Just a thought... would any of the group (who do not speak Chinese) find a 'talking' bablecarp useful ?
While I use Babelcarp extensively (and appreciatively) , I'm constantly wondering if I am interpreting the words/phrases properly. if we could say type in 'Shu' to get the description as we usually do, what if you could also click a button and hear a sound bite of the correct (or more common) pronounciation.
Obviously a lot of work for someone, but do others on the group think that this feature may be useful ?
First of all: In the absence of a Pronounce button on the Babelcarp page, you can find everything you need to know about Mandarin pronunciation here:
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Actually, I'm tempted to say that most of the hard work is already done, since virtually all the Mandarin phrases in Babelcarp's database are now annotated for tones. Not that I've looked yet, but somehow I think that somewhere on the Web there must be a site that'll generate, say, an MP3 file that pronounces a Pinyin phrase for you. It would be kind of robotic, because it wouldn't parse the phrase, but especially for short phrases, not too bad. If there is such a thing out there, then I should be able to work it in. Assuming, that is, people really want it...
On this Chinese-English dictionary site you can find pronounciations. You can try searching for single syllables if you can't find the entire Chinese word.
Appreciate the responses.... will look into all the suggestions made. I've also got a 'Learn Madarin in 15 Minutes a Day' CD/Book at home which will also help wih some of the basics. Whilst this should assist with simple everyday (touristy) type scenarios, I just don't want to sound like a tosser if I mispronouce simple tea related things ;-)
also. Great site, and very helpful for looking up characters / tones / pronounciation in a variety of different ways (there's even a way to draw characters in and get selection of possible matches).
Keep in mind that, even within Mandarin, there are differences in pronounciation from region to region (a lot of audio courses pronounce everything with a Beijing accent). And once you start talking about other languages / dialects, things get even hairier.
I'm happy to learn about nciku.com! For my own character- pronunciation needs (actually less important now that I'm studying Chinese), I've used the pronunciation guides on
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Just type in the pinyin (with or without tones), find the right characters, click, and listen! It won't do phrases, but you can get each character and string them together yourself.
In terms of learning Chinese terms for tea, I'd be less interested in a pronunciation guide than I would a categorized list of tea-related vocabulary words. E.g., a list of oolongs (with characters, pinyin, and english), a list of puer terms, a list of tea producing regions, a list of commonly used tea adjectives, a list of tea-related verbs, etc. If anyone knows of anything like this, I'd be interested in it. My goal would be to eventually read a bit more online about tea in Chinese. I could, of course, look up words in a dictionary, but my dictionary probably wouldn't have all of the necessary specialized terms.
cha bing, we may have what you desire -- or something like it -- at CHA DAO. see the post at
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-- in composing which i had constant recourse to babelcarp and other lexical sources. [i also picked the brains of at least half-a-dozen native speakers -- which, unsurprisingly for those who study language, often made things less clear. or at least, let us say, less simple to account for in a simple list. language is like a many-faceted gem, constantly turning -- and with every turn it refracts the light in a new and different way. and this would be true even if tea culture were not such a long and nuanced tradition; even if the chinese-speaking world were not so ancient and populous.]
i should note that i consider this handlist a work in progress. its last revision, i see, was in july; but i have had a particularly eventful year, and thus less time than i would have liked for such projects. but helpful colleagues and friends have noted [a few] details here and there that should be changed, and when i get the chance, i will make those. overall i would say the work is pretty accurate. one can always add more tea destinations! and if you saw niisonge's list of teahouses -- just in beijing -- you will get some idea of the massive scope. in revising the 'destinations' portion, i will try to stick to places i myself have visited and/or places that come with high recommendation from trusted sources.
i like your idea of 'tea adjectives' and 'tea verbs' and such. these are perhaps underrepresented in the handlist, though you will find some in section 8. that's a direction in which i could try to expand the thing in the future. meanwhile, i hope you find helpful what's already there.
This is great. Thanks. This ought to keep me busy for a while, but I will note two things: (1) it would be helpful to have both the complex and the simplified characters; also, (2) in some words you indicate tones--it would be useful if this was done in all words. Could it also be useful to have Cantonese pronunciation? Maybe for HK, but I don't know cantonese at all so I am inclined myself to stick with mandarin. Other than that, the list is pretty much exactly what I was looking for. I'll be sure to bookmark it.
[corax] cha bing, we may have what you desire -- or something like it -- at CHA DAO. see the post at
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[cha bing] This is great. Thanks. This ought to keep me busy for a while, but I will note two things: (1) it would be helpful to have both the complex and the simplified characters; also, (2) in some words you indicate tones--it would be useful if this was done in all words. Could it also be useful to have Cantonese pronunciation? Maybe for HK, but I don't know cantonese at all so I am inclined myself to stick with mandarin. Other than that, the list is pretty much exactly what I was looking for. I'll be sure to bookmark it.
[corax] glad you find this helpful so far. it can always use refining. as for the chinese characters, i did offer traditional hanzi for taiwan teas, and simplified for the rest, but i can see the usefulness of having both versions for all. for some time now lew has been updating babelcarp in this way [as with the addition of tones] and both of those changes would also be worthwhile for this handlist. as for expanding it to cantonese -- whew -- that would be a fairly gigantic project! but maybe somewhere down the road. meanwhile, thanks for all your feedback, in this and your previous message.
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