to clarify, Chinese dictionaries don't generally (in my experience) provide pronunciation
Depends who's Chinese =P If you buy a dictionary in Taiwan, you can look up words using the Zhuying Fuhao system (Bopomofo). There are 37 characters, with about the first 21-24 can be used as the first sound, 3 as a middle sound, and the last 13-16 as the second sound of words (plus the 4 (ok, 5 sorta) intonations).
But yes, it really depends on the sanctioned system and the dialect. Can't really use pinyin for Cantonese...
For example Cantonese is just a locally spoken dialect, children learn Mandarin at school.
Not completely true. In Hong Kong, Cantonese is written as well as spoken. For example, the English phrase's meaning of "do not have" can be translated into Mandarin as 没有, however, in Cantonese, spoken and written, is expressed more commonly as 冇.
Depends who's Chinese =P If you buy a dictionary in Taiwan, you can look up words using the Zhuying Fuhao system (Bopomofo). There are 37 characters, with about the first 21-24 can be used as the first sound, 3 as a middle sound, and the last 13-16 as the second sound of words (plus the 4 (ok, 5 sorta) intonations).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bopomofo
But yes, it really depends on the sanctioned system and the dialect. Can't really use pinyin for Cantonese...
For example Cantonese is just a locally spoken dialect, children learn Mandarin at school.
Not completely true. In Hong Kong, Cantonese is written as well as spoken. For example, the English phrase's meaning of "do not have" can be translated into Mandarin as 没有, however, in Cantonese, spoken and written, is expressed more commonly as 冇.
没有 - http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/9084/
冇 - http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/256/