User talk:Terry Kotter

Pinyin
Sorry, but pinyin y and w are not pronounced [i] and [u]. They're approximants [j] and [w]. Yes, they are phonemically the same as the medials i and u, but note those are not vowels either, but semivowels (they're not syllabic). The only things pronounced [i] and [u] in Mandarin are the finals i and u, but these do not become y and w with there is no initial, but take an extra y or w in the orthography: yi, wu. Anyway, this is all way too much detail for an explanation of an alphabet. It belongs in the phonology section of Mandarin. kwami (talk) 02:35, 7 January 2009 (UTC)