Which pronunciation of “kun” is correct or what’s the difference?

Question

There are two audio recordings that I am listening to both have different pronunciations of the pinyin “kun”.

Which pronunciation should I be following or which is more standard for stuff like HSK?

The audio recordings are both correct, and are essentially the same k-uen aka [kʰu̯ən] in IPA. — Vitaly Osipov, Jul 28, 2018 at 2:01

NoobTW · Accepted Answer · 2018-07-24 18:34:13Z

1

In my opinion, the Chinese pinyin "kun" sounds like "kwen".

If you like to take a further look at the the pronunciation, you can see Zhuyin(Bopomofo), which we often use it in Taiwan: ㄎㄨㄣ

ㄎ / ㄨ / ㄣ

k / wu / en

BTW, I think those two audio sounds familiar.

answered Jul 24, 2018 at 18:34

NoobTW

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For some reason one of them sounds like “kwen” and another sounds like “koon”
– Belphegor
Jul 24, 2018 at 19:18
1

kwen is the correct one.
– NoobTW
Jul 24, 2018 at 19:19
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These are called allophones, which are different sounds that represent the same phoneme.
– Enrico Brasil
Aug 1, 2018 at 18:43

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