How to Pronounce Shenzhen, One of Chinas Major Cities

How to Pronounce Shenzhen, One of China's Major Cities Since Shenzhen was designated the first Special Economic Zone and an experiment in market capitalism in China in 1980, it has appeared frequently in Western news media. Today, it has a population of around 10 million people, with about twice that many in the larger metropolitan area. Considering that the city had little more than 300,000 citizens in 1980, its one of the fastest growing cities on record, even though the growth has recently slowed down considerably. The city was chosen as a Special Economic Zone because of its proximity to Hong Kong. Shenzhen is written æ · ±Ã¥Å" ³ in Chinese, which means deep and ditch (between fields). Were going to provide a quick and dirty explanation of how to pronounce the name so you have a rough idea of how to say it, followed by a more detailed description, including analysis of common errors. The Easy Way to Learn to Pronounce  Shenzhen Most Chinese cities have names with two characters (and therefore two syllables). Heres a brief description of the sounds involved:   Shen - Pronounce sh in sheep plus an as in an appleZhen - Pronounce as j in jungle plus an as in an apple If you want to have a go at the tones, they are high, flat, and falling respectively. Note:  This pronunciation is  not  correct pronunciation in Mandarin. It is our best effort to write the pronunciation using English words. To really get it right, you need to learn some new sounds (see below). Pronouncing Names in Chinese Pronouncing  names in Chinese  can be very hard if you havent studied the language; sometimes, its hard even if you have. Many letters used to write the sounds in Mandarin (called  Hanyu Pinyin) dont match the sounds they describe in English, so simply trying to read a Chinese name and guess the pronunciation will lead to many mistakes. Ignoring or mispronouncing tones will just add to the confusion. These mistakes add up and often become so serious that a native speaker would fail to understand.   How to Actually Pronounce Shenzhen If you study Mandarin, you should never ever rely on English approximations like those above. Those are meant for people who dont intend to learn the language! You have to understand the orthography (i.e., how the letters relate to the sounds). There are many  traps and pitfalls in Pinyin  you have to be familiar with. Now, lets look at the two syllables in more detail, including common learner errors: ShÄ“n (first tone): The initial is a retroflex, unaspirated, fricative. What does that mean? It means that it should feel like the tongue is slightly curled backwards as when saying right, and then pronounce a hissing sound (such as when urging someone to be quiet with Shhh!) This is close to sh in sheep, but the tongue tip is farther back. The final is reasonably easy to get right and sounds close to the short description above (an in an apple).Zhà ¨n  (fourth tone): This syllable is fairly easy to get right if you get the shen right. The only difference between the two is that zhen has a small stop in front of the hissing sound; you can think about it as a small and rather soft t. This type of sound is called an affricate, a combination between a stop and a fricative. The final part is pronounced the same as in shen. The are some variations for these sounds, but ShÄ“nzhà ¨n (æ · ±Ã¥Å" ³) can be written like this in IPA: [Ê‚É™n tÊ‚É™n] Conclusion Now you know how to pronounce ShÄ“nzhà ¨n (æ · ±Ã¥Å" ³). Did you find it hard? If you’re learning Mandarin, dont worry, there arent that many sounds. Once you learn the most common ones, learning to pronounce words (and names) will become much easier!