An Introduction of Chinese Language Clary Xue

Chinese Demystified Chinese han yu,zhong wen,including mandarin, Cantonese, and other dialects Putonghuastandard Chinese, mandarin Cantonesea dialect spoken in Guangdong, HK, and overseas Chinese communities

Chinese Character One of the most enduring cultural achievements Originated from pictures Direct conception of the world

Evolution of Characters Simplified Chineseused in mainland China, Singapore Traditional Chineseused in Taiwan, HK, and some overseas communities

Survival of the language and culture Different dialects spoken One written system One written system, one measure and scale system were enforced by Emperor Qing, more than 2000 years ago

Sounds of Chinese Language Tone language Vowel-dominated Predominance of two syllables tang1 – soup tang1 – soup tang2 – candy tang2 – candy tang3 – laying tang3 – laying tang4 – hot tang4 – hot lao2hu3 lao2hu3 xing1xing xing1xing

Pinyin A system devised to transcribe Chinese sounds Officially adopted in late 1950s Composed of initials (consonants), finals (vowels, vowels + nasal sound), and tones.

Pinyin Initials b p m f d t n l g k h j q x z c s zh ch sh r y w Finals a o e i u ü ai ei ao ou ia ie ua uo üe iao iou(iu) uai uei(ui) an ian uan üan en in uen(un) ün ang iang uang ong eng ing ueng iong er

Tones First tonelevel Second tonerising Third tonefalling and rising Fourth tonefalling

Easy part of Chinese learning No gender No plural No conjugation No strict structure limitation Meaning centered

Difficult Part of Chinese Study Tones Same pronunciation, different characters Order of words Not easy to see grammatical relations upon the sentence

Comparison of Language Structure Western languages are ruled by law. Chinese language is ruled by man.

Q&A How many syllables in Chinese language? about 400. How many characters are enough for everyday life (intermediate-advanced)?2500. Two-syllable words gradually take place of single-syllable words Flexible making-up of words

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