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Comparative Study on Chinese character pronunciations in Korean, Japanese, Cantonese, and Mandarin

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From :

https://universalalphaomega.blogspot.com/2022/11/comparative-study-on-chinese-character.html


 

I. The Checked Tone feature of ancient Chinese pronunciation

 

Chinese character pronunciations in Korean, Japanese, and Cantonese retain some important features of ancient Chinese that are lost in Mandarin. One of these features is the Checked Tone (入聲).

 

For example, the pronunciations of Chinese character ‘’ in different languages are :

 

Chinese character

Cantonese

Korean

Japanese

Mandarin

mok

mok

moku

mu

 

’ is pronounced ‘mok’ in both Cantonese and Korean. The ending ‘k’ in ‘mok’ is called a Checked Tone  or an Entering Tone (入聲), which is an important feature of ancient Chinese.

 

The Japanese pronunciation of ‘’ is ‘moku’. The second syllable ‘ku’ is a simulation of the Checked Tone ‘k’.

 

Why ‘k’ becomes ‘ku’ in Japanese ? Because Japanese uses Kana(仮名)s to simulate foreign language pronunciations. A Kana is either a vowel or a consonant+vowel combination. ( The only one exception is ‘’ / ‘’ pronounced ‘n’. ) There is no Kana for a single consonant ‘k’, so the only solution is to choose a Kana of [ ‘k’ + vowel ] pronunciation to simulate the consonant-only ‘k’. In this case, Kana ‘’ / ‘’, pronounced ‘ku’, is chosen.

 

If we say ‘moku’ in Japanese quickly, the vowel ‘u’ can be pronounced lightly or omitted, so it will sound like ‘mok’, same as the Cantonese and Korean pronunciation.

 

The Mandarin pronunciation of ‘’ is ‘mu’. It also starts with the consonant ‘m’, but the following vowel changes to ‘u’, and the Checked Tone ‘k’ is lost.

 

Both Japan and Korea learnt ancient Chinese pronunciations from ancient China. The pronunciations of ‘’ in Cantonese, Korean and Japanese all have the Checked Tone ‘k’, this is a proof that the ancient Chinese pronunciation of ‘’ has a Checked Tone ‘k’, which is lost in Mandarin.

 

( Some dictionaries indicate that ‘’ is pronounced ‘mog’ in Korean. Actually the ending Checked Tone can be written as ‘k’ or ‘g’, it is just a glottal stop that does not utter an actual sound. )

 

 

Another example, Chinese character ‘’ :

 

Chinese character

Cantonese

Korean

Japanese

Mandarin

baak

baek

byaku

bai

 

We can see that all the pronunciations have a common starting consonant ‘b’, followed by similar sounds ‘aa’, ‘ae’, ‘ya’, and ‘ai’, and then the Cantonese, Korean and Japanese pronunciations all end with Checked Tones, which are ‘k’ in Cantonese and Korean, and ‘ku’ in Japanese. The Mandarin pronunciation is the only one that does not have a Checked Tone.

 

( The ending Checked Tone ‘k’ can also be written as ‘g’. )

 

 

Another example, Chinese character ‘’ :

 

Chinese character

Cantonese

Korean

Japanese

Mandarin

gwok

guk

goku

guo

 

All the pronunciations of ‘’ have a common starting consonant ‘g’, followed by various sounds ‘wo’, ‘u’, ‘o’, and ‘uo’, and then the Cantonese, Korean and Japanese pronunciations all end with Checked Tones, which are ‘k’ in Cantonese and Korean, and ‘ku’ in Japanese. The Mandarin pronunciation is the only one that does not have a Checked Tone.

 

(  ’ in Japanese is pronounced ‘goku’ when it is in a term constructed by two or more Chinese characters. e.g. 中國’, ‘外國’, ‘全國’, etc. )

 

( The ending Checked Tone ‘k’ can also be written as ‘g’. )

 

 

More examples :

 

Chinese character

Cantonese

Korean

Japanese

Mandarin

Checked Tone

bok

bok

boku

pu

k

suk

suk

suku

su

k

gik

gyeok

geki

ji

k

pok

pak

boku

pu

k

宿

suk

suk

shuku

su

k

kok

kok

kyoku

qu

k

gok

gak

kaku

jiao

k

yik

yeok

eki

yi

k

lok

lyuk

loku

liu

k

gaap

gaap

ko

jia

p

haap

haap

go

he

p

kaap

keup

kyu

ji

p

 

 

II. The Changed Starting Consonants

 

Another noteworthy change from ancient Chinese pronunciation to Mandarin is that, in the pronunciations of many Chinese characters, the starting consonants are significantly changed.

 

For example, Chinese character ‘’ :

 

Chinese character

Cantonese

Korean

Japanese

Mandarin

maan

maan

maan

wan


’ is pronounced ‘maan’ in Cantonese, Korean and Japanese, but ‘wan’ in Mandarin. The starting consonant changes from ‘m’ to ‘w’ in the Mandarin pronunciation.

 

 

Another example, Chinese character ‘’ :

 

Chinese character

Cantonese

Korean

Japanese

Mandarin

man

mun

mon

wen

 

The Cantonese, Korean and Japanese pronunciations of ‘’ have a common starting consonant ‘m’, which becomes ‘w’ in the Mandarin pronunciation.

 

 

Another example, Chinese character ‘’ :

 

Chinese character

Cantonese

Korean

Japanese

Mandarin

mou

mu

mu

wu

 

The Cantonese, Korean and Japanese pronunciations of ‘’ have a common starting consonant ‘m’, which becomes ‘w’ in the Mandarin pronunciation.
 

 

More examples :

 

Chinese character

Cantonese

Korean

Japanese

Mandarin

kyu

kyu

kyo

qiao

koeng

kang

kyo

qiang

mei

mi

mi

wei

kei

ki

ki

qi

gei

gi

gi

ji

gaa

ga

ga

qie

mou

mu

mu

wu

man

mun

mon

wen

mou

mu

mu

wu

syun

seon

sen

chuan

pak

pak

paku (in ‘船舶’)

bo

kei

ki

ki

qi

 

 

III. Significant Difference between Mandarin and Ancient Chinese Pronunciation

 

There are a lot more Chinese characters that sound similar in Cantonese, Korean and Japanese, but significantly different in Mandarin.


In some cases, Mandarin pronunciations are very different from the ancient pronunciations not only because of changed consonants or vowels, but also because of other factors.

 

For example, Chinese character ‘’ :

 

Chinese character

Cantonese

Korean

Japanese

Mandarin

yi

i

ni

er

 

The Cantonese, Korean and Japanese pronunciations of ‘’ have a common vowel ‘i’, which is changed to ‘e’ in the Mandarin pronunciation. Furthermore, in the Mandarin pronunciation an ending ‘r’ is added, making the sound even more different from the ancient Chinese pronunciations.

 

 

Another example, Chinese character ‘’ :

 

Chinese character

Cantonese

Korean

Japanese

Mandarin

sim

seon

sen

chan

 

The pronunciations of ‘’ in Cantonese, Korean and Japanese have a common starting consonant ‘s’, which becomes ‘ch’ in the Mandarin pronunciation. The Mandarin pronunciation is significantly different because the starting consonant is changed to a retroflex consonant.

 

( A well-known pronunciation of ‘’ in Japanese is ‘zen’, which is a Go-On (吳音). The pronunciation ‘sen’, actually sounds a little bit like ‘sem’, is a Kan-On (漢音). )


 

Another example, Chinese character ‘’ :

 

Chinese character

Cantonese

Korean

Japanese

Mandarin

gok

gak

kaku

jue

 

Firstly, the Cantonese, Korean and Japanese pronunciation start with similarly sounding consonants ‘g’, ‘k’, while the Mandarin pronunciation starts with a significantly different consonant ‘j’.

 

( Actually the starting consonant in the Cantonese and Korean pronunciation can also be written as ‘k’, and the starting consonant in the Japanese pronunciation sometimes sounds like ‘g’. )

 

Secondly, the Checked Tone ‘k’ is retained in the Cantonese, Korean and Japanese pronunciation, but lost in the Mandarin pronunciation.

 

( The Checked Tone ‘k’ can also be written as ‘g’. )

 

Because of these two factors, the Mandarin pronunciation is significantly different from the Cantonese, Korean and Japanese pronunciation.

 

 

More examples :

 

Chinese character

Cantonese

Korean

Japanese

Mandarin

gai

gae

kai

jie

gaan

gaan

kaan

jian

gaa

gaa

ka

jia

gong

gang

ko

jiang

yoek

yak

nyaku

ruo

ok / ngok

ok

oku

wu

gin

gyeon

ken

jian

gin

gyeon

ken

jian

paak

paak

baku

bo

gong

gang

ko

jiang

yi

i

ni

er

goek

gak

kyaku

jiao

 

Edited by alphone

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Taoist scriptures and Chinese Buddhist sutras are treasures of ancient Chinese culture. There is no doubt that knowing some ancient Chinese pronunciation can help us to better understand these ancient texts, especially when it comes to language tricks, metaphors, and transliterations. Sometimes you cannot understand a language trick or a metaphor if you do not know the correct pronunciation.

 

Furthermore, Buddhist Mantras and Dharanis were transliterated from Sanskrit to Chinese according to ancient Chinese pronunciation, therefore if you read them in modern Mandarin, the pronunciation could be very different from the original Sanskrit pronunciation. There is an article that talks about these issue :

 

https://universalalphaomega.blogspot.com/2022/06/cantonese-is-useful-tool-for-chinese.html

Edited by alphone
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