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(What's Being worked on: Spelling/usage/modifications of X-SAMPA, recording scripts, etc.)
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About[]
Within China itself, there are many different languages that are members of the Sinitic Language Family, including Mandarin, Cantonese, Yin, and so on. Despite these acting as different languages, they are known in English as "dialects." There are many regional dialects of the official "dialects" of Chinese.[1]
The official language of the People's Republic of China is Mandarin, due to Mandarin being a wide-spread dialect and the dialect that officials would use in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Mandarin is not mutually intelligible with the other dialects, as the other dialects are actually different languages.[1] The language itself originated from Northern China and spread over time. Mandarin is spoken by 70% of all Chinese within China. When taken as a whole there are an estimated 1 billion Mandarin speakers, the most of any language in the world. Common forms of this language are also considered the lingua franca of China.
Mandarin Chinese has 21 consonants and 16 vowels. They can be combined together to create over 400 mono-syllabic sounds.[2] As a tonal language, Mandarin Chinese also has 4 main tones and a neutral tone that changes the meaning of a word depending on the tone. However, when composing lyrics, tones are usually ignored. The exception is rap music where tones are preserved because it is more spoken than sung.[3]
Synthesizer V and the Mandarin Chinese language[]
(We can talk about the spelling, usage, and modifications of X-SAMPA, and other technical stuffs)
Mandarin Chinese recording scripts[]
Notes on accents[]
Despite the general belief that singers completely lose their accents when they sing, this is not the case in every instance and an accent is possible to be heard even in singing vocals.
However, the reason many are led to believe this is that there are several methods of training singers to disguise or otherwise hide their natural accentsāthey may even adopt an accent that isn't their own for singing. Samples include genres such as western or country, black music such as jazz or soul. Singing also uses different muscles to speech, resulting in difference of air pressure and way the throat moves. Genres such as opera are most likely to make a accent appear almost entirely absent thanks to the impact of the opera vibrato.[4][5]
Synthesizer V will capture any form of accent quite easily at times. It depends on the recording method used by the voice provider, the type of sound being recorded per sample (accent impact varies per sample and language), and āin the case of Standard voice databasesā overall number of samples that make up the voice database (the more samples, the more chance of it slipping in). (Types of voice database produced: "Standard" concatenative by "chanting" the scripts contains almost all possible phoneme transitions in particular pitches and tempos; or AI-based by actually sing, apparently also impact the accent.)
Native accented[]
Mainland Mandarin Chinese accented[]
Taiwanese Mandarin Chinese accented[]
Non-native accented[]
Synthesizer V Studio version 1.5.0 introduced the Cross-Lingual Singing Synthesis feature, which allows all AI voice databases to sing in all languages supported by the software, regardless of the language(s) in which they're recorded. All voice databases recorded in languages other than Mandarin Chinese are considered to be non-native accented, due to a deliberate decision to leave subtle accents in place.[6]
Accent unknown or undetermined[]
Phonetic system's characteristics[]
Phonetic list[]
| Symbol | Classification | IPA symbol/name | Example | Notes | Related phonemes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | vowel | a | å a, č er | ||
| A | vowel | É | ę ang | ||
| o | vowel | o | ę wo | ||
| @ | vowel | ɤ | ę© en | ||
| e | vowel | e | é» hei | ||
| 7 | vowel | É | é„æ e | ||
| U | vowel | Ź | ēŗ¢ hong | ||
| u | vowel | u | ę wu | ||
| i | vowel | i | äø yi | ||
| i\ | vowel | å si | |||
| i` | vowel | ÉØ | å shi | ||
| y | vowel | y | äø yĆ¼ | ||
| AU | diphthong | aŹ | 儽 hao | ||
| @U | diphthong | oŹ | ꬧ ou | ||
| ia | diphthong | ia | 家 jia | ||
| iA | diphthong | å° jiang | |||
| iAU | diphthong | jaŹ | å° xiao | ||
| ie | diphthong | je | äŗ xie | ||
| iE | diphthong | iÉ | å qian | ||
| iU | diphthong | jŹ | ē©· qiong | ||
| i@U | diphthong | joŹ | å°± jiou | ||
| y{ | diphthong | É„a | čæ yuan | ||
| yE | diphthong | É„É | å xian | ||
| ua | diphthong | wa | å hua | ||
| uA | diphthong | ē kuang | |||
| u@ | diphthong | é”ŗ shun | |||
| ue | diphthong | åƹ dui | |||
| uo | diphthong | å¤ duo | |||
| :\i | glide | ÉŖ | čæ hai, , å bei | ||
| r\` | final consonant | ɹĢ© | č er | ||
| :n | final consonant | āĢ | å® an, ę© en | ||
| N | final consonant | Å | ęØŖ heng | ||
| p | initial consonant | p | ę³¢ bo | ||
| ph | initial consonant | pŹ° | å” po | ||
| t | initial consonant | t | ē de | ||
| th | initial consonant | tŹ° | ē¹ te | ||
| k | initial consonant | k | å„ ge | ||
| kh | initial consonant | kŹ° | åÆ ke | ||
| ts\ | initial consonant | ŹŹ | å ji | ||
| ts\h | initial consonant | ŹŹŹ° | äø qi | ||
| ts | initial consonant | tĶ”s | å zi | ||
| tsh | initial consonant | tĶ”sŹ° | ꬔ ci | ||
| ts` | initial consonant | tÉ | åŖ zhi | ||
| ts`h | initial consonant | tÉŹ° | å chi | ||
| x | initial consonant | x | å he | also pronounced as h | |
| f | initial consonant | f | ä½ fo | ||
| s | initial consonant | s | å si | ||
| s` | initial consonant | É | å shi | ||
| s\ | initial consonant | Ź | č„æ xi | ||
| m | initial consonant | m | ę« mo | ||
| n | initial consonant | n | å¢ ne | ||
| l | initial consonant | l | äŗ le | ||
| z` | initial consonant | É» | ę„ ri | also pronounced as Ź | |
| w | initial consonant | w | å wa | ||
| j | initial consonant | j | äŗ ya |
References[]
- ā 1.0 1.1 A Grammar of Mandarin
- ā "An Insider's Guide to Mandarin Chinese Pronunciation"
- ā "Music and Mandarin"
- ā "Why Don't You Hear Someone's Accent in a Song?"
- ā "Why British Singers Lose Their Accents When Singing"
- ā ććÆćäŗŗéćØåŗå„ćć¤ććŖćꬔå ć«ćå¤čØčŖć§ęćę©č½ćęč¼ććSynthesizer Vć®ē “å£å
See also[]
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