Hey guys, I never learned PinYin formally I just picked it up on my own by reading signs. I read somewhere that the letter “v” and umlaut “u” is sometimes used to represent the “u” sound as in lu4 (green) or nu3 (female). I have actually never seen the “v” used in any signs, and what if the umlaut “u” is not used (I’ve seen it only a handful of times)? How do you guys know when something is pronounced lu4 as in road and not lu4 as in green?
Do you always go by context? If so, what if you’re a new language learner? Do you just get confused or is there a rule to learn?
The same would go for nu3 li4 (effort) and nu3 li4 (girl power <<< trust me, I HAVE heard and seen this one).
I think I’m missing something here because I never studied PinYin, so any answers would be appreciated!
[quote=“914”]Hey guys, I never learned PinYin formally I just picked it up on my own by reading signs. I read somewhere that the letter “v” and umlaut “u” is sometimes used to represent the “u” sound as in lu4 (green) or nu3 (female). I have actually never seen the “v” used in any signs, and what if the umlaut “u” is not used (I’ve seen it only a handful of times)? How do you guys know when something is pronounced lu4 as in road and not lu4 as in green?
Do you always go by context? If so, what if you’re a new language learner? Do you just get confused or is there a rule to learn?
The same would go for nu3 li4 (effort) and nu3 li4 (girl power <<< trust me, I HAVE heard and seen this one).
I think I’m missing something here because I never studied PinYin, so any answers would be appreciated! [/quote]
I’ve seen “v” used on some signs in mainland China. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a plain “u” to represent that vowel, at least when HYPY is used (note that I’m only talking about “nu” and “lu” here, not “qu” or “xu”). I’ve seen it plenty of times in bastardized W-G, though (e.g. Annette Lu).
I suppose if I do see it, I’d have to guess it from context (if the character isn’t available), or ask someone who knows better.
Well, since there’s no convenient umlauted u on the keyboard, at least one input system substitutes the ‘v’. I wonder if this is the source of this ‘v’ usage. I’ve never seen it elsewhere, though. As for the optional nature of the umlaut, after a y, j, q or x the only possibility is the umlauted u sound, never the plain u sound, so then the umlaut is optional and it is commonly ommited. But after an n- or l- both are possible, so the umlaut is necessary and never omitted.
