| Labial | Labial-Dental | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||||
| Stop initially |
ph | b ° |
th | d ° |
kh | g ° |
ʔ | |||||
| Stop finally |
p̚ | t̚ | k̚ | |||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||||||
| Affricate | ɬ | tsh | dz ° |
|||||||||
| fricative | f | v | s | h | ||||||||
| Lateral | l | |||||||||||
| Central | y | |||||||||||
| Front | Central | Back | |
| High | i | u | |
| ɪ | ʊ | ||
| e | |||
| Mid | ǝ | ||
| ɛ | ɔ | ||
| æ | a | ||
| Low |
| Basic Tones | Changed Tones | Example ♫ | |||
| ˥ | 66 | 口 | 阴上 | ||
| ˧ | 44 | 447 | 偷 | 阴平 | |
| ˩ | 22 | 226~227 | 头 | 阳平 | |
| ↘∣ | 52 | 527 | 后 | 阳去 | |
| ↘∣ | 31 | 316~317 | 厚 | 阳上 | |
| ˥ | 66 | 北 | 阴入 |
Short Variants (入声) |
|
| ˧ | 44 | 226~227 | 百 | 中入 | |
| ↘∣ | 52 | 527 | 白 | 阳入 | |
| ↘∣ | 31 | 316~317 | 伯 | 低入 |
Five basic tones on a 7-point scale system: 66, 44, 22, 52, 31
Tone changes: 44 → 447, 22 → 226~227, 52 → 527, 31 → 316~317
To save typing, the following simplified IPA symbols have been used. Note that although both the aspirated voiceless stops and the voiceless stops with no audible release are reduced to the same symbols there's no ambiguity because they take up different positions in any syllable. For example, the IPA representation of cut(切) is [tɛt344]. We can deduce that the first [t] is the simplified form of [th], and the second (trailing) [t] is the simplified form of [t̚].
| Standard IPA | Simplified IPA | Position in Syllable | |
| b d g ° ° ° |
b d g | Initial (onset) | Voiceless Stops |
| ph th kh | p t k | Initial (onset) | Aspirated Voiceless Stops |
| p̚ t̚ k̚ | p t k | Final(coda) | Voiceless Stops with no audible release |
tsh dz ° |
ts dz |
Initial (onset) | Alveolar Affricates |
| ɪ | i | ||
| ʊ | u | ||
| æ | ia |
1Cheng, Teresa M. (1973), "The Phonology of Taishan", Journal of Chinese Linguistics 1 (2): 256–322