Introduction The Chinese language is: Official language in ROC and PROC Writing form: Traditional (ROC, Japan, Korea…) Simplified (PROC…) Non-phonetic language Characters: 50,000 Traditional 2~3,000 Simplified (1960) Pronunciation: zhu yin fu hao Pinyin (Was invented in 1958) 1

Characters Chinese characters are one of the world’s oldest written languages that can be traced back to as early as 3,500 years ago when they were first used. The character is the basic unit of the Chinese language and each character constitutes a single syllable. In earlier times, since they were carved on tortoise shells and animal bones, it was called oracle bone script, and most of these characters were pictures called pictographs. 2

Evolution of Chinese characters oracle bone bronze vessel seal style clerical style standard form 月 日 oracle bone script ( B.C.), bronze vessel style ( B.C.), seal style( B.C.), clerical style(221B.C.-220A.D.), standard form (220A.D.-present) 3

4 Chinese character in various form

Four major ways of forming Chinese characters – Pictography originated from pictures ; e.g. 日 (sun) 月 (moon) 馬 马 (horse) 目 (eye) 木 (tree) Ideographyor self-explanatory; Through the formation of the characters to express the meaning; e.g. 上 (up) 中 (center) 下 (down) 安 (peace) 刃 (blade) Compound ideography combines two or more symbols to represent a new word; e.g. 休 (rest) 囚 (prisoner) 看 (look) 尖 (sharp) Phonetic compound The combination of sound and meaning; e.g. 爸 (father) 媽妈 (mother) 罵骂 (scold) 忠 (loyal) 5

Eight basic strokes Being familiar with the eight basic strokes will help reduce the chance of miswritten characters, while helping in getting started with writing new characters. 1.Horizontal line: 2.Vertical line: 3.Dot: 4.Left falling: 5.Right falling: 6.Rising stroke: 7.Turning stroke: 8.Hook: 一 二 三一 二 三 十 六 八, 大八, 大 我 五 小 八, 大八, 大 6

Principles of writing Chinese characters 1.Left first, then right 女她 2.Top first, then bottom 三 三三 3.Horizontal first, then vertical 一 十 4.Left falling first, then right falling 八 八 5.Outside first, then inside 同同 6.Complete inside, then close 回回 7.Middle first, then left wing, and then right wing 小 小 小 7

筆 劃 順 序 的 重 要筆 劃 順 序 的 重 要 人、八、入 土、士 未、末 大、丈 夭、天 刀、刁 干、千 日、曰 古、右 名、各 見、貝 失、先失、先 午、牛午、牛 申、甲申、甲 千、于千、于 兄、只兄、只 七、匕七、匕 子、孓子、孓 8

月 日 明 生日 女生 姓 木 林 森 星星 9

Pinyin (Pronunciation) Pinyin is a Chinese word that means using the English alphabet to spell the sounds of Chinese characters. Character, the basic unit of Chinese written language, is mostly single syllable. Many of characters share the same pinyin but have different tones. In order to differentiate meanings, Chinese relies on tones. For example, 買 măi means to buy, 賣 mài means to sell, and 花 huā means flower, 畫 huà means painting. Let’s use these four characters to make up some phrases: măi huā mài huā mài huàmăi huà (buy flowers) (sell flowers) (buy paintings) (sell paintings) Different tones completely changed the meaning of the whole word. Therefore, the accuracy of the tone is extremely important. 10

11 Pinyin (Pronunciation) T IF mai √ =To buy 4 Tone 21 Initial 35 Final 4 tones =

Most pinyin syllables consist of three parts: an initial (beginning sound) and a final (ending sound) and a tone. ( In English, there are over 8,000 syllables, while in Chinese, there are only about 400 basic syllables. ) Initials: There are 21 initials— b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, h, j, q, x, z, c, s, r, zh, ch, sh Finals: There are 35 finals— i, u, ü, a, o, e, ie, ai, ei, ao, ou, an, en, ang, eng, ong, ia, iao, iou, ian, in, iang, ing, iong, ua, uo, uai,uei, uan, uen, uang, ueng, üe, üan, ün Tones: There are 5 tones— Tone marks For example 1 st tonemā 2 nd tonemá 3 rd tonemă 4 th tonemà short sound (no tone marks)ma 12

Characters and pinyin in Youtube PINYIN Vows and consonant song Chinese pinyin in 6 minutes Four tones CHARACTERS Strokes and their orders Chinese characters 13

Learning Pattern Listening Listen to the Chinese and translate them Speaking Say the English in Chinese Reading & Writing Follow the stroke order Make the connections between the symbol & sound 14

Conversation The structure of statements = The structure of questions Question words are used 一月一日星期一 15 幾幾幾 Ex.