Letters of Alphabet Used

a

 similar to a as in English word “father”, except a little shorter.

ai

 = combined sound of a and i; as in English words “aisle” or “Thai” .

ao

 = combined sound of a and o (similar to ow as in English word “cow” except end with mouth less tight).

b

 = b as in English word “boy”.  Note: b at end of a Romanised Teochew word is pronounced lightly, air not released.

c

 not used. 

ch

 = aspirated ts in international phonetics, i.e. ts^h = c in Hanyu Pinyin (similar to ch in English word “church”, except open mouth a little less and speak from front of mouth).

d

 not used except at end of a Romanised Teochew word: d as in English word “said”, except air is not released.

e

 = e as in English word “pen”.

ei

 = combined sound of e and i, as in English word “feign” or ay as in English word “say”. 

er

 = i as in “zi” or in “si” in Hanyu Pinyin (similar to er as in English word “her”, but require middle part of tongue to be pushed against the roof of the mouth and open mouth a little less).  

f

 not used.

g

 = g as in English word “go”.   Note: Where g (but not ng) is at the end of a Romanised Teochew word, it is pronounced as g in English word “twig” except air is not released.

h

 = h as in English word “has”.

i

 = i as in English word “sit” but longer or = ee as in English word “see” but shorter (i.e. between i and i: in international phonetics = i as in xi or qi in Hanyu Pinyin).

ia

 = combined sound of i and a (similar to ia in English word “tiara”).

iao

 = combined sound of i and ao

io

 = combined sound of i and o (similar to io in English word “kiosk” except end with mouth opened less wide).

iu

 = combined sound of i and u.

j

 = similar to j in English word “jam”, except tongue exerts less pressure and open mouth a little less.

k

 = non-aspirated k = k as in English word “thicker” 

kh

 = kh as in English word “khaki”  = k as in English word “kick” (= aspirated k = k^h in international phonetics).

l

 = l as in English word “long”.

m

 = m as in English word “man”.

n

 = n as in English word “no”.

ng

 = ng as in English word “song”.

o

 = similar to o as in English word “song” except pronounced with mouth opened less wide (= o in international phonetics = o in Hanyu Pinyin). 

oi

 = combined sound of o and i = similar to oi in English word “coin” or “oil”.

ou

 = combined sound of o and u = ou as in English word “boulder” or o as in English word “so”.

p

 = non-aspirated p = p as in English word “paper’.

ph

 = aspirated p = p^h in international phonetics = p as in English word “paper”.   For those who are worried of mispronouncing ph, you may write it as p^h. 

q

 not used.

r

 not used except in er.

s

 = s as in English word “say”.

t

 = non-aspirated t = t as in English word “total”.

th

 = aspirated t = t^h in international phonetics = th as in English words “Thailand" or "Thames” = t as in English word “total”.  For those who are worried of mispronouncing th, you may write it as t^h. 

u

 = u as in English word “full” but longer = oo in “fool” but shorter (i.e. between u and u: in international phonetics).

ua

 = combined sound of u and a.

uai

 = combined sound of u and ai.

ue

 = combined sound of u and e, similar to ue in English word question.

ui

 = combined sound of u and i, similar to ui in English word “equip”.

v

 not used

w

 not used

x

 not used

y

 not used

z

 = z in Hanyu Pinyin (= non-aspirated ts in international phonetics, similar to non-aspirated ch in English word “church”, except open mouth a little less and speak from front of mouth).