Mandarin Chinese

Mandarin Facts

1. Most spoken language around the world.

2. Spoken in China, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia.

3. No alphabet

4. Traditional and simplified characters.

5. Over 100,000 characters

中文6. Pinyin-system to write Chinese with the Roman alphabet

7. There are 4 tones

8. Easy grammar: no conjugation of verbs, no singular or plural, articles, no gender specific nouns.

Zhongwen, Zhongguohua, Putonghua, Guoyu, Hanyu

Why learn Chinese?

1. Left side and right side of the brain.

2. Chinese characters increase IQ.

3. China’s economic rise

4. Learn about the culture

Chinese Basics

Pinyin

1. Romanization

C=ts

Q=ch

X=sh

Zh=j

Other sounds can be be pronounced as they are written.

Initials

Chinese Basics

Pinyin

1. Romanization

Ai = long i

EI = long a

Ui = way

Ao = ow

Ou = long o

Finals

The 4 Tones

Using “ma”Practice sounds

and tones

Chinese?

Dialects

1. There are many dialects spoken in China.

2. Each province and even regions within provinces have their own local language.

3. Tulsa to NYC vs. Beijing to Hong Kong

Mandarin

How do the Chinese communicate?

• Chinese characters!

• Also, most Chinese have learned to speak Mandarin since it is the official language of China.

Oracle Bones

• People in China began writing around 1,500 BC.

• Animal bones-shoulder of an ox and turtle shell

• Priests could tell the future.

• Strips of bamboo

• Silk cloth

• Paper-100 BC

Hanzi汉字

Characters

1. Chinese symbols

2. Pictograms

3. Traditional or Simplified

4. Over 50,000 characters

5. 3,000-5,000 to read a newspaper

6. Radicals

Radicals

Hanzi汉字

How would you look up a Chinese character?

1. Number of strokes and the radical.

2. A radical is a classifier

3. 214 or 187

Radicals

Why simplify?

“One state, one people, one language.”

• Chairman Mao implemented this change after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

• Language and literacy reforms in China opened peasants and workers to a better more sustainable life.

• 80% could not read before 1949.

Educational Reformer

Traditional vs. Simplified

• There is a debate over which characters should be used.

• Traditional characters are learned in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

• Which do you prefer?

Characters

Simple Characters

All strokes

Yong3 Forever

Complex characters

Zhe2-Talkative64 strokes

Biang2(Biao1biao1) noodles 58 strokes

Chinese Basics

The Book of Hundred Family Surnames ( 百家姓 )

Last name first

Over 10,000 surnames

85% of the population has the top 100 surnames.

I can’t marry you!

Common Chinese Surnames

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

References

• http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/tps/1000bce.htm#language

• http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_1000bce_language.htm

• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3025796.stm

• “How Hand Writing Trains the Brain,”    Wall Street Journal  October 2010

• http://endphysics.com/chinese_characters_iq.html

• honghua Xinshi Dachi dian  《中华姓氏大辞典》 (Great Dictionary of Chinese Surnames) by Yuan Yida (ISBN 7504114774)