Wade-Giles Transcription

Consonant sounds that may begin a word

There are 23 of these, but a few are very hard for English speakers to distinguish.  Twelve of the 23 occur in paired sets, where one member of the set is "unvoiced" and has an aspiration mark ('), while the other is "voiced" and has no such mark.  Whenever a letter is followed by an ' it is pronounced as it is in English.  When the same letter has no aspiration mark, it is pronounced differently (it is voiced).  

ch'  as in chin                                                   ch  like "j" in jam

k'  as in kin                                                      k  like "g" in gun

p'  as in pin                                                       p  like "b" in bin

t'  as in tin                                                        t  like "d" in din

ts'  as in its                                                       ts  like "z" in zone

tz'  [like ts']                                                      tz  [like ts]

There are nine consonant initials that simply sound as they do in English. 

f, h, l, m, n, s, sh, w, and y are all similar to natural English readings

         Two unusual initials are as follows:

                   j  much like "r," as in run (an unusually bizarre choice)

hs  much like "sh," as in shoo!

Vowel sounds

Basic vowels:         a  as in father                           e  like "u" in up

i  like "ee" in bee                      o  as in soft

u  as in rude                             ü  as in German über

eh  like "e" in pen

Exceptions:             ih sounds like the "ir" in sir  (shih is pronounced much like "sure")

u after ss, tz, tz' is barely pronounced

u alone after y or i is pronounced like the "oe" in toe (yu is like "yo!"; liu is like Leo)

Diphthongs:            ai  like "i" in ice

ao  like "ow" in cow

ei  as in weigh

iu  like "yeo" in yeoman

ou  like "o" in obey

ui  like "way" in sway

Final consonants

                                 There are only two: n and ng, as in English son and song. (A final h is always silent.)