Initials and finals 聲母、韻母 (声母、韵母)

shēngmǔ, yùnmǔ · from Chinese

What are initials and finals in Chinese?

Initials and finals are the traditional Chinese way of splitting a syllable: the initial consonant and the rest (vowel plus any ending), with tone on top.

Chinese phonology since the rhyme dictionaries has analysed syllables this way rather than as individual letters. Pinyin and Zhuyin tables are organised by roughly 21 initials and 35 or more finals. Learning the system makes Mandarin pronunciation feel finite: about 400 syllables before tones.

Examples

光 guāng = g + uang; 學 xué = x + üe; 安 ān = zero initial + an

Kungfucius says: Mandarin has around 400 syllables. Your job is to stop mixing them up.