Chinese Language OverviewChinese Language Overview

Cheltenham Mandarin SchoolCheltenham Mandarin SchoolBy YingShi HelsbyBy YingShi Helsby

Pinyin and Tone中文 你好

Hello Chinese

nǐ hǎo

你 好 (You good)

Hello

Chinese - 汉语 / 华语 / 中文

Standard Mandarin is a standardized form of spoken Han Chinese.

In Chinese: 汉语 Hàn yǔ / 华语 Huá yǔ / 中文 Zhōng wén / 普通话 Pǔ tōng huà / Guó yǔ

Official language of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and United nation

Spoken by approx 1.3 billion people.

Pinyin - ‘spell of sound’

• Romanised Alphabet (25 letters of out of 26 are used, except letter ‘v’) and four accents over the letters indicate which of the 4 tones should be used. There are 6 basic vowels and 21 consonants in Chinese Pinyin.

• A syllable always consists of a vowel or a consonant with a vowel. Vowels can stand by themselves when no initial consonant is present.

Finals ( 韵母 )- Vowels & Initials ( 声母 ) - Consonants

The six initials (vowels) in Pinyin pronunciation:

a o e i u üThe following finals (consonants):

b, p, m, f, d, t, n, lg, k, h, j, q, x, z, c, s

zh, ch, sh and rhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Teomsfl-ylA

声调 shēng diào Tones

mā má mǎ mà ma 妈 麻 马 骂Mother Hemp horse scold

Hanyu Pinyin Schema (published in 1958)

• Character Set.– 25 characters, all from ‘a’ to ‘z’ except ‘ü’. – (For easy to input on computer: ü is replaced by v.)

• Initial Set:– b, p m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, h, j, q, x, zh, ch, sh, r, z, c, s

• Final Set:– i, u, ü, a , ia, ua, o, uo, e, ie, eü, ai, uai, ei, uei, – ao, iao, ou, iou, an, ian, uan, üan, en, in, uen, ün – ang, iang, uang, eng, ing, ueng, ong, iong,

• Tone Annotation:– mā , má, mǎ, mà, ma

• Separator: ' – pi’ao

Pinyin VS. IPA

Basic rules for Hanyu Pinyin Orthography (published in 1996)

1. Words are the basic units for spelling the Chinese Common Language. (Space is used to separate Word)

– rén (person/people), péngyou (friend[s]), túshūguǎn (library/libraries)

– wǒrén hé nóngmín (Workers and Farmers)

2. Structures of two or three syllables that indicate a complete concept are linked:

– quánguó (the whole nation), duìbuqǐ (sorry),

3. Separate terms with more than 4 syllables if they can be separated into words, otherwise link all the syllables:

– wúfèng gāngbǐ (seamless pen), Hóngshízìhuì (Red Cross)

Basic rules for Hanyu Pinyin Orthography (published in 1996)

4. Reduplicated monosyllabic words are linked, but reduplicated disyllabic words are separated: – rénrén (everybody), chángshi chángshi (give

it a try)

5. In certain situations, for the purpose of making it convenient to read and understand the words, a hyphen can be added: – huán-bǎo (environmental protection), shíqī-bā

suì (17 or 18 years old)

wǒ jiào Helsby lǎo shī 。我 叫 Helsby 老 师。(I’m called Helsby teacher .)

My name is Mrs Helsby.

wǒ jiào ________。 我 叫 _________。(I’m called____________.)

My name is ____________.

Tones Difference

Mandarin has four tones with each tone indicated by a diacritical mark above a non-medial vowel.

Four tones:

ā á ă à a

1. high mā mother2. rising má numb3. falling rising mă horse4. falling mà to scold or swear5. a half tone ma create a question

Chinese words of foreign origin

芭蕾 bā lěi ballet

拜拜 bài bài bye-bye

咖啡 kā fēi coffe (café)

酷 kù cool

卡通 kǎ tōng cartoon

巧克力 qiǎo kè lì chocolate

高尔夫 gāo ěr fū golf

Chinese words of foreign origin

吉他 jí tā guitar

汉堡包 hàn bǎo bāo hamburger

马拉松 mǎ lā sōng marathon

奥林匹克 ào lín pǐ kè olympic

披萨 pī sà pizza

三明治 sān míng zhì sandwich

Hui-Ju Chuang

Tone changed rules

• When a third tone syllable is followed by another third tone syllable, the first syllable change to second tone

e.g. hěn hǎo --> hén hǎo (very good)

hǎo jiǔ  -->háo jiǔ (good wine)

Hui-Ju Chuang

• When two forth tone syllables occur together, the first syllable will change to second tone

• But only apply to two words yì (one) and bù (not)

• e.g. yì dìng --->yí dìng (definitely)

bù duì--> bú duì (not correct)

Marry Christmas &Happy New Year!

Shèng dàn kuài lè !

圣 诞 快乐 !

Xīn nián hǎo !

新 年 好 !

Shēng rì kuài lè

生 日快乐 !