How is the pinyin 'iu' pronounced?

Question

How does one pronounce the 'iu' sound (as in liu4 = six)?

I have always said it and heard it to end in an [joʊ] sound, as in 'low', 'go', and 'sew'.

But once I was told that it should actually be a 'u' sound, perhaps something like [jʊ] or [jʊ:] as in 'few'. (And from the pinyin, I suppose it would make more sense.)

Is a 'u' sound the proper way to pronounce it? Or is this merely a regional difference in pronunciation (where both are acceptable)?

Answer 1

The short version: I think (English) "go" is closer to the correct sound than (English) "few". If you want a non-scientific description which is reasonably accurate, I would use "low" (let's switch to the same consonant) with an added but not emphasised [i] between "l" and"ow".

The slightly longer version: (Pinyin) "-iu" is short for "-iou", which means that if you stress the syllable and pronounce it very clearly, it rhymes with (Pinyin) "you". For example, listen to the "liu" (select the third tone, it's longest and clearest) pronounced here.

However, note that the diacritic (tone mark) in "liù" is placed on the "u" and not the "i", which means that "u" is emphasised and "i" reduced. This can be written in several ways, but in Duanmu's The Phonology of Standard Chinese (2007), the broad transcription is [liəu] but in the narrow transcription, the [i] has been reduced to a superscript [j] (don't seem to be able to write superscript here, though, sorry). This reduction is fairly obvious if you listen to natural, connected speech. It's also common to further reduce the [əu]. If you listen to the same sources as above, but select the fourth tone for the same syllable "liu", you will hear the difference.

Answer 2

See also my answer to a similar question.

All characters consonant+iu are pronounced as "ee-ow" and not as "ee-oo". So liu would rhyme, so to speak, with low rather than few.

So when you say:

I have always said it and heard it to end in an [joʊ] sound, as in 'low', 'go', and 'sew'.

You are correct, this is the proper way to pronounce it in Mandarin. Certainly, using English is not exact but it gives you the idea if you already heard it.

But once I was told that it should actually be a 'u' sound, perhaps something like [jʊ] or [jʊ:] as in 'few'.

Who told you that is wrong. Perhaps in some dialect that's the way, but as far as Mandarin is concerned, you should stick to the original way you knew.

Answer 3

Actually fefe's answer is a pretty good one (except maybe on the the remark that it is similar to few).

The gist is: iu is the combination i and ou. So you start with the pronuncation is i and then put your lips and tongue together to get the ou.

From the book Mandarin Pronunciation, Explained with Diagrams

/iou/ is the combination of /i/ and /ou/. The /i/ in Mandarin is similar to the English /i:/ as in see, sea. The /ou/ is similar to the English /ou/ as in so, no. The Mandarin /iou/ is an even triphtong. In the production of the sound the jaw opens a little and then closes.

See the link for the picture of the tongue and lip positions.

From http://chinesepod.com/tools/pronunciation/section/8:

Mandarin's iu sound can confuse you because what is written is actually an abbreviated form of "iou," a straightforward combination of the vowel sounds i and ou (see Section 2). Thus the iu syllable sounds similar to the "yo" of the English word "yo-yo," with a bit more "oo" sound on the end. It is written as you when it stands alone, and as iu when it is preceded by a consonant (for example, diu, niu, liu).

This being said, there is quite some variation on how it pronounces in practice. The correct way is to have an ou sound (this is pinyin notation), however quite often native speakers pronounce it as u (again pinyin notation).

Answer 4

I think there are indeed some people who when speaking Mandarin with the accent of their own dialect end up sounding more like "few". For example, I think some Taiwanese native speakers sound like that when they speak in Mandarin.

Answer 5

To me, the sound would be very similar to the one in "Few".

If you look at the IPA of "iu" in Chinese, which you can find in wiki ([iɤu], with some decorations I'm not able to reproduce here) or SAMPA-C ([iəu], "iu" is spelled as "iou" in the document), you'll see that unlike the [jʊ] in "Few", we used [i], but not [j] and there's another (transitional) vowel in the middle.

'iu' is made up of the 'i' and 'ou' sound in Chinese. (That's why it is spell as 'iou' in the SAMPA-C document, and also in the pinyin "you".) So you can try to produce "iu" from 'i' and 'ou'. Sorry I'm not able to describe how to produce the sound literally. My suggestion, like others have made in the comment, is to listen to how natives say it. And if you can find a native, let him/her correct your pronunciation.

NOTE: The two versions of IPA came from the two sources may come from the variation of how different people produce it, and may come from the notation variations of IPA, or both.