<p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/2RL0r.gif" alt="biang" /></p>
<p>Biang is an interesting character, being absent in many dictionaries, and having an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biang#Origin_of_the_character" rel="noreferrer">unverified origin</a>. I don't think it being uncommon is reason enough to consider its pronunciation to be non-standard, however. There are quite a few characters that have very uncommon pronunciations, so much so that for the rare ones, most native speakers would also find them odd.</p>
<p>A few examples from <a href="http://eastasiastudent.net/china/mandarin/unusual-syllables" rel="noreferrer">http://eastasiastudent.net/china/mandarin/unusual-syllables</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>怎 (zěn)</p>
<p>谁 (shéi)</p>
<p>给</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These characters are extremely common but their syllables are very rare. 给 in particular is the only character that is pronounced &quot;gei&quot;.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>咯 (lo)</p>
<p>覅 (fiào)</p>
<p>鞥 (ēng)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These may fool many native speakers, but they are indeed real characters.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-04-20T23:52:55.137Z
Though Chinese is written in "logograms," each with their own sounds, they are not immune to merging. 覅 (Mandarin: fiao4 Shanghainese: [viɔ]) is a contraction of 勿要 in the Shanghai dialect, both phonetically and graphically. The **f** initial in Standard Mandarin corresponds to Shanghainese **v**, which looks to be the cause of the odd pronunciation *fiao*. The phonological processes that turned Middle Chinese into Mandarin would have eliminated such a sound already (and it can be seen that it is the *only* syllable that begins with **fi**).
Kevin Li
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-04-21T00:12:19.630Z
In addition to my comment above, see this: http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/2554/dissimilation-of-bilabial-finals-following-middle-chinese-%e6%b3%95-%e5%93%81-%e5%87%a1#comment3750_2558

Glides were lost after labial fricatives. Draw your own conclusions from that.
Kevin Li
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-19T12:10:45.370Z
So can native speakers pronounce these all without difficulty? For instance neither the syllables "shmoog" nor "ngih" exist in English but the first is pronounceable by all speakers while the latter is not, even though it would be pronounceable by speakers of some other languages. Also, "biang" doesn't seem to exist with any tone, at least on Wiktionary. I don't know whether the examples you list are rare just in the noted tone or in all tones.
hippietrail
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-19T13:17:46.497Z
@hippietrail, I saw these characters a short time ago from a TV show, but they don't appear very often, you know, but even if I didn't know these characters, provided with the pinyin (like 'biang'), I can pronounce it, and I think everyone knows pinyin can. When I look at 'shmoog', I could guess it is pronounced as '/ʃmu:g/', while 'ngih' is really difficult to guess its pronunciation.
shuangwhywhy
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-19T14:29:47.723Z
Although I didn't find citations on this one, I'm pretty sure this is not *standard* Mandarin Chinese defined as the official language of the CCP government.
Most probably this comes from some northern dialect, which is closer to Mandarin Chinese than southern ones.
phoeagon
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-19T18:00:48.333Z
@hippietrail why is `ngi` not pronounceable for English speakers? The English has the sound `ng`, what's the substantial difficulty of putting that sound at the beginning of a syllable?
user58955
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-19T18:02:33.793Z
覅 must be dialectal. This character doesn't even exist in Kangxi dictionary. And it sounds exactly like Wu dialect. I would say this is a bad example. If you look at Cantonese, you'll see more weird characters (of course those words are mostly not Chinese -- the base stratum of Cantonese is Kam-Tai)
user58955
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-19T18:06:57.590Z
@user58955. Well that's getting off topic but if you're interested you could ask on linguistics.SE - I think this stuff comes under ["phonotactics"](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonotactics). Another example is Spanish speakers always insert an "e" before consonant clusters beginning with "s" when speaking English because it's not possible in their language. Of course most people can learn.
hippietrail
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-19T18:10:32.623Z
@hippietrail Sorry for being off topic. One more question though, is it easy for English speakers to make `ng` sound alone? I went to English pronunciation classes (in the US) and they taught every single sound separately...
user58955
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-19T18:16:38.947Z
Apparently not. I'm an English speaker and I've always been able to make the sound, but I've always been able to do rolled "r"s too, and most English speakers have trouble with that too. I once could not convince a friend with a strange British accent that the sounds in "siNGer" and "fiNGer" were different. He pronounced all such words in the manner of the latter. I do think "ng" is one of the easier ones to teach an English speaker when there is a need though. Another examples is "ts" at the beginning of a word such as "tsunami" - most English speakers say "sunami".
hippietrail
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-19T19:31:01.277Z
@user58955: Case in point, most English speakers have a lot of trouble pronouncing the Vietnamese surname, Nguyen, and the Cantonese pronunciation of the surnames 伍 (Ng5) and 吳 (Ng4). The former is often ends up being pronounced as "Win" and the latter is often Anglicized as "Eng".
Claw
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-11-01T09:10:11.770Z
The history of `怎` is quite complex.
The pronunciation `gei3` of `给` comes from Beijing dialect and dominates in oral use and `ji3` is what it should be pronounced and is used mainly literally, for example in words like '给予', '给排水'.
`shei2` for `谁` is actually a dialect pronunciation and is believed to be shortened from `shui`. In standard Mandarin it should be `shui2`( `shui2` is hort for `shuei2`). But lately dictionary started to adopt `shei2` as an alternative for `谁`.
nee.wong
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-19T12:07:10.690Z
2013-11-19T12:07:10.690Z
2020-06-17T09:50:11.587Z
congusbongus
<p>The simple answer is yes, it is a phonologically possible syllable in Mandarin Chinese. Remember for every Chinese syllable, there is a initial + final + tone , </p>

<p>in this case, 
b is the initial,
iang is the final,
and the tone is 2,</p>

<p>So the three factors complete its qualification as a Mandarin Chinese syllable. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-04-21T03:49:26.200Z
You oversimplify things. The fact is, all rules in any language are shaped by preceding and contemporary conditions and in the mind, some sound combinations are simply *weird*. While `biang` is plausible (given that the similar sounding `bian` is commonly used), so is `faap` in Cantonese if not for a rule that bars labial codas from syllables that have labial onsets.
Kevin Li
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-04-21T06:23:27.633Z
Thanks for the comment. The reason why I'm positive on this sound 'biang' is that in Taiwanese, one of the dialects of Chinese, 'biang' sound indeed exists!
ChineseHulu.com
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-04-21T06:28:01.047Z
And just a reminder, the Question was "Is “biang” a phonologically possible syllable in Mandarin Chinese?" So my answer is still "yes"!
ChineseHulu.com
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-04-21T06:48:03.323Z
Since when were Taiwanese and Standard Mandarin part of the same branch of Chinese? Taiwanese comes from the Min branch, which itself descends from a lineage that split off before Middle Chinese! Mandarin as spoken in Taiwan is a different story. The Taiwan-based academic site that hosts a database of pronunciations is currently down, so I cannot check to make sure, but I highly doubt that `biang` would exist while it's other labial siblings `piang`, `miang`, and `fiang` do not.
Kevin Li
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-04-21T08:25:54.507Z
Language is spoken by people not by database since Language keeps evolving. I'm a native speaker of both Mandarin and Taiwanese(Fukienese), I'm just providing my own experience of the words or sounds I spoke and heard. Thank you for doing a great research. I' don't want to be arguing, just try to do a bit contribution to the topic I'm passionate about and also try to help the Chinese learners.
ChineseHulu.com
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-01T11:56:59.450Z
I think @KevinLi makes a good point. The question is not whether we can now use the sound in Mandarin, it is whether the sound would emerge naturally due to the linguistic properties of the language itself. These are sort of unspoken rules. English has some too. I learned of this reading Steven Pinker's book on language. We could invent any syllable we want: piong, giong, king, zhing, etc, but there are linguistic reasons those syllables are not in Mandarin.
jdods
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-06-15T01:18:41.420Z
I hope this link doesn’t disappear: http://charlesames.net/pdf/JamesKirby/lecture4-hanoi-4up.pdf. But in case it does, this is the relevant slide in the lecture: “Accidental Gaps: 1. All language have phonotactic restrictions on possible words. 2. But not all possible words ARE words. These are called accidental gaps. 3. As opposed to systematic gaps, which are ‘truly impossible’ words.”
Kevin Li
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-04-21T02:26:34.637Z
2014-04-21T02:26:34.637Z
ChineseHulu.com
<p>Supposedly this <em>biang</em> originates in a regional form of Northern ("Mandarin") Chinese. It's not a syllable in the standard language as originally defined with rigidity, but all the same it's widely known and used now. Technically, it's a loan syllable. So I suppose we should say that it's phonologically possible because people actually use it. </p>

<p>Interestingly, Chao and Yang's <em>Concise Dictionary of Spoken Chinese</em> also lists two closely related "unofficial" syllables: <em>bia</em> and <em>pia</em> — neither of which is supplied with a character there.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-10-31T00:11:31.817Z
I feel regional word loaning is a good reason explaining all sort of oddities like *biang* (northern), *pia* (also northern) and *fiao* (Wu/Shanghainese), just like *tsunami*.
Fan Zheng
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-10-30T06:26:09.820Z
2015-10-30T06:26:09.820Z
brannerchinese
<p>There are many more <strong>abnormal</strong> syllable exist in various Chinese dialect but not in Mandarin. I'm from Xi'an city, Shaanxi province, aka, the cradle of the noodle shown in your picture. Also in Xi'an dialect, we pronounce <strong>我</strong> as <strong>nge</strong> while Mandarin as <strong>wo</strong>, we pronounce 维 as <strong>vei</strong> while Mandarin as <strong>wei</strong>, etc. So it is not strange that a character reads as <strong>biang</strong> or other pronunciation you never heard. The pronunciation <strong>biang</strong> describes the sound of the noodle knocking at the kitchen board when making it, not a short form of 不一樣/不一样 bùyíyàng.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-02-24T10:03:02.973Z
Is "abnormal" what you mean by "unnormal"?
L. F.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-02-25T01:40:30.063Z
@L.F. Yeah, **abnormal** would be a better choice here. I'm not good at English, usually I translated the Chinese text in google, and then modify only one third of the result at most.
xenophōn
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-02-25T13:38:31.637Z
Alas, in the end it was google translation that should have been blamed for so many missing plural forms, etc. :)
L. F.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2017-06-01T06:38:52.570Z
2019-02-25T01:49:19.693Z
2019-02-25T01:49:19.693Z
xenophōn
<p>It is a contracted form of 不一樣 bùyíyàng 'different'.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-05-27T10:20:18.493Z
Any proof to go along with your answer?
Mou某
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-05-26T11:33:57.260Z
2017-05-26T11:33:57.260Z
Karen Chung
<p>So time for an update…</p>
<p>If you want to play by the books, <code>biang</code> is not a permissible syllable. If you are concerned with what comes out of a speaker’s mouth, syllables like <code>nim</code> (contraction of 你們) are even possible, although they are technically <em>surface realizations</em> of a phonology that does <em>not</em> allow such syllables.</p>
<p>The surprising fact is that <code>iang</code> as a rime for the labial initials (<code>b</code>, <code>p</code>, <code>ph</code>, <code>m</code>) did not even exist in Middle Chinese, so the omission of <code>biang</code> is nothing new. That isn’t to say it couldn’t develop in Mandarin, but there was nothing shaping the language in that direction. The only likely source would be a borrowing sort of like how <code>fiao</code> is a borrowing from Wu, which has its own interesting story.</p>
<h2>Old Answer</h2>
<p>I’ve made a chart here for my own understanding of Standard Mandarin Chinese phonology a while ago:</p>
<pre><code>        a       ai      au      an      aŋ      e       ə       əi      əu      ən      əŋ      i       ia      iai     iau     ian     iaŋ     ie      iə      iəu     iən     iəŋ     io      iu      iuan    iuə     iun     iuəŋ    aɻ      o       u       ua      uai     uan     uaŋ     uə      uəi     uən     uəŋ     m       n       ŋ      
        a       ai      ao      an      ang     ê       e       ei      ou      en      eng     yi      ya      yai     yao     yan     yang    yê      ye      you     yin     ying    yo      yu      yuan    yue     yun     yong    er      o       wu      wa      wai     wan     wang    wo      wei     wun     weng    m       n       ng     
p       ba      bai     bao     ban     bang                    bei             ben     beng    bi                      biao    bian    biang           bie     biu     bin     bing                                                            bo      bu                                                                                             
pʰ      pa      pai     pao     pan     pang                    pei     pou     pen     peng    pi                      piao    pian                    pie     piu     pin     ping                                                            po      pu                                                                                             
m       ma      mai     mao     man     mang            me      mei     mou     men     meng    mi                      miao    mian                    mie     miu     min     ming                                                            mo      mu                                                                                             
f       fa                      fan     fang                    fei     fou     fen     feng                            fiao                                                                                                                    fo      fu                                                                                             
t       da      dai     dao     dan     dang            de      dei     dou     den     deng    di                      diao    dian                    die     diu             ding                                                                    du                      duan            duo     dui     dun     dong                           
tʰ      ta      tai     tao     tan     tang            te              tou             teng    ti                      tiao    tian                    tie     tiu             ting                                                                    tu                      tuan            tuo     tui     tun     tong                           
n       na      nai     nao     nan     nang            ne      nei     nou     nen     neng    ni                      niao    nian    niang           nie     niu     nin     ning            nü              nüe                                     nu                      nuan            nuo                     nong                           
l       la      lai     lao     lan     lang            le      lei     lou             leng    li      lia             liao    lian    liang           lie     liu     lin     ling            lü              lüe                             lo      lu                      luan            luo             lun     long                           
ts      za      zai     zao     zan     zang            ze      zei     zou     zen     zeng    zi                                                                                                                                                      zu                      zuan            zuo     zui     zun     zong                           
tsʰ     ca      cai     cao     can     cang            ce              cou     cen     ceng    ci                                                                                                                                                      cu                      cuan            cuo     cui     cun     cong                           
s       sa      sai     sao     san     sang            se              sou     sen     seng    si                                                                                                                                                      su                      suan            suo     sui     sun     song                           
tʂ      zha     zhai    zhao    zhan    zhang           zhe     zhei    zhou    zhen    zheng   zhi                                                                                                                                                     zhu     zhua    zhuai   zhuan   zhuang  zhuo    zhui    zhun    zhong                          
tʂʰ     cha     chai    chao    chan    chang           che             chou    chen    cheng   chi                                                                                                                                                     chu     chua    chuai   chuan   chuang  chuo    chui    chun    chong                          
ʂ       sha     shai    shao    shan    shang           she     shei    shou    shen    sheng   shi                                                                                                                                                     shu     shua    shuai   shuan   shuang  shuo    shui    shun                                   
ɻ                       rao     ran     rang            re              rou     ren     reng    ri                                                                                                                                                      ru      rua             ruan            ruo     rui     run     rong                           
tɕ                                                                                              ji      jia             jiao    jian    jiang           jie     jiu     jin     jing            ju      juan    jue     jun     jiong                                                                                                                  
tɕʰ                                                                                             qi      qia             qiao    qian    qiang           qie     qiu     qin     qing            qu      quan    que     qun     qiong                                                                                                                  
ɕ                                                                                               xi      xia             xiao    xian    xiang           xie     xiu     xin     xing            xu      xuan    xue     xun     xiong                                                                                                                  
k       ga      gai     gao     gan     gang            ge      gei     gou     gen     geng                                                                                                                                                            gu      gua     guai    guan    guang   guo     gui     gun     gong                           
kʰ      ka      kai     kao     kan     kang            ke      kei     kou     ken     keng                                                                                                                                                            ku      kua     kuai    kuan    kuang   kuo     kui     kun     kong                           
x       ha      hai     hao     han     hang            he      hei     hou     hen     heng                                                                                                                                                            hu      hua     huai    huan    huang   huo     hui     hun     hong                           
</code></pre>
<p>The table contains every possible pinyin in Standard Mandarin Chinese <em>sans</em> tones. Columns are headed by the finals, and rows are headed by the initials. They are derived from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Standard_Chinese_phonology&amp;oldid=603715295" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Standard Chinese phonology</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pinyin_table&amp;oldid=604692173" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Pinyin table</a> pages on Wikipedia. A quick look at the table will reveal patterns in the phonology with a few oddities.</p>
<p><code>biang</code> is certainly listed in the Pinyin table, but a quick search for any word with a pinyin of <code>biang</code> produces 0 results. And it makes sense: because the bilabial/labiodental series of initials (b-, p-, m-, f-) is excluded from combining with many finals (such as: -uan, -uo, -ui, -un, -ong). Have a look at the <strong>iaŋ</strong> column and you see that <code>piang</code>, <code>miang</code>, and <code>fiang</code> are missing; <code>biang</code> looks like it should not be there either.</p>
<p>Yes, there are oddities where a sound that looks like it should be there isn’t there (like <code>bou</code>, <code>tei</code>, and <code>ten</code>), but they can be easily explained as, “there weren’t any words that used that sound.” It’s what is called an “accidental gap,” and you can read more about it here: <a href="http://charlesames.net/pdf/JamesKirby/lecture4-hanoi-4up.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Phonotactics (âm pháp)</a>. It’s much more difficult to make a case for <code>biang</code> which exists in no dictionaries, is not in common usage, and is the sole proprietor of the Pinyin “biang.” Considering the facts, it’s my opinion that <code>biang</code> is illegal in Standard Mandarin Chinese phonology and was probably concocted for promotional purposes. What better way to stand out than to own a “rare” character, a “rare” sound, and an exclusive position in the Pinyin table?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-04-21T06:53:43.507Z
I agree. There is a phonological change that sounds like bi~ng/pi~ng/phi~ng should become f~ng. Also, p~ng in the second tone is unusual because unaspirated consonants in the second tone usually reflect old -p,-t,-k finals.
Yang Muye
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-10-30T11:46:38.043Z
I do not agree. Historical argumentation here is certainly valuable, but irrelevant to the contemporary speaker. @KevinLi you basically end up saying "biang is illegal in S.M.C.", "biang is listed in this table of S.M.C.", and "biang is widely attested in that local variety of S.M.C.". Quite unsatisfactory, don't you think? If you mean to make a scientific statement, how would you test for some syllable to be legal or illegal in S.M.C.? Certainly it being attested speaks for it to be legal, no?
flow
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-07T03:04:11.000Z
Actually `biang` does exist in some dictionaries. https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bi%C3%A1ngbi%C3%A1ng%E9%9D%A2#%E8%BE%9E%E4%B9%A6%E6%94%B6%E5%BD%95 《都市方言辞典（陕西卷）》[16]收录此词条，并详细介绍了相关饮食文化
Mou某
CC BY-SA 4.0
2014-04-20T17:14:54.427Z
2020-09-01T18:08:21.960Z
2020-09-01T18:08:21.960Z
Kevin Li
<p>One of the local specialty favourite dishes in Shaanxi province where I am now is Biángbiáng miàn.</p>

<p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/cQx3i.jpg" alt="Restaurant in Xi&#39;an selling Biángbiáng miàn.">
<sup>Photo by hippietrail</sup></p>

<p>The hanzi character for "biáng" is usually the focus of discusssions of this dish since it takes 58 strokes and is not supported by computers, including Unicode.</p>

<p>But I want to discuss the syllable "biang" in this question. To a beginner in Chinese like myself it seems to be composed of common initial "b", medial "i" and final "ang".</p>

<p>But <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biangbiang_noodles" rel="noreferrer">the Wikipedia article</a> informs me that the alternative names for the dish with more common characters are 彪彪面 (biāobiāo miàn) and 冰冰面 (bīngbīng miàn), which each use a different syllable in place of "biáng" as well as a different hanzi character.</p>

<p>So is this syllable not even possible? If not, which phonological rules does it break? Also if it's not "possible" how could it become popular as part of the name of a dish? Is it something to do with the dialect or accent spoken in Shaanxi?</p>

<mandarin><pronunciation><phonology>
Is "biang" a phonologically possible syllable in Mandarin Chinese?
# Is "biang" a phonologically possible syllable in Mandarin Chinese?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-11-19)

One of the local specialty favourite dishes in Shaanxi province where I am now is Biángbiáng miàn.

![Restaurant in Xi'an selling Biángbiáng miàn.](https://i.sstatic.net/cQx3i.jpg)
Photo by username_0

The hanzi character for "biáng" is usually the focus of discusssions of this dish since it takes 58 strokes and is not supported by computers, including Unicode.

But I want to discuss the syllable "biang" in this question. To a beginner in Chinese like myself it seems to be composed of common initial "b", medial "i" and final "ang".

But [the Wikipedia article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biangbiang_noodles) informs me that the alternative names for the dish with more common characters are 彪彪面 (biāobiāo miàn) and 冰冰面 (bīngbīng miàn), which each use a different syllable in place of "biáng" as well as a different hanzi character.

So is this syllable not even possible? If not, which phonological rules does it break? Also if it's not "possible" how could it become popular as part of the name of a dish? Is it something to do with the dialect or accent spoken in Shaanxi?

**Tags:** mandarin, pronunciation, phonology


---

## 6 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2014-04-20. Score: 12 | Accepted answer

So time for an update…

If you want to play by the books, `biang` is not a permissible syllable. If you are concerned with what comes out of a speaker’s mouth, syllables like `nim` (contraction of 你們) are even possible, although they are technically *surface realizations* of a phonology that does *not* allow such syllables.

The surprising fact is that `iang` as a rime for the labial initials (`b`, `p`, `ph`, `m`) did not even exist in Middle Chinese, so the omission of `biang` is nothing new. That isn’t to say it couldn’t develop in Mandarin, but there was nothing shaping the language in that direction. The only likely source would be a borrowing sort of like how `fiao` is a borrowing from Wu, which has its own interesting story.

## Old Answer

I’ve made a chart here for my own understanding of Standard Mandarin Chinese phonology a while ago:

```
        a       ai      au      an      aŋ      e       ə       əi      əu      ən      əŋ      i       ia      iai     iau     ian     iaŋ     ie      iə      iəu     iən     iəŋ     io      iu      iuan    iuə     iun     iuəŋ    aɻ      o       u       ua      uai     uan     uaŋ     uə      uəi     uən     uəŋ     m       n       ŋ      
        a       ai      ao      an      ang     ê       e       ei      ou      en      eng     yi      ya      yai     yao     yan     username_16    yê      ye      you     yin     ying    yo      yu      yuan    yue     yun     yong    er      o       wu      wa      wai     wan     wang    wo      wei     wun     weng    m       n       ng     
p       ba      bai     bao     ban     bang                    bei             ben     beng    bi                      biao    bian    biang           bie     biu     bin     bing                                                            bo      bu                                                                                             
pʰ      pa      pai     pao     pan     pang                    pei     pou     pen     peng    pi                      piao    pian                    pie     piu     pin     ping                                                            po      pu                                                                                             
m       ma      mai     mao     man     mang            me      mei     mou     men     meng    mi                      miao    mian                    mie     miu     min     ming                                                            mo      mu                                                                                             
f       fa                      fan     fang                    fei     fou     fen     feng                            fiao                                                                                                                    fo      fu                                                                                             
t       da      dai     dao     dan     dang            de      dei     dou     den     deng    di                      diao    dian                    die     diu             ding                                                                    du                      duan            duo     dui     dun     dong                           
tʰ      ta      tai     tao     tan     tang            te              tou             teng    ti                      tiao    tian                    tie     tiu             ting                                                                    tu                      tuan            tuo     tui     tun     tong                           
n       na      nai     nao     nan     nang            ne      nei     nou     nen     neng    ni                      niao    nian    niang           nie     niu     nin     ning            nü              nüe                                     nu                      nuan            nuo                     nong                           
l       la      lai     lao     lan     lang            le      lei     lou             leng    li      lia             liao    lian    liang           lie     liu     lin     ling            lü              lüe                             lo      lu                      luan            luo             lun     long                           
ts      za      zai     zao     zan     zang            ze      zei     zou     zen     zeng    zi                                                                                                                                                      zu                      zuan            zuo     zui     zun     zong                           
tsʰ     ca      cai     cao     can     cang            ce              cou     cen     ceng    ci                                                                                                                                                      cu                      cuan            cuo     cui     cun     cong                           
s       sa      sai     sao     san     sang            se              sou     sen     seng    si                                                                                                                                                      su                      suan            suo     sui     sun     song                           
tʂ      zha     zhai    zhao    zhan    zhang           zhe     zhei    zhou    zhen    username_11   zhi                                                                                                                                                     zhu     zhua    zhuai   zhuan   zhuang  zhuo    zhui    zhun    zhong                          
tʂʰ     cha     chai    chao    chan    chang           che             chou    chen    cheng   chi                                                                                                                                                     chu     chua    chuai   chuan   chuang  chuo    chui    chun    chong                          
ʂ       sha     shai    shao    shan    shang           she     shei    shou    shen    sheng   shi                                                                                                                                                     shu     shua    shuai   shuan   shuang  shuo    shui    shun                                   
ɻ                       rao     ran     rang            re              rou     ren     reng    ri                                                                                                                                                      ru      rua             ruan            ruo     rui     run     rong                           
tɕ                                                                                              ji      jia             jiao    jian    jiang           jie     jiu     jin     jing            ju      juan    jue     jun     jiong                                                                                                                  
tɕʰ                                                                                             qi      qia             qiao    qian    qiang           qie     qiu     qin     qing            qu      quan    que     qun     qiong                                                                                                                  
ɕ                                                                                               xi      xia             xiao    xian    xiang           xie     xiu     xin     xing            xu      xuan    xue     xun     xiong                                                                                                                  
k       ga      gai     gao     gan     gang            ge      gei     gou     gen     geng                                                                                                                                                            gu      gua     guai    guan    guang   guo     gui     gun     gong                           
kʰ      ka      kai     kao     kan     kang            ke      kei     kou     ken     keng                                                                                                                                                            ku      kua     kuai    kuan    kuang   kuo     kui     kun     kong                           
x       ha      hai     hao     han     hang            he      hei     hou     hen     heng                                                                                                                                                            hu      hua     huai    huan    huang   huo     hui     hun     hong                           

```

The table contains every possible pinyin in Standard Mandarin Chinese *sans* tones. Columns are headed by the finals, and rows are headed by the initials. They are derived from the [Standard Chinese phonology](http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Standard_Chinese_phonology&oldid=603715295) and [Pinyin table](http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pinyin_table&oldid=604692173) pages on Wikipedia. A quick look at the table will reveal patterns in the phonology with a few oddities.

`biang` is certainly listed in the Pinyin table, but a quick search for any word with a pinyin of `biang` produces 0 results. And it makes sense: because the bilabial/labiodental series of initials (b-, p-, m-, f-) is excluded from combining with many finals (such as: -uan, -uo, -ui, -un, -ong). Have a look at the **iaŋ** column and you see that `piang`, `miang`, and `fiang` are missing; `biang` looks like it should not be there either.

Yes, there are oddities where a sound that looks like it should be there isn’t there (like `bou`, `tei`, and `ten`), but they can be easily explained as, “there weren’t any words that used that sound.” It’s what is called an “accidental gap,” and you can read more about it here: [Phonotactics (âm pháp)](http://charlesames.net/pdf/JamesKirby/lecture4-hanoi-4up.pdf). It’s much more difficult to make a case for `biang` which exists in no dictionaries, is not in common usage, and is the sole proprietor of the Pinyin “biang.” Considering the facts, it’s my opinion that `biang` is illegal in Standard Mandarin Chinese phonology and was probably concocted for promotional purposes. What better way to stand out than to own a “rare” character, a “rare” sound, and an exclusive position in the Pinyin table?

> **Comments:**
> **username_16**: I agree. There is a phonological change that sounds like bi~ng/pi~ng/phi~ng should become f~ng. Also, p~ng in the second tone is unusual because unaspirated consonants in the second tone usually reflect old -p,-t,-k finals.  
> **username_17**: I do not agree. Historical argumentation here is certainly valuable, but irrelevant to the contemporary speaker. @username_2 you basically end up saying "biang is illegal in S.M.C.", "biang is listed in this table of S.M.C.", and "biang is widely attested in that local variety of S.M.C.". Quite unsatisfactory, don't you think? If you mean to make a scientific statement, how would you test for some syllable to be legal or illegal in S.M.C.? Certainly it being attested speaks for it to be legal, no?  
> **username_15**: Actually `biang` does exist in some dictionaries. https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bi%C3%A1ngbi%C3%A1ng%E9%9D%A2#%E8%BE%9E%E4%B9%A6%E6%94%B6%E5%BD%95 《都市方言辞典（陕西卷）》[16]收录此词条，并详细介绍了相关饮食文化  

---

### Answer by username_1 on 2013-11-19. Score: 8

![biang](https://i.sstatic.net/2RL0r.gif)

Biang is an interesting character, being absent in many dictionaries, and having an [unverified origin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biang#Origin_of_the_character). I don't think it being uncommon is reason enough to consider its pronunciation to be non-standard, however. There are quite a few characters that have very uncommon pronunciations, so much so that for the rare ones, most native speakers would also find them odd.

A few examples from <http://eastasiastudent.net/china/mandarin/unusual-syllables>:

> 怎 (zěn)
>
> 谁 (shéi)
>
> 给

These characters are extremely common but their syllables are very rare. 给 in particular is the only character that is pronounced "gei".

> 咯 (lo)
>
> 覅 (fiào)
>
> 鞥 (ēng)

These may fool many native speakers, but they are indeed real characters.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: So can native speakers pronounce these all without difficulty? For instance neither the syllables "shmoog" nor "ngih" exist in English but the first is pronounceable by all speakers while the latter is not, even though it would be pronounceable by speakers of some other languages. Also, "biang" doesn't seem to exist with any tone, at least on Wiktionary. I don't know whether the examples you list are rare just in the noted tone or in all tones.  
> **username_3**: @username_0, I saw these characters a short time ago from a TV show, but they don't appear very often, you know, but even if I didn't know these characters, provided with the pinyin (like 'biang'), I can pronounce it, and I think everyone knows pinyin can. When I look at 'shmoog', I could guess it is pronounced as '/ʃmu:g/', while 'ngih' is really difficult to guess its pronunciation.  
> **username_4**: Although I didn't find citations on this one, I'm pretty sure this is not *standard* Mandarin Chinese defined as the official language of the CCP government. Most probably this comes from some northern dialect, which is closer to Mandarin Chinese than southern ones.  
> **username_5**: @username_0 why is `ngi` not pronounceable for English speakers? The English has the sound `ng`, what's the substantial difficulty of putting that sound at the beginning of a syllable?  
> **username_5**: 覅 must be dialectal. This character doesn't even exist in Kangxi dictionary. And it sounds exactly like Wu dialect. I would say this is a bad example. If you look at Cantonese, you'll see more weird characters (of course those words are mostly not Chinese -- the base stratum of Cantonese is Kam-Tai)  
> **username_0**: @username_5. Well that's getting off topic but if you're interested you could ask on linguistics.SE - I think this stuff comes under ["phonotactics"](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonotactics). Another example is Spanish speakers always insert an "e" before consonant clusters beginning with "s" when speaking English because it's not possible in their language. Of course most people can learn.  
> **username_5**: @username_0 Sorry for being off topic. One more question though, is it easy for English speakers to make `ng` sound alone? I went to English pronunciation classes (in the US) and they taught every single sound separately...  
> **username_0**: Apparently not. I'm an English speaker and I've always been able to make the sound, but I've always been able to do rolled "r"s too, and most English speakers have trouble with that too. I once could not convince a friend with a strange British accent that the sounds in "siNGer" and "fiNGer" were different. He pronounced all such words in the manner of the latter. I do think "ng" is one of the easier ones to teach an English speaker when there is a need though. Another examples is "ts" at the beginning of a word such as "tsunami" - most English speakers say "sunami".  
> **username_6**: @username_5: Case in point, most English speakers have a lot of trouble pronouncing the Vietnamese surname, Nguyen, and the Cantonese pronunciation of the surnames 伍 (Ng5) and 吳 (Ng4). The former is often ends up being pronounced as "Win" and the latter is often Anglicized as "Eng".  
> **username_2**: Though Chinese is written in "logograms," each with their own sounds, they are not immune to merging. 覅 (Mandarin: fiao4 Shanghainese: [viɔ]) is a contraction of 勿要 in the Shanghai dialect, both phonetically and graphically. The **f** initial in Standard Mandarin corresponds to Shanghainese **v**, which looks to be the cause of the odd pronunciation *fiao*. The phonological processes that turned Middle Chinese into Mandarin would have eliminated such a sound already (and it can be seen that it is the *only* syllable that begins with **fi**).  
> **username_2**: In addition to my comment above, see this: http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/2554/dissimilation-of-bilabial-finals-following-middle-chinese-%e6%b3%95-%e5%93%81-%e5%87%a1#comment3750_2558  Glides were lost after labial fricatives. Draw your own conclusions from that.  
> **username_7**: The history of `怎` is quite complex. The pronunciation `gei3` of `给` comes from Beijing dialect and dominates in oral use and `ji3` is what it should be pronounced and is used mainly literally, for example in words like '给予', '给排水'. `shei2` for `谁` is actually a dialect pronunciation and is believed to be shortened from `shui`. In standard Mandarin it should be `shui2`( `shui2` is hort for `shuei2`). But lately dictionary started to adopt `shei2` as an alternative for `谁`.  

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### Answer by username_8 on 2014-04-21. Score: 2

The simple answer is yes, it is a phonologically possible syllable in Mandarin Chinese. Remember for every Chinese syllable, there is a initial + final + tone ,

in this case,
b is the initial,
iang is the final,
and the tone is 2,

So the three factors complete its qualification as a Mandarin Chinese syllable.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: You oversimplify things. The fact is, all rules in any language are shaped by preceding and contemporary conditions and in the mind, some sound combinations are simply *weird*. While `biang` is plausible (given that the similar sounding `bian` is commonly used), so is `faap` in Cantonese if not for a rule that bars labial codas from syllables that have labial onsets.  
> **username_8**: Thanks for the comment. The reason why I'm positive on this sound 'biang' is that in Taiwanese, one of the dialects of Chinese, 'biang' sound indeed exists!  
> **username_8**: And just a reminder, the Question was "Is “biang” a phonologically possible syllable in Mandarin Chinese?" So my answer is still "yes"!  
> **username_2**: Since when were Taiwanese and Standard Mandarin part of the same branch of Chinese? Taiwanese comes from the Min branch, which itself descends from a lineage that split off before Middle Chinese! Mandarin as spoken in Taiwan is a different story. The Taiwan-based academic site that hosts a database of pronunciations is currently down, so I cannot check to make sure, but I highly doubt that `biang` would exist while it's other labial siblings `piang`, `miang`, and `fiang` do not.  
> **username_8**: Language is spoken by people not by database since Language keeps evolving. I'm a native speaker of both Mandarin and Taiwanese(Fukienese), I'm just providing my own experience of the words or sounds I spoke and heard. Thank you for doing a great research. I' don't want to be arguing, just try to do a bit contribution to the topic I'm passionate about and also try to help the Chinese learners.  
> **username_9**: I think @username_2 makes a good point. The question is not whether we can now use the sound in Mandarin, it is whether the sound would emerge naturally due to the linguistic properties of the language itself. These are sort of unspoken rules. English has some too. I learned of this reading Steven Pinker's book on language. We could invent any syllable we want: piong, giong, king, zhing, etc, but there are linguistic reasons those syllables are not in Mandarin.  
> **username_2**: I hope this link doesn’t disappear: http://charlesames.net/pdf/JamesKirby/lecture4-hanoi-4up.pdf. But in case it does, this is the relevant slide in the lecture: “Accidental Gaps: 1. All language have phonotactic restrictions on possible words. 2. But not all possible words ARE words. These are called accidental gaps. 3. As opposed to systematic gaps, which are ‘truly impossible’ words.”  

---

### Answer by username_10 on 2015-10-30. Score: 2

Supposedly this *biang* originates in a regional form of Northern ("Mandarin") Chinese. It's not a syllable in the standard language as originally defined with rigidity, but all the same it's widely known and used now. Technically, it's a loan syllable. So I suppose we should say that it's phonologically possible because people actually use it.

Interestingly, Chao and username_16's *Concise Dictionary of Spoken Chinese* also lists two closely related "unofficial" syllables: *bia* and *pia* — neither of which is supplied with a character there.

> **Comments:**
> **username_11**: I feel regional word loaning is a good reason explaining all sort of oddities like *biang* (northern), *pia* (also northern) and *fiao* (Wu/Shanghainese), just like *tsunami*.  

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### Answer by username_12 on 2017-06-01. Score: 1

There are many more **abnormal** syllable exist in various Chinese dialect but not in Mandarin. I'm from Xi'an city, Shaanxi province, aka, the cradle of the noodle shown in your picture. Also in Xi'an dialect, we pronounce **我** as **nge** while Mandarin as **wo**, we pronounce 维 as **vei** while Mandarin as **wei**, etc. So it is not strange that a character reads as **biang** or other pronunciation you never heard. The pronunciation **biang** describes the sound of the noodle knocking at the kitchen board when making it, not a short form of 不一樣/不一样 bùyíyàng.

> **Comments:**
> **username_13**: Is "abnormal" what you mean by "unnormal"?  
> **username_12**: @L.F. Yeah, **abnormal** would be a better choice here. I'm not good at English, usually I translated the Chinese text in google, and then modify only one third of the result at most.  
> **username_13**: Alas, in the end it was google translation that should have been blamed for so many missing plural forms, etc. :)  

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### Answer by username_14 on 2017-05-26. Score: -1

It is a contracted form of 不一樣 bùyíyàng 'different'.

> **Comments:**
> **username_15**: Any proof to go along with your answer?  

---

