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Slide 1
Slide 2
A functional language
Slide 3
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What is pinyin? Pinyin is the most widely-used system of
writing Mandarin Chinese and uses the Latin alphabet. It is a great
tool to help you learn the accurate pronunciation of Mandarin
words. First, you need to learn how to read pinyin, as Mandarin
contains some sounds which do not exist in English. Dont worry if
you dont get it right first time, learning pinyin needs a fair bit
of practice.
Slide 5
Consonants These consonants are similar to their English
equivalents: f, k, l, m, n, p, s, t, w, y These are not unfamiliar
sounds to speakers of English: b like p in spare d like t in stand
g like g in girl
Slide 6
These consonant sounds are more difficult: c like ts in tents
ch like ch in chair, but with the mouth in a round shape and the
tongue further back h like h in him but with a bit more fiction in
the throat q like ch in chair, but with the tongue further forward
x between s and sh, though there is no sound in English which is
the same as the sound x in Chinese. Place the front of your tongue
behind the lower front teeth, then let the air pass through zh like
j in jump, but with the tongue further back r like r in rough, but
with the tongue curled upwards j like j in joke but with the tongue
nearer the teeth
Slide 7
What are tones? Chinese is a tonal language. This means the
pitch or tone in which a sound is said affects the meaning.
Slide 8
Are tones important? Yes, because the same sound when said in
different tones can mean very different things. For example,
depending on the way you say it, tang can mean soup or sugar, mai
can mean buy or sell, and ji can mean chicken or machine, amongst
other things. Although this might sound very alien to speakers of
non-tonal languages like English, learning how to pronounce Chinese
tones can be a fun part of studying the language.
Slide 9
How many tones are there? In Mandarin Chinese, there are four
basic tones and a fifth neutral tone. Each syllable in each word
has one of these tones. You can tell which tone to give a syllable
from by the marks above the vowels in pinyin.
Slide 10
The first tone (or high-level tone) This is high and remains
level.
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The second tone (or rising tone) This goes up and is abrupt
(raise your eyebrows while saying it).
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The third tone (or falling-rising tone) This falls in pitch and
then goes up again (drop your chin onto your neck and raise it
again).
Slide 13
The fourth tone (or falling tone) This falls in pitch from a
high to a low level (stomp your foot gently).
Slide 14
There is also a neutral (or toneless) tone, which is pronounced
very weakly. The neutral tone has no mark above the vowel.
Slide 15
What are Chinese characters? Chinese characters are the system
of symbols used to write Chinese. Unlike an alphabet which
represents only sounds, each Chinese character has a unique
meaning.
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How old are they? The earliest recognisable characters date
back over 5,000 years, and were discovered carved into tortoise
shells and cattle bones. This makes written Chinese the oldest
system of writing in continuous use as a living language.
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Are they all pictures? Yes and no. Many early Chinese
characters were indeed visual representations of concrete things
and objects. Some of these are still in use today in simplified,
stylised forms, such as fire , tree , and the mountain . These
characters are called pictographs. Let's look at these and some of
the other types of Chinese characters in more detail.
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Pictographs Chinese characters have been around for a long
time. Although it may be difficult to see at first glance how the
character resembles the sun, we can see how it has evolved over
time into its present form by looking at the more ancient form. For
example (ancient to modern): Sun
Slide 19
Tree Mountain Horse
Slide 20
Ideographs Of course, a written language needs to convey ideas
as well as things, so another group of characters illustrate
abstract concepts such as one , two , above and below . These
characters are called ideographs.
Slide 21
Meaning / meaning compounds These are characters which convey
ideas and concepts by combining two or more pictographs. You may
sometimes see them referred to as associative compounds. (woman)
(child) (good) (sun) (moon) (bright) (tree) (tree) (forest) (tree)
(sun) (east you see the sun through the branches of the trees when
it rises in the east)
Slide 22
Sound / meaning compounds Also called pictophonetic compounds,
these make up the majority of Chinese characters. Here, a single
character is made up of two or more parts, one of which gives a
clue to what the character sounds like when it is read aloud, and
the other parts giving a clue to the meaning. (means: tree)
(pronounced: feng) (means maple tree, pronounced feng) (means:
woman) (pronounced: ma) (means mother, pronounced ma)
Slide 23
How many characters are there? Altogether there are over 50,000
characters, though a comprehensive modern dictionary will rarely
list over 20,000 in use. An educated Chinese person will know about
8,000 characters, but you will only need about 2-3,000 to be able
to read a newspaper.
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So are all Chinese words made up of single characters? No. Most
words in Chinese are actually made up of a combination of
characters. For example when you combine fire and vehicle you get
'fire vehicle', or as we know it in English; train. Similarly, if
you combine electric with vision you get 'electric vision' in
English; television. 'Electric speech' is telephone, 'electric
brain' computer, and 'electric shadow' film.
Slide 25
What are 'simplified' and 'traditional' characters? In the
1950s and 1960s, a number of characters were simplified by the
Chinese government in order to make them easier to learn and
improve literacy rates in the country. These are known as
'simplified characters' as opposed to 'traditional characters',
which are still used in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Slide 26
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Chinese characters and Chinese culture The other thing to
remember is that to the Chinese, their writing system is an
important part of their culture. Its uniqueness and longevity give
people an immense source of pride. As Chinese characters are so
ancient, they contain insights into ways of thought that are
thousands of years old, and allow people to read classical
literature from the time of Confucius. The writing of well-formed,
beautiful characters is also considered important, and calligraphy
is considered an art form itself in its own right. Master
calligraphers spend their lives honing their talents and paint huge
characters or poems on scrolls.
Slide 28
Is the same system of Chinese characters used around the world?
China is a vast country and regional Chinese dialects can sound as
different to each other as English and German, but they are all
written with the same system of Chinese characters. Chinese
characters can help people speaking widely different dialects
communicate effectively, because the writing system is meaning-
based and not sound-based. So while the word for one in Mandarin is
pronounced yi, and in Cantonese (the dialect spoken in Hong Kong)
it is pronounced yat, they are both written with the same Chinese
character: .
Slide 29
Are Chinese characters used only in the Chinese-speaking world?
No, Chinese characters are still taught and used in Japan, and to a
lesser degree in North and South Korea. Chinese language, customs
and culture have had a long influence on the history of both Japan
and Korea which adopted Chinese characters before they developed
their own writing systems. Although both Japanese and Korean now
have their own scripts, students in these countries will learn
around 2,000 characters, which still carry a certain prestige.
Slide 30
15 Basic phrases: 1. (du) Yes, thats correct. 2. (k) (y) Yes, I
can. 3. (b) No. 4. (hun yng) Welcome. 5. (hn go xng rn shi n)
Pleased to meet you. 6. (n ho) Hello. 7. (xi xi) Thank you. 8. (zi
jin) Goodbye. 9. (w jio) My name is 10. (n jio shn me mng z)? Whats
your name? 11. (n shu yng wn ma)? Do you speak English? 12. (du bu
q), (w b hu shu zhng wn). I am sorry, I dont speak Chinese. 13. (w
b dng). I dont understand 14. (qng bng mng). I need help, please.
15. (c su zi n li)? Where are the toilets?