I’ve been trying to figure out a semi-accurate way of pronouncing Mandarin words. The Pinyin system doesn’t represent correct pronounciation according to English rules, but is rather just a consistent encoding scheme with its own local rules.
However, I’ve noticed that the mappings between Pinyin and the Palladiy cyrillization system are unambiguous and the resulting speech (when done according to standard Russian pronounciation) sounds closer to real Mandarin to my untrained ear. Is this really the case, or am I butchering Mandarin as much as before, albeit in a different way?
Unless you are using the right tones when you are pronouncing the Mandarin sounds, you are probably “butchering Mandarin” (BIGTIME!).
You’ve got to find a good instructor to teach you the tones. In Mandarin, tones are the most basic foundation for learning how to speak the language. Without this foundation, you will never be understood. Often there are four ways (tones) to pronounce a single sound like “ta”. And each one of these tones has a different meaning. If you are not hitting the right tone, you are saying a completely different “word” than you meant to. (Very confusing for the listener).