Chinese Language Overview Cheltenham Mandarin School By YingShi Helsby Chinese Language Overview Cheltenham Mandarin School By 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 ü The following finals (consonants): b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l g, k, h, j, q, x, z, c, s zh, ch, sh and r

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, m ǎ, 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)

w ǒ jiào Helsby l ǎ o shī 。 我 叫 Helsby 老 师 。 (I’m called Helsby teacher.) My name is Mrs Helsby.

w ǒ 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. highmāmother 2. risingmánumb 3. falling risingmăhorse 4. fallingmàto scold or swear 5. a half tonemacreate 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 !