Rhymes

1. Simple-vowel rhymes

The Teochew rhyme system is usually analyzed as having six basic vowels:

• a、o、e、i、u、ê

The vowel ê is a raised front-mid vowel, approximately [e], with no direct equivalent in Mandarin pinyin.

These vowels form the core of the rhyme system. They may serve as nuclei alone or combine with glides and codas.

2. Compound rhymes (glides and diphthongs)

Compound rhymes are formed by adding i or u before or after a vowel, or by combining vowels. Common types include:

• a series ia、ua、ai、uai、au、iau (to follow pinyin conventions, the last two are written ao、iao）

• o series io、oi、ou

• ê series iê、uê

• i series ui

• u series iu

This is a common phonological classification; actual pronunciation may vary slightly by region and phonetic context.

3. Nasal and stop codas

Teochew preserves the Middle Chinese contrast between nasal and checked codas, with three principal pairs:

• -m / -b
• -n / -d
• -ng / -g

Specifically:

1. Nasal codas

• -m：bilabial nasal coda, as in am（庵）

• -n：alveolar nasal coda

• -ng：velar nasal coda

The -n and -ng codas resemble the front and back nasal codas of modern Mandarin.

2. Stop (checked-tone) codas

-p, -t, and -k are unreleased voiceless stop codas. They are short and close abruptly, for example: ap ak

3. Glottal-stop coda

Teochew also has the glottal-stop coda -h, for example: ah（鸭）, which is also a checked-tone coda.

In most modern Chaoshan varieties, historical -n and -d have merged into -ng and -g.

4. Nasalized rhymes

Nasalization is common in Min, Wu, and other Chinese varieties. The velum lowers during the vowel so air passes through both mouth and nose, without forming a separate nasal consonant coda.

In the 1960 Guangdong Teochew Romanization Scheme, -n was assigned as a nasalization marker rather than the consonant coda /n/.

Compare a (oral) with an (nasalized)

Rhyme table

In the modern Chaozhou city variety, iam, iap, and iau have weakened to iem, iep, and ieu.