Chinese Tea Pronunciation: “Jasmine Tea”
In this edition of our guide to the proper pronunciation of Chinese tea terms, we’re branching out into more “flowery” tea terminology: “jasmine tea“!
茉莉
Meaning: Jasmine tea. One interesting thing to note about this Chinese tea term is that the two characters share a common symbol. The top part of both of these characters has the meaning “grass” or refers to plant material.
Pronunciation: The pronunciation of the first word is a little trickier than some that we’ve covered so far. The sound is like the “mua-” part of the kissing sound “muah,” but with a more rounded mouth shape. The second syllable is pronounced like “lee.” The intonation of these syllables is also a little tricky. Both are pitched like the famous line from Monty Python’s “knights who say ‘nee’” bit, starting high and ending low. For a little refresher, here’s the clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIV4poUZAQo.
December 16 2010 10:11 am | Tea Pronunciation