Meaning
清音 primarily refers to voiceless consonants in phonetics, where the vocal cords do not vibrate during pronunciation (like p, t, k, f, s in English). In traditional Chinese contexts, it can also mean a clear, pure, or pleasant sound, particularly in music or nature.
Usage
This term is most commonly used in linguistic and phonetic contexts when discussing Mandarin pronunciation or language teaching. In everyday conversation, it's rare except among language teachers, linguists, or students studying phonetics. The contrasting term is 浊音 (zhuó yīn, voiced consonant).
Examples
- 01普通话中的声母大部分是清音。.Most of the initial consonants in Mandarin are voiceless.
- 02学习语音学时，要分清清音和浊音的区别。, .When studying phonetics, you need to distinguish clearly between voiceless and voiced consonants.
Characters
Measure words
- 个一个清音
Common collocations
- 清音辅音voiceless consonant
- 清音和浊音voiceless and voiced sounds
Antonyms
Origin
The term combines 清 (clear/pure) with 音 (sound), literally meaning 'clear sound.' This terminology was adopted in modern Chinese linguistics to describe voiceless consonants, contrasting with the 'muddy' or 'voiced' sounds (浊音).