phonetics

Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning 'sound, voice') is the study of the sounds of human speech. It is concerned with the actual properties of speech sounds (phones), and their production, audition and perception, while phonology, which emerged from it, studies sound systems and abstract sound units (such as phonemes and distinctive features). Phonetics deals with the sounds themselves rather than the contexts in which they are used in languages. Discussions of meaning (semantics) do not enter at this level of linguistic analysis.
See more at Wikipedia.org...

(n.)
The doctrine or science of sounds; especially those of the human voice; phonology.
  

(n.)
The art of representing vocal sounds by signs and written characters.
  

Noun
1. the branch of acoustics concerned with speech processes including its production and perception and acoustic analysis
(hypernym) acoustics
(class) long

Throughout the ages, several systems of describing the sounds of Chinese characters have been designed. Different systems have been created in different countries and with different alphabets. When the sounds of the Chinese language are described with the Latin/Roman alphabet, it is referred to as "romanisation".

The first romanisation systems for Mandarin Chinese were created in 1605 by Matteo Ricci and in 1625 by Nicolas Trigault. The most wellknow systems for transliteration in the modern age are Pinyin, Wade-Giles, Yale and Zhuyin (popularly called "Bopomofo").

In the following examples, you can see one and the same phrase in different forms of transcription.
Pinyin:
Wade-Giles:
Chinese characters with Zhuyin:
Zhuyin by itself:
Hanzi:

In this glossary, you can search Chinese syllables and sounds according to Pinyin or Wade-Giles romanisation, and be able to see how the same sounds would be transcribed with other systems. You will also find simple explanations of some basic consepts of Chinese phonetics.

Further reading: aspiration, Bopomofo, Chinese consonants, hanzi, Pinyin, tones, tone-sandhi, Wade-Giles, Zhuyin 

Audible breath which accompanies the articulation of certain types of sound. The consonant sounds in Mandarin Chinese can be grouped in aspirated (plosive) and non-aspirated (non-plosive). The aspirated consonants have a rather explosive pronunciation, while the non-aspirated consonants are more silent. The aspirated consonant sounds in Mandarin Chinese are written with "P", "K", "T", "C", "CH" and "Q" in Pinyin-transliteration. The non-aspirated counterparts to the same sounds are "B", "G", "D", "Z", "ZH" and "J". Please note that all these sounds are searchable with this very glossary!

Further reading: Chinese phonetics 

Tone-sandhi occurs in tonal languages, such as Chinese, when a sequence of tones in words or phrases affect the tones involved. One might say that the tones of the Chinese language will adapt to the tune currently being played.

The three basic rules for tone-sandhi in Mandarin Chinese are:
The character "" (yi1) is pronounced 1) in the 1:st tone when counting, 2) in the 2:nd tone before a syllable with the 4:th tone and 3) in the 4:th tone in all other cases.
The character "" (bu4) is pronounced 1) in the 2:nd tone before a syllable with the 4:th tone and 2) in the 4:th tone in all other cases.
When two or more syllables with the 3:rd tone follow in a row, all but the last syllable will get the 2:nd tone.

Further reading: Chinese phonetics, tones 

Chinese and all Sino-Tibetan languages are tonal languages, which mean that it is important to pronounce most every single syllable with the correct tone or accent. Tones are absolutely vital to make a correct distinction between syllables that are otherwise phonetically identical. In Mandarin Chinese there are four distinct tones. In some cases, the tones will affect each other according to tone-sandhi. For both Pinyin and Bopomofo transliterations, the tones are generally marked with the following accents above the central vowels:

Further reading: Chinese phonetics, tone-sandhi