guys

I've been learning chinese by FSI Chinese audio tapes and I'm gettin a bit confused about positioning my tongue to pronounce properly. I understand intial pronunciation like palatal postion for "x", "j", "q" but am getting confused when finals come in.

An example is "li": I believe that the "l" is the initial sound where it is alveolar position then you move into the palatal position (/i/ position where the tongue is raised at the back with the front part behind the lower teeth) for the "i" as a final sound. Is this correct?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

at the very beginning,maybe you can try this way:find some english pronunciation which is most close to the chinese pinyin,like li in chinese is very close to lee in english(seems the same).

enjoy your chinese learning :-)

[tv.mofile.com]
A video about PinYin. Maybe it is useful for you.

"j"and"q" are voiceless dorso-palatal affricates. They are produced by first raising the first raising the front of the tongue to the hard palate and pressing the tip of the tongue against the back of the lower teeth and then loosening the tongue and letting the air squeeze out through the channel thus made. The vocal cords do not vibrate. "j" is unaspirated and "q"is aspirated.
"x" is a voiceless dorso-palatal fricative. It is produced by raising the front of the tongue towards the hard palate and letting the air squeeze out through the channel thus made. The vocal cords do not vibrate.

maybe it could help you. Enjoy you learning.

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我是一个中国女孩，我18岁。如果你想学中文，我可以帮助你。

Try to pronounce li as LEE.
Got it? Hope it works.

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you can learn how to pronounce "li"

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