Who called them "english characters"? Pinyin uses s in a very common way, z in the way of Italian, and c more or less in the manner of various Slavic languages

Who called them "english characters"? Pinyin uses s in a very common way, z in the way of Italian, and c more or less in the manner of various Slavic languages. They are a sequence of related sounds: s is the fricative, z is affricated, and c is both affricated and aspirated. Sh, zh, and ch are a sequence of sounds related to s, z, and c. Sh is a fricative articulated farther back in the mouth, zh is its affricated form, and ch is both affricated and aspirated. And as a bonus, sh and ch match English usage, which isn't likely to have been a primary concern. It's also worth noting that for many Chinese speakers, there is no difference between s/sh, z/zh, or c/ch. (x, j, and q are what you get if you use the middle of your tongue, instead of the tip, to pronounce sh/zh/ch. They occur before front vowels; sh/zh/ch only appear before back (or central) vowels.) A friend of mine remarked to me once that when she was in school, her teacher informed the class that English speakers would not understand what the pinyin letter "q" was supposed to mean, which I immediately confirmed. She thought this was hilarious.