Initials

The initials are grouped by their places of articulation and also the type of voicing that has been used traditionally. They are represented in the table by four symbols:

○	全清	Fully Voiceless QuanQing (Unaspirated)
●	全濁	Fully-Voiced QuanZhuo
◎	次清	Semi-Voiceless ChuQing (Aspirated)
‧	次濁	Semi-Voiced ChuZhuo (Sonorants)

Voicing
/
Consonants

○

◎

●

‧

○

●

Bilabials

幫

滂

並

明

Labio-dentals

幫非

滂敷

並奉

明微

Dentals

端

透

定

泥

Alveolo-Palatals

知

徹

澄

娘

Silibants

精

清

從

心

邪

Retroflex Silibants

照莊

穿初

床崇

審山

禪俟

Affricates

Palatal Silibants

照章

穿昌

床船

日

審書

禪

Velars

見

溪

群

疑

曉

匣

Laryngeals

影

喻_以

Palatals

餘喻_云

Laterals

來

GuangYun (廣韻) uses thirty five initials, 1 幫, 2 滂, 3 並, 4 明, 5 端, 6 透, 7 定, 8 泥, 9 來, 10 知, 11 徹, 12 澄, 13 精, 14 清, 15 從, 16 心, 17 邪, 18 莊, 19 初, 20 崇, 21 山, 22 章, 23 昌, 24 船, 25 日, 26 書, 27 禪, 28 見, 29 溪, 30 群, 31 疑, 32 曉, 33 匣, 34 影, 35 餘.

The following initials are merged in QieYun (切韻):

泥 and 娘
幫滂並明 and 非敷奉微

The following initials are dependent on the medial and main vowels:

照穿床審 can be split into two Deng (等); Deng II 莊初崇山 and Deng III 章昌船書
喻_以 and 喻_云 derive from 于 where the former is connected to Deng II rhymes, whilst the latter dependent on Deng III rhymes. Deng II rhymes of the 喻 initial become 匣 intials, whilst Deng III rhymes of the 喻 initial become 餘 intials.
Some authors make 影 a zero initial [ ø ], in the table above, we see an glottal stop initial. Consequently, they also interpret 喻_以 as being merged with the 匣 initial and then, 喻_云 becomes simply a palatal approximant [ j ].

Some authors have used Retroflex Silibant values for the Affricate initials.

Initials : Guangyun Rhymes : Inner and Outer Series : She : Deng : Rhyme Tables : Chinese