Show latin values important when speaking chinese in pronouncing chinese names the important thing to remember is that all vowels in the ordinary spellings have their latin values and not their english values that is a e i 1 0 u are pronounced ah beigh ee oa oo 00 there is a u with two dots on top german umlaut but that never r gets printed in newspapers being spelled like ordinary u which is of course confusing to the reader according to a chinese authority in the new york times once in a while a chinese spells his name according to english values as in the case of T V soong but T V soong english values rhymes perfectly with H H kung latin values the chinese make an important distinction between aspirated and consonants it and k ch and ch p and p etc but americans can ignore this distinction since they cannot make it and especially since this distinction is usually ignored in newspaper spellings ch in chiang kai shek is very much like j while aspirated ch in chen is pronounced like the regular ch as in church chiang kai shek pronounced like geisheck Gai sheck dont make ee too clear H H kung pronounced like koong chang hsueh liang pronounced like jaag soong meiling mine chiang pronounced like soong mayling feng yu h siang hsiang pronounced like fung as in fungus yu disregard hs and read it like sh fu tso yi pronounced like foo tsoi tso i sung tseh yuan pronounced like soong aser yoo an li tsung jen pronounced like lee dzuong ren always pronounce j as r pai tsung hsi pronounced like bai tsoong shee |