[FabHK]

All characters are pronounced "shi" in Mandarin, with 4 different tones, leaving 4 distinct pronunciations.

In other "dialects", such as Cantonese or Teochew, the characters are pronounced as 7 or distinct syllables, with 6 different tones, leaving more than 20 distinct pronunciations.

Mandarin has very few available syllables compared to other languages (not only, say, English, but also older Chinese "dialects").