Standard Chinese phonology

The phonology of Standard Chinese has historically derived from the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. However, pronunciation varies widely among speakers, who may introduce elements of their local varieties. Television and radio announcers are chosen for their ability to affect a standard accent. The sound system has not only segments—i.e. vowels and consonants—but also tones, and each syllable has one. In addition to the four main tones, there is a neutral tone that appears on weak syllables.

This article uses the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to compare the phonetic values corresponding to syllables romanized with pinyin.