What is the difference in pronunciation between saying "jin" and "jing"?

Question

I speak Chinese natively (我讲中文，普通话) but my pronunciation is borrowed from Jiangsu parents, so I was wondering what is the difference between "jin" (今) and "jing" (京)? Is there any difference in identifying such? Once, somebody remarked "haha, your southern ignorance voids your ability to understand the differences of jin/jing," and so I hope somebody can help me understand this without saying "it's regional" or "it takes practice". If need be, you can respond in simplified Chinese. Thanks! 多谢!

Update: I pronounce "jin" as "JEEN" and "jing" as "JEENg" but the "g" is so slight I can barely notice it. Is there any way to differentiate them?

Answer 1

Studies have shown that if you grow up in a language environment where speakers do not distinguish between two sounds, your brain will lose the ability to easily perceive the difference between them. A notable example of this phenomenon is the inability for most Japanese speakers to distinguish between r and l.

Jiangsu is an area where the Wu Chinese dialects are traditionally spoken. The Wu dialects, on the whole, do not distinguish between final nasal consonants such as n and ng. In many cases, they are allophonic, with the consonant that is actually produced being determined by the vowel that precedes it. This is likely the reason why you currently don't perceive the difference between jin and jing, because the two syllables have the same vowel when spoken according to the standard. However, it is possible to train yourself to perceive them as separate sounds.

Being able to produce both the n and ng sounds is the first step in helping you recognize the difference between them. It may be helpful for you to think of the relationship between the n and ng sounds as being similar to the relationship between the t and k sounds.

• The n sound is an alveolar nasal and the t sound is an alveolar stop, which mean that they are both produced with the tongue touching the alveolar ridge, which is where your teeth meet your gums.
• The ng sound is a velar nasal and the k sound is a velar stop. They are both produced with the tongue touching the velum, which is located near the back of the roof of your mouth.

Alveolar sounds require that your top and bottom teeth be touching; therefore, when you say jin, you should end with your top and bottom teeth touching and the tip of your tongue should be against your gum ridge. However, velar sounds are produced with a slightly open mouth, so in order to pronounce jing, try to end the syllable with your mouth slightly open; your top and bottom teeth should not be touching and the back of your tongue should be against the back of the roof of your mouth.

Once you've practice being able to pronounce the two distinctly, keep repeating it to yourself and you should be able to start training your brain to notice the difference when you hear it in speech.

Answer 2

Since final consonants in Mandarin are not as firm as those in, say, Cantonese and English, people who speak Mandarin often relay on vowel quality to distinguish the -n/ng pair.

-in is of course realized as a front vowel /i/, while -ing often has a tint of back vowel, which someone may find similar to Pinyin i+eng. I think it is perfectly acceptable to pronounce jing as if you were pronouncing jeng (jeng is not proper Pinyin).

Also, final consonants are usually blended into the vowels. When a Mandarin speaker tries to stretch a syllable, they will probably produce a prolonged nasal vowel or rhotacized vowel, instead of a prolonged vowel followed a consonant.

Answer 3

In Standard Chinese those are two different consonants, much the same as 'n' in [English] 'kin' and 'ng' in 'king'.

In IPA the final -ng is transcribed as [ŋ] while n is [n].

(By the way I have spent some time in Jiangsu and never noticed that local people would not distinguish these two consonants.)